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Assessing Lake Champlain Cleanup

North Hero, Vermont -- August 8, 2009

An ongoing effort to clean up pollution in Lake Champlain got generally good marks today -- with a warning that much more still needs to be done.

This was the eighth annual Future of Lake event in North Hero, where a coalition of groups and state agencies assess progress on improving the lake's environmental quality. Mary Watzin, who heads the UVM Rubenstein Ecosystem Laboratory, said, "Hopefully, the cumulative results of all the interventions we've been taking over the last decade are beginning to show a little bit."

For now, the lake looks better to many people than it did, say, twenty years ago. But you have to look at more than just the lake itself to see potential environmental problems. Julie Moore directs the Lake Champlain Clean & Clear program. She told Channel 3, "When we look at progress, people tend to ask what the water quality looks like in lake Champlain. But I really think we need to look further, and back up into the watershed for what's going on in the landscape."

Manure from dairy farms is a major source of phosphorus pollution, and farmers are facing more scrutiny. But a group of friends who gathered at Knight Point State Park said farmers need more assistance and fewer sanctions. Ed Wilbur, who says he has lived near the lake for four decades, said the financial plight of farmers needs to be taken into account. "I think the state needs to step in and help the farmers, rather than just mandate it and say you have to do this," he said. "Because, the farmers are really up against it With milk prices and all that lately."

Vermont Deputy Agriculture Secretary Dave Lane said the bar has been raised on farmers' environmental practices, but "We also have farmer groups such as the Farmers' Watershed Alliance, which has been able to get both federal and state funds, as well as some philanthropic funding, to actually go in and help farmers improve their practices on their farms."

The people we met at Knight Point called the lake a tremendous asset. In fact, they say it's the reason they still live in Vermont.

Still, experts who have studied and monitored lake pollution say it's too soon to declare any kind of victory. Watzin said, "I'm quite sure with the rainfall that we've had, that we have washed phosphorus down to Lake Champlain. But it'll be interesting to see what we actually achieved in terms of load this year."

Watzin said an assessment of phosphorous levels is expected this coming fall, which will indicate how things are going with Lake Champlain.

Andy Potter -- WCAX News