Vermont DEC presents draft Otter Creek tactical basin plan; public comment open through Oct. 24

Angie Allen, a watershed planner in the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation's Water Investment Division, presented the draft Otter Creek tactical basin plan at the Addison County Regional Planning Commission meeting on Oct. 9, outlining five-year strategies to protect, maintain, enhance and restore surface waters across Basin 3 and inviting public comment through Oct. 24.

The plan covers Basin 3 (about 1,100 square miles, 46 towns and 27 HUC-12 subwatersheds). Allen told commissioners the state and federal investment dashboard shows roughly $76,000,000 in clean-water investments in the basin from state fiscal 2016 through 2023, with the majority directed at developed lands and agriculture. She said the 2019 basin plan listed 56 strategies and that 93% of those strategies are now either active or complete.

Allen described monitoring and assessment results: 22 river reaches were listed as impaired as of 2022 and eight lakes were listed as impaired; five streams showed elevated chloride concentrations (concentrated in more developed landscapes). She named High Pond (Sudbury), Mud Pond, Johnson Pond and Sugar Hollow Pond as high-quality lakes in the basin. The draft includes Phase 3 content of the Lake Champlain phosphorus TMDL, which Allen said remains under EPA review and may see minor edits. In FY2022, she reported the basin achieved about 17.8% of the TMDL phosphorus reduction goal overall, with 21% of the agricultural reduction goal and 10% of the developed-lands goal achieved.

Chapter 5 of the draft presents an implementation table with 47 strategies and a monitoring table with 36 monitoring priorities for the next five years. Sector approaches include continued nutrient-management planning and farmer support in the agricultural sector; technical assistance and projects guided by stormwater master plans for developed lands; municipal road erosion inventories and municipal roads general permit compliance for roads; riparian-buffer and river-corridor work in the river sector; lake watershed action plans and greeter programs for aquatic invasive prevention; and wetland restoration and forest road erosion assessments in wetlands and forest sectors.

Commissioners asked detailed questions. One member requested clearer, time-series presentation of impaired waters so the public can see whether impairments are increasing or decreasing; Allen said the priority-waters lists can be compared across years and noted two additions in 2022 (Jerome Pond and a Little Otter Creek reach). Another member asked whether clean-water service providers can use funds to buy agricultural land to remove it from production; Allen said basin planning does not fund outright purchase to change land use, though changes in land use could be tracked for phosphorus-crediting if they occur through other mechanisms.

Several commissioners urged the plan to address contaminants beyond phosphorus. One commissioner noted agricultural pesticide monitoring performed by the Agency of Agriculture and asked why pesticides and petroleum products are not more prominent. Allen said PFAS and chloride are being incorporated into recent plan updates where monitoring data exist, and that DEC includes pollutants in plans only when monitoring or assessment data support their inclusion; she offered to consult colleagues in the Watershed Management Division about expanding monitoring for other pollutants.

Allen emphasized the plan is primarily a collaborative, nonregulatory guide: "Tactical basin plans are strategic guidebooks prepared by basin planners," she said, and the Clean Water Initiative performance report and basin report card will provide public accountability. She encouraged written public comments via chat or email so they can be recorded in the responsiveness summary. The commission noted another public hearing on Oct. 15 (Rutland RPC) and reiterated Oct. 24 as the comment deadline.

Next steps: DEC will post the story map and finalize the draft after the responsiveness summary and any EPA review of Phase 3 content. The draft and the associated report card are intended to support partners and the legislature in tracking progress, but Allen emphasized that enforcement and regulatory compliance remain in other programs and agencies.