Appropriations committee backs H319 package tying salt‑management, Reigate deadlines and waste‑stewardship changes to funding

The Vermont Senate Committee on Appropriations voted May 21 to recommend H319, a multi‑section bill that includes a voluntary commercial salt applicator training program, contingent implementation funding for the new program, an inventory requirement for salt and sand storage sites, a deadline extension for Reigate’s compliance plan tied to a new owner, and provisions phasing in an expanded household hazardous waste extended‑producer‑responsibility (EPR) program and related paint‑stewardship changes.

Katie McLennan, Office of Legislative Council, described the salt provisions as a voluntary program in which commercial salt applicators would “learn about best management practices for salt application on roads, parking lots and sidewalks” and keep records; the bill seeks to reduce over‑salting that is contributing to chloride contamination in Vermont lakes, ponds and waterways. McLennan said the bill’s liability language differs from New Hampshire’s program: in Vermont the Judiciary has crafted an approach that offers an “affirmative defense, rather than really... from liability, except in the case of gross negligence,” characterized in the meeting as a rebuttable presumption of compliance rather than…