A new report from the state on the use of herbicides in Vermont’s lakes has some environmental advocates feeling underwhelmed, though the lawmaker whose bill got the ball rolling plans to introduce legislation that would shift the focus of the permitting process.
The herbicide report was released by the Aquatic Nuisance Control Study Committee, which was created by H.31, a bill signed into law earlier this year. Support for the law stemmed from debate in the Lake Bomoseen community over the Lake Bomoseen Association’s application to treat the lake for milfoil using ProcellaCOR, an herbicide, though the application was denied by the Department of Environmental Conservation during the summer.
The H.31 bill contained a moratorium on the granting of herbicide permits in Vermont lakes, but that bit didn’t make it into law.
It should also be noted that the lake association’s permit application and its denial were not part of the lawmaking process.
According to the report, the current rules for herbicides in lakes work just fine, but it did recommend some changes to definitions, that pesticide permits be decided upon using Type 2 Procedures found in 10 V.S.A. § 7713, and that a town, state or federal agency be either the applicant or a co-applicant on permits for using herbicide in public water bodies.
It also recommended that the public notification process for such applications be improved.
According to the report, filed Dec. 13 on the Legislature’s website, the committee was made up of Kim Jensen, aquatic biologist and AIS section lead with Department of Environmental Conservation; Eric Palmer, fish division director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife; Sarah Owen, state toxicologist with the Department of Health; Ellen Marsden, fisheries professor at University of Vermont; William Bress, public health expert also with UVM; Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury; and Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison.
Jensen was chair of the meeting. Sheldon is the chair of the House Committee on Environment and Energy, while Bray is chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy.
Much of the report outlines what rules and procedures are in place.
“The committee found that the precautions that are outlined in the (Aquatic Nuisance Control) Permit application review process with input from agency technical experts, and subsequent permit conditions are adequate in protecting State waters and in protecting fish, reptiles, amphibians, and all other aquatic biota,” the report reads. “An internal procedure has been established for review of (Aquatic Nuisance Control) permit applications by (Department of Environmental Conservation), (Fish and Wildlife Department and (Department of Health).
The committee did recommend that the Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets be added to the list of groups and agencies to review permits.
Bob Stannard, of Manchester, who owns property on Lake Bomoseen, and who is a leading voice in the opposition to the use of herbicides, said Tuesday that he takes issue with there having been only two legislators on the study committee.
“Their findings really haven’t addressed the root problems that exist in the permitting process,” he said.
Stannard is a former House member and lobbyist with a long career in state politics. He said studies like this typically don’t catch the interest of more than the few people who’d been following whatever issue was related to the study in question.
“The report will go to the Legislature. The affected committees may or may not take it up,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of other things on their books right now, not the least of which is Act 250 changes; that’s probably going to dominate the second half of the biennium, but my hope is that the House and Senate committees will take up recommendations; but real recommendations from people who may not have been in synch with this study committee.”
Sylvia Knight of the Vermont Pesticide and Poison Action Network stated in an email Wednesday that she testified about ProcellaCOR during the H.31 hearings and that the information available on it leaves many unknowns. She claimed that many of its ingredients aren’t listed and those ingredients could be harmful.
Annette Smith, head of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, said Wednesday that the report has some good recommendations, like requiring the government to be either the applicant or co-applicant on a permit application, but panned much of the rest of it as “pretty much blessing business-as-usual.”
She criticized how the committee handled public comment.
According to the report itself: “Receiving many public comments during the study period, the Committee members reviewed these, and attempted to include and meet these comments and concerns within the report,” it states. “However due to the short period to develop the report, the committee members were unable to respond to public comments, therefore they were compiled and linked to a public webpage made available by the Secretary.”
She noted Knight’s written comments about the unknowns found in ProcellaCOR and said she believes such concerns should not have been simply posted without response.
Rep. Seth Bongartz, D-Manchester, was the sponsor of H.31. He said he plans to sponsor a new bill in the next session related to herbicides in lakes.
“I think the bill would look to shift more to the precautionary principle,” he said. “Whereas the current language almost starts with ‘yes, as long as,’ the starting point really should be ‘no, unless,’ so it’s a shift in the burden.”
As for the report, “I’m not sure how much they really dived into the issue and asked the hard questions, and so I have to say I read it as being not the depth I was hoping we’d get to,” said Bongartz.
