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Committee reviews S218 to certify salt applicators and add affirmative defense for certified users
Summary
Legislative counsel told the House Judiciary Committee that S218 would create a voluntary Agency of Natural Resources certification for commercial and municipal salt applicators and replace proposed immunity with an affirmative defense that requires recordkeeping and excludes gross negligence.
Legislative counsel Michael Grady told the House Judiciary Committee on March 31 that S218 would establish a voluntary certification program at the Agency of Natural Resources for commercial salt applicators to limit chloride pollution from winter deicing and summer dust control.
Grady said certified applicators who complete ANR training and follow best-management practices (BMPs) would gain a legal benefit under the bill: an affirmative defense to civil claims asserting damages from hazards caused by snow or ice, so long as the claim is solely due to snow or ice and the applicator was following BMPs. The defense would not be available for defendants found grossly negligent or reckless, he said.
The legislation replaces a prior immunity proposal with an affirmative defense, Grady said, to preserve plaintiffs' access to courts while shifting the trial-stage burden to defendants who assert compliance. "An affirmative defense lets the plaintiff into court but requires the defendant to show based on the facts that they qualify for the affirmative defense," Grady said.
Under the bill, certified commercial applicators would have to maintain contemporaneous records of application dates, weather conditions, and the type and rate of salt or salt alternatives used in order to assert the defense. Grady also described an option for municipal applicators to receive the same defense through annual training in the Vermont Local Roads curriculum administered by the Agency of Transportation.
Committee members pressed for operational details. Grady said ANR would design and deliver (or contract for) the training, that the program is expected to be fee-based but the fee is not yet set, and that ANR rulemaking and funding decisions will govern whether and when the program can enroll participants. He noted New Hampshire currently certifies over 700 applicators annually as an example of scale and precedent.
Members agreed to seek additional stakeholder input, including from the League of Cities and Towns, before moving the bill forward.
The committee recessed and planned follow-up hearings and outreach on implementation details, fee-setting and municipal concerns.
