ANR unveils corrective-action plan to address EPA concerns over farm discharge permitting

Julie Moore, secretary of natural resources, told the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry on April 1 that the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) submitted a corrective-action plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after an EPA review found deficiencies in Vermont’s regulation of potential concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Moore said the matter began when the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Council and the Lake Champlain Committee filed a “dedelegation petition” with EPA in 2022 alleging Vermont was not meeting Clean Water Act obligations; EPA reviewed the petition and, after inspections and file review, opened settlement negotiations in summer 2024. Moore said EPA’s September 2024 letter identified multiple deficiencies and that ANR has been negotiating specific corrective steps with EPA and stakeholders since then.

The corrective-action plan ANR submitted establishes a four-year implementation timeframe and includes commitments that ANR says are intended to align state practice with federal Clean Water Act requirements. Key elements Moore described include: ANR will serve as the lead inspector on potentially jurisdictional medium and large farm…