VNRC, New Groundwater Law Featured in New York Times

Felicity Barringer of the New York Times highlights VNRC's role in passing the new groundwater law in an article appearing in Thursday's issue. The law is discussed in the context of other groundwater protection efforts across the country, and is examined against the backdrop of the controversial proposal for a commercial water bottling operation in East Montpelier.
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VNRC's Groundwater Goals

From our seat at the Governor-appointed groundwater task force table, VNRC is working to ensure that Vermont embraces a meaningful, comprehensive groundwater protection program. Those elements include creating comprehensive maps of the state's groundwater, creating a regulatory program to sustainably manage it, and declaring groundwater a public resource.
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VNRC Celebrates Successful Effort to Help Protect Vermont's Groundwater

For several years VNRC has worked to safeguard the state's groundwater resources – the fresh, cold water that flows beneath our feet – and remove Vermont from its precarious position as one of the last state's in the nation to adequately safeguard this increasingly valuable natural resource. While important steps were taken in the last several years to address this problem, the 2008 legislative session provides Vermont the most important opportunity yet to fill a troubling gap in the state's water law and ensure long-term access to clean, ample supplies of fresh water.
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Water Bottling Company Sets Sights on East Montpelier Spring

A large-scale commercial water bottling operation is being proposed in central Vermont. Representatives from the Montpelier Spring Water Company hope to tap one of East Montpelier’s fresh water springs, like this one pictured here in Danby, and sell the fresh water resource commercially. VNRC is tracking the issue closely, as Vermont continues to lag behind other Northeastern states in protecting its valuable groundwater resources.
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The Case for Declaring Groundwater a Public Resource

This year, protecting the state’s groundwater is high on VNRC’s agenda.

We are urging lawmakers to formally declare groundwater — the source of drinking water for two-thirds of Vermonters — a public trust resource. This declaration is a fundamental step toward protecting this resource now, and for future generations of Vermonters. Click on the link to read why this step is crucial to protecting the water that runs beneath our feet.
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The World Water Crisis and the State of Vermont

This summer, VNRC member and water warrior Dot Helling ran around the world to raise awareness about water, taking up the baton from China (pictured here) to the Czech Republic and back home to the United States. The water pollution, depletion and resource wars Dot witnessed are real, and they are intensifying. They are also not isolated to places beyond Vermont borders. The Green Mountain State has and will continue to face water problems due to the state’s failure to adequately protect drinking water from pollution, depletion and privatization. Read more here or learn more about Dot’s journey, VNRC’s work on this issue and what Vermont must do to safeguard our drinking water supplies at 7 p.m., Tuesday, October 23 at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier.
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VNRC Urges Vermonters to "Take Back the Tap"

Choosing tap water over bottled water is better for consumers’ health, their pocketbooks, and the environment, according to a new report written by the Washington, DC-based Food & Water Watch. Today, VNRC co-released this national report, stressing its findings were important for Vermonters. “As this report makes so clear, bottled water isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” said Jon Groveman, VNRC’s Water Program Director. “The report’s research and analysis reinforce our belief that there are many reasons why people should drink tap water instead of commercial bottled water, not the least of which is a concern for natural resources.”
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VNRC Rejects Policy That Paves Farms to Solve Stormwater

Wal-Mart needs a state permit to discharge stormwater into a nearby tributary of Stevens Brook, a stream which already does not meet Vermont water quality standards. Last summer, the Agency of Natural Resources granted the stormwater permit to the developers of the proposed 160,000-square-foot store. But VNRC has appealed the stormwater permit raising concerns about Wal-Mart’s plans to discharge several tons of sediment and nutrients into a tributary that has no capacity to absorb it.
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Water Panel Retreats on Wetlands Protection

In a troubling reversal, the Water Resources Panel voted unanimously January 9 to table a proposed policy that would have helped safeguard the state’s dwindling number of wetlands — Mother Nature’s filter for keeping our fresh water clean. This surprising turn follows closely on the heels of other recent decisions from Vermont’s environmental review panels to retreat from positions that would protect the state’s environment, including the Natural Resources Board move to support an Act 250 utility line exemption.
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Groundwater Protection Efforts Continue

VNRC’s campaign to protect the state's underground drinking water resources has taken significant steps forward recently. The Governor-appointed groundwater task force, on which VNRC currently sits, is gaining momentum. Charged with recommending a groundwater protection program for the state, the task force's efforts - and VNRC's - are in full swing.
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