Lawmakers Hear Testimony Opposing Expansion of Vermont's Right-to-Farm Law to Trespass

Lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee heard more than two hours of testimony on S.45, a bill that would extend Vermont's right-to-farm protections to trespass claims, with witnesses saying the change could prevent property owners from stopping physical invasions and may trigger constitutional takings claims.

The issue was illustrated repeatedly with one high-profile case, known in testimony as Airy Point, where trial exhibits and a judge's findings described subsurface drainage installed on an uphill farm that defendants say increased the volume and velocity of water onto a neighboring property, producing erosion and brown plumes that reached Lake Champlain. Merrill Bent, the attorney describing that case, told the committee the flows caused a "permanent physical invasion" of his client's land and presented trial evidence of phosphorus and E. coli in runoff.

Those facts mattered because S.45 would, for the first time in Vermont's statute, extend right-to-farm protections from nuisance claims to include trespass. That expansion, witnesses said, is doctrinally significant: nuisance addresses unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of land, while trespass protects the…