Committee debates H.481 stormwater bill; DEC urges removal of required December report

At a Natural Resources & Energy Committee meeting Tuesday, Neil Gammett, deputy commissioner at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, urged the committee to remove a broad report requirement from H.481 and confirmed the department supports language that gives priority to projects serving primary residential housing under municipal and developed-lands stormwater grant programs.

Gammett told the committee the bill’s new Section 8 “provides a little bit of additional prioritization and establishes a priority that properties that are serving primary residential housing needs are the ones that are prioritized for receipt of funding under municipal and developed lands grant programs.” He said the department would implement prioritization as a scoring preference rather than an absolute prohibition on funding for nonresidential sites.

The bill’s Section 9 would require the agency to publish a stormwater management resource guide by 2027. Gammett said the department is comfortable with that requirement and with minor drafting tweaks already provided to legislative counsel. The draft guide described in the bill would summarize permitting…