Lake Champlain citizens advisory committee urges more funding for flood resilience, septic upgrades and invasive‑species prevention

The Vermont Citizens Advisory Committee on Lake Champlain told the Senate Committee on Agriculture on Jan. 22 that lawmakers should increase funding and speed implementation of nature‑based flood resilience, septic system upgrades and aquatic invasive‑species prevention across the Lake Champlain basin.

Denise Smith, chair of the Vermont Citizens Advisory Committee and executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, said the committee’s recurring duty is to bring “the voices of the citizens to Lake Champlain.” The group delivered its annual action plan and called attention to upstream sources of pollution, public‑access inequities and mounting infrastructure needs.

“The first focus area is on the importance of riparian and flood plain restoration,” said Brett Bowden, a committee member and retired University of Vermont Rubenstein School professor. Bowden told senators that restoring headwater corridors, wetlands and floodplains is a cost‑effective, nature‑based way to store water and carbon, maintain biodiversity and reduce flood damage, and asked that the legislature “invest in these nature based solutions.”

Committee members stressed three closely related priorities: 1) restore riparian zones and reconnect rivers and aquatic corridors, 2) replace and repair aging wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and 3) address widespread on‑site septic systems that can fail and contribute nutrients to the lake. Bowden said dams and undersized culverts fragment waterways and reduce system…