2025 is shaping up to be a critical year for protecting Vermont’s clean water resources. It’s been 10 years since the legislature passed the Vermont Clean Water Act, and while we’ve made significant progress, there is much more to be done to ensure our lakes, ponds, rivers and streams are healthy and clean. We must build on our longstanding commitment to clean water for all by ensuring the effective implementation of the 2024 Flood Safety Act, while also looking to enact a better regulatory system for addressing farm pollution and chloride pollution from road salt.
Specifically, our 2025 priorities include:
- Effective and timely implementation of the Flood Safety Act to protect high hazard river corridors and keep new buildings out of harm’s way; ensure a “net gain” of wetlands, which act as sponges on the landscape and can help reduce flooding; and improved maintenance of flood control dams paired with funding to remove dams that exacerbate flooding.
- Adopting a policy that meets the federal EPA’s determination that we must transfer the management of our farm pollution enforcement program to the Agency of Natural Resources.
- Enact a program to better manage and reduce the use of road salt, thereby reducing harmful chloride pollution.