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Senate committee reviews S.124 changes tying state CAFO rules to federal Clean Water Act standards
Summary
Committee staff walked lawmakers through amendments to S.124 that align Vermont concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) permitting and definitions with EPA and federal Clean Water Act language; senators heard that the bill will be referred to Senate Finance and is likely to be attached to a later House miscellaneous agriculture bill.
Committee staff walked legislators through a side-by-side comparison of S.124, the miscellaneous agricultural subjects bill, and amendments proposed by the Senate Natural Resources Committee that incorporate federal Clean Water Act language and EPA-requested edits.
The overview explained that the Senate Natural Resources version makes chiefly technical but consequential changes: it replaces inconsistent uses of “waters of the United States” and “waters of the state” with a single, unified definition of “waters,” moves some permitting criteria out of definitions into permitting sections, and changes timing language related to referrals from “immediately” to “promptly.” Committee staff said these edits respond to EPA and Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) requests and are intended to align the state program with delegated federal standards.
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