Committee backs amendment easing 3‑acre stormwater rules for agricultural fairs and expands municipal stormwater utility support

Senator Wendy Harrison, a member of the Senate, laid out an amendment on May 1 that would alter how the state treats stormwater obligations for agricultural fairs and expand municipal access to technical and financing assistance for forming stormwater utilities.

Harrison said the amendment contains three parts. On the agricultural fairs piece she offered a definition: “An agricultural fair is an event or activity that is intended to promote farming by exhibiting a variety of livestock and agricultural products, exhibiting arts equipment, and implements related to farming or conducting contests, displays, demonstrations, designs to advance farming, advance the local food economy or train our HPA farmers use for the public's regarding agriculture.” The draft would add an exception so that, once a registered agricultural fair has met the on-site performance obligations in the stormwater manual, it would not be required to complete an offset or pay a stormwater impact fee for the 3‑acre permitting threshold. Mr. Grady described this as language proposed by the Agency of Natural Resources that the committee has been balancing against a broader exemption for fairs; he noted the state fair in Rutland was a major concern for negotiators.

On municipal support, Harrison said the amendment would allow the municipal implementation program — which has focused on permitting — to provide financing or awards to cover design and engineering services needed to form a municipal stormwater utility, and would require the state agency to publish a stormwater-management public resource guide that includes a model bylaw or ordinance for forming a utility. She said the amendment also adds a representative of a designated downtown area served by water and sewer to the regional stormwater utility study committee to better represent midsize towns that are neither very small nor MS4-permitted communities.

A staff member from the Department of Environmental Conservation told the committee that the Clean Water Fund previously provided startup assistance — “AOA was providing $25,000 per year for 5 years for a utility to get started up through the clean water fund,” the staff member said — and that the draft language would make the allowable uses more explicit. The staff member said DEC is generally supportive of measures that make it easier for smaller towns to form utilities but has not abandoned the idea of regionalized utilities.

Committee members pressed for implementation details. Harrison described how municipalities determine equivalent residential units (ERUs) for rate-setting and said typical ERU charges in jurisdictions with utilities run “about a hundred between 80 and a hundred dollars a year for 1 ERU.” The amendment also contemplates targeting municipal implementation funds; one committee exchange cited a baseline of about $1,000,000 annually with $5,000,000 recommended the following year as part of program funding discussions.

The transcript records a quick straw poll: the chair called for “all in favor,” members answered “Aye,” and the committee agreed to anticipate the amendment being brought to the floor. The transcript shows the committee reached that procedural agreement by voice/hand vote; no formal roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.

Background: the 3‑acre permit threshold triggers additional stormwater permitting obligations for certain agricultural activities. The amendment aims to ease the financial and administrative burden on registered agricultural fairs that can meet on-site standards, while providing towns with technical and financing assistance to establish stormwater utilities to address long-term stormwater needs.