House Transportation hears DEC and VTrans briefings on municipal-road stormwater rules and state stormwater permitting

The House Transportation Committee on Feb. 27 heard separate briefings from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) on municipal-road stormwater standards, inventory work and the agency's responsibilities under statewide stormwater permits.

Chad McGahn, with the DEC Municipal Roads Program, told the committee the MRGP (Municipal Roads General Permit) flows from the Clean Water Act and the Lake Champlain TMDL and is aimed at reducing phosphorus from municipal roads. “The core of the municipal roads program is, mitigation of, stormwater on, different elements of transportation,” McGahn said, adding that the permit focuses on open-drainage gravel roads where undersized or mislocated culverts and missing drainage infrastructure amplify erosion after major storms in 2023 and 2024.

The permit requires towns to enroll and to complete a road erosion inventory using an Esri Survey123 app, McGahn said. The program establishes an implementation schedule that targets 7.5% of noncompliant segments per year and a 20% improvement rate for very-high-priority segments measured from each town's baseline inventory. McGahn said roughly half of municipal roads statewide are considered hydrologically connected and therefore jurisdictional under the MRGP.

Joel Perrigo, Municipal Assistance with BTRANs (Better Roads and Grants & Aid), joined the discussion to clarify funding:…