Governor, environmental groups spar over Lake Champlain's health
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A photo showing an algae bloom in Lake Champlain is displayed as Christopher Kilian of the Conservation Law Foundation speaks at a news conference in Montpelier Thursday about the cleanliness of the landmark lake. AP PHOTO/TOBY TALBOT |
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: February 13, 2009
MONTPELIER — The inclusion of Lake Champlain in a travel book of places to avoid set off an argument between environmentalists and Gov. James Douglas over the state of the lake Thursday.
Because of phosphorous and other pollutants the lake is a "must miss water location," according to Peter Greenberg's new book on tourist destinations to avoid. And that is a sign that not enough is being done to clean up Lake Champlain, three leading environmental groups said Thursday.
"Lake Champlain's decline is a well-documented failure of public policy," said Christopher Kilian, who runs the Vermont office of the Conservation Law Foundation.
"Lake Champlain is worth billions of dollars to Vermont's economy" and that is threatened by the pollution problems in some parts of the lake, he added.
The groups, which included the Vermont Natural Resources Council and the Vermont League of Conservation Voters, said that administration proposals to change the state's permitting process would further endanger environmental standards.
"We can't very well market a green Vermont if the green is in the blue-green algae of Lake Champlain," said Elizabeth Courtney of VNRC. "We are not just harming the environment, but the economy at the same time."
Courtney joined the other officials at a news conference in which they discussed a best-selling book by Peter Greenberg, travel editor of NBC's "Today" program, called "Don't Go There: The Travel Detective's Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World."
Lake Champlain "has been polluted with an abundance of phosphorus for the past 30 years, and it's only getting worse in several parts of the lake," Greenberg wrote, blaming urban development as a source of phosphorus-laden runoff. "The water often looks cloudy and green and smells foul, due to algae blooms, and the depletion of the lake's oxygen has affected fish."
Douglas administration officials said the environmental groups themselves helped bring on the negative publicity by producing reports that — although based on state data — accentuate the problems with the lake and were cited by Greenberg.
"I think it is a call for organizations not to make such critical comments about the state we ought to all be supporting," the governor said. "Why do we need to highlight it?"
Douglas said that asking environmental groups not to advertise problems like the Lake Champlain pollution outside Vermont's borders is different from his frequent criticism of the state's tax burden, for instance.
"These are different audiences," he said. "That's what we need to do to the outside world, to be honest but to talk about our strengths."
In some ways his role — and the role of those who care about the state — is "being cheerleaders for Vermont," he said.
Most of the state's waterways are in good shape, and fishermen and others confirm that the condition of Lake Champlain is improving, Douglas said.
Julie Moore, the head of the state's lake program, said that going after wastewater treatment plants that pollute would take money away from attempts to reduce "non-point" pollution sources like farm runoff and erosion.
"Our attention has to be on non-point sources pollution," she said. While Vermont's standards for wastewater plants may in some cases not be as high as those in places like Massachusetts, and the coastline of Chesapeake Bay, Vermont's program is still better than many or most states, Moore said.
In any case, a Vermont Senate committee is moving forward with what he called limited but responsible permit reform so that the impending federal economic stimulus money can be quickly and well used, said Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans.
But Kilian and the other environmental advocates disagreed, however, saying that there are enough possible projects and uses for the money that it can be deployed without changing environmental requirements.
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