Morning Read: New deal for cleaning up Lake Champlain

The Burlington Free Press is reporting that departing Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will ink a new deal with more than a dozen specific measures for cleaning up phosphorous and other pollutions going into Lake Champlain.

But the plan also concedes that ambitious goals set years ago are no longer realistic:

Although the new plan lauds past successes in reducing pollution of the lake, it tacitly acknowledges the states will not meet the long-established goal of reducing phosphorus pollution to target levels by 2016.

Phosphorus — a constituent of human sewage, farm fertilizers and urban runoff — has been the primary target of pollution-reduction work on the lake. Phosphorus is blamed for the algae blooms that can make it unpleasant or impossible to swim or otherwise enjoy places such as Missisquoi and St. Albans bays.

Apparently, this deal will attempt to wrestle with the dairy farms which are the primary source of nutrient-rich pollution reaching the lake.

For example, Vermont says it will expand the number of cover-cropped farm acres (cover crops reduce phosphorus runoff) from 5,000 in 2008 to 12,000 in 2012.

Read the full article here.

Tags: champlain valley, chpv, environment