The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Ecosystem Restoration Program is seeking Request for Proposals (RFP) for the second round of State Fiscal Year 2016 grant funds to restore and protect Vermont’s rivers, streams, lakes, ponds and wetlands. Vermont municipalities, regional organization, non-profit associations, citizen groups, and state agencies are eligible to receive funding. The grant … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: September 2015
Tactical Basin Plan Approved – Basin 14
The recent passage of Act 64, the Vermont Clean Water Act, emphasizes the need for comprehensive water quality planning and remediation. Act 64 is a game-changer for Vermont. Having a concrete, thoughtful and detailed plan is the first step on the map to reducing pollution in rivers, streams, ponds and lakes. For more information on … Continue reading
Northern Lake Champlain Tactical Basin Plan Approved
Act 64, Vermont’s Clean Water Act, was recently passed during the 2015 legislative session. This new law addresses water pollution throughout the state. Vermont’s watersheds are divided into 17 different basins. Basin 5, the Northern Lake Champlain, encompasses land from just north of the Canadian border south to Charlotte, Vermont. The just approved Basin 5 … Continue reading
Sample-palooza
Vermont Watershed Management Division participates in second-annual Sample-palooza The Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES), Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VTDEC), Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), Yale University (Yale), and New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) participated in the second annual large-scale, one-day water testing event … Continue reading
What does your medicine cabinet have to do with water quality?
All of us have a medicine cabinet at home, stocked with pharmaceutical drugs – medicines used to treat and/or prevent disease. The thousands of pharmaceuticals available have helped millions of people live healthier lives. What many of us don’t know is that many of these medicines can also be found outside of our medicine cabinets, … Continue reading
New Aquatic Invasive Species Confirmed in Lake Memphremagog
Lakes and Ponds Program staff recently confirmed the presence of starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa) in a small cove on the southeast side of Lake Memphremagog in Newport. This non-native, invasive can develop large, dense stands, crowd out other aquatic plants, and can tolerate low- or high-nutrient conditions. Although it looks like a plant, it is … Continue reading
Can Dogs Help Solve Vermont’s Water Quality Problems?
For water quality scientists there are many tools available for measuring pollution in the nation’s rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. These tools range from measuring chemical concentrations, such as for dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, phosphorus and nitrogen to biological toxicity test organisms such as daphnia, minnows and mollusks. In the last 5-10 years using domestic canines … Continue reading