The decision issued Thursday erodes the rule, also known as the “WOTUS” rule, that would have brought all of the nation’s streams and wetlands under the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency, a rule that U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., compared to “regulating puddles.”
“By narrowing the Act’s coverage of wetlands to only adjoining wetlands, the Court’s new test will leave some long-regulated adjacent wetlands no longer covered by the Clean Water Act, with significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote.
The Department of Environmental Conservation has earmarked $3.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars, Gov. Phil Scott said, for municipalities with projects designed to upgrade wastewater pretreatment infrastructure and capacity.
The Department of Environmental Conservation announced Wednesday that 193 households will receive a share of $5.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, Gov. Phil Scott said, to repair or replace failed on-site water or wastewater systems through the Healthy Homes On-Site program.
Whether towns and cities can charge farms for stormwater utility fees is at the center of a bubbling debate between state agriculture officials and municipal leaders around Vermont.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that $47,971,000 in federal dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency will be given in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont. The funding is earmarked for upgrades to wastewater and stormwater systems.
Native to the Baltic Sea in Europe, the round goby had made its way east after being introduced into the Great Lakes in 1990. Now, the fish has wiggled its way into a position to threaten Lake Champlain.
With the spring construction season ahead, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wants to remind Vermonters about additional requirements to help protect the state’s waterways.
Alarmingly high levels of E.coli were found in an early February sample from a small town wastewater facility outflow into the Missisquoi River, but local officials say the testing lab didn’t tell them until weeks later.
Even at low exposure levels, PFAS in drinking water put human health at risk. The chemicals are associated with infertility, reproductive cancers, hormone issues, vaccine immunity problems and kidney cancer.
A power outage Monday caused up to 500,000 gallons of partially treated liquids to flood out of the city’s wastewater treatment plant and into an outflow area near Stevens Brook, a waterbody that’s connected to Lake Champlain and flows downstream into St. Albans.
Vermont officials are chasing $150 million in federal match funding that would be used in the proposed budget to support infrastructure initiatives across the state.