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DEC advises municipalities to use river manager engineer and model bylaw language for emergency stream work
Summary
At the PAC meeting, Kyle Medash (DEC) told staff and members the first contact for municipal river work is the river manager engineer and that municipalities should follow stream alteration standards to avoid permitting issues; Richmond’s emergency selectboard measure was discussed as a local example.
At the Aug. 14 Planning Advisory Committee meeting, Dan Albrecht introduced Kyle Medash of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, who urged municipal staff to coordinate with the river manager engineer when undertaking work in rivers and to adhere to the state stream alteration standards to ease permit processing.
"The first person to get in touch with if a municipality is doing work in a river is the river manager engineer," K. Medash said, emphasizing that following the standards helps when after‑the‑fact permits are needed.
Committee members discussed Richmond’s locally adopted emergency measure allowing the selectboard to authorize emergency work in the Winooski River. Keith Oborne described Richmond’s approach as a way to avoid delay during emergencies; Medash recommended municipalities consider adding short‑term authorization language to their bylaws and noted the 2022 model bylaws should already include similar provisions.
Albrecht and others clarified that once a town’s "qualified person" gives approval during an emergency, work can proceed without waiting for state sign‑off, but it must meet the stream alteration standards. Medash cautioned against drastic work that would not meet those standards and thus be problematic in later permitting review.
Staff took a short action to circulate model bylaw language and other resources to municipalities.
