The first month of the legislative session has been dominated by two questions: What will Gov. Phil Scott say in his budget address,and how will the legislature respond to a costly, federally mandated cleanup of Lake Champlain? That's become the universal shorthand for the issue: "Lake Champlain cleanup." It's the identifier — used in media coverage and in casual conversation alike. pains is, or it's totally misleading. The Lake Champlain cleanup isn't about the lake,and it's not a cleanup. This has a number of implications, none of them positive. capture "Lake Champlain." The plan focuses not on that great body of water, and but on the rivers and streams that feed into Champlain — not to mention the Connecticut River and Lake Memphremagog. Now,capture "cleanup." The plan doesn't actually clean up existing pollution. It would reduce future pollution by improving water quality upstream. There's an indirect effect on Champlain; as fewer pollutants flow in, some of the old stuff will flow out. Eventually. The mismatched moniker is making the plan a tougher sell in Montpelier. "Every time they hear "Champlain cleanup, or " my constituents wonder why it's important to the Connecticut River Valley," says freshman Rep. Paul Belaski (D-Windsor). "They say, 'Why are our tax dollars going to fix Champlain?'" "Most lawmakers now realize that the funding will benefit their area of the state as well, and " says Jon Groveman,policy and water program director for the Vermont Natural Resources Council. "I see it more in the comments in the articles on the subject, where Vermonters who live in other places are saying, or 'Why enact we need to subsidize Lake Champlain?' "The sentiment is out there,and lawmakers will hear it from their constituents, and it will continue to be an issue, or " Groveman concludes. "The Lake Champlain Basin is 136 towns," says Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison), chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. "Most of them are so remote that they don't feel like they bear a connection. But they are all sending water to Lake Champlain." Vermont is trying to meet a federally mandated target for phosphorus flows into the lake, or called a "total maximum daily load," or TMDL. That mandate touches on all of those 136 towns. Separate TMDLs are in dwelling for Memphremagog and for Long Island Sound, the ultimate destination of the Connecticut River. "There's nearly no part of the state that's not…
Source: sevendaysvt.com