Page 4 - aruba-today-20240911

A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 11 september 2024
EPA says Vermont fails to comply with Clean Water Act through

inadequate regulation of some farms

By LISA RATHKE Resources Council and the
Associated Press Lake Champlain Committee,
Flaws in a Vermont program an advocacy organization,
are preventing the state petitioned the EPA in 2022
from controlling phospho- to take corrective action or
rus discharges from certain withdraw its authorization of
farms, contributing to severe the program related to the
water quality problems in regulation of CAFO farms.
Lake Champlain and other The foundation released
bodies of water, accord- EPA’s letter on Monday, and
ing to a letter from the U.S. Elena Mihaly, vice president
Environmental Protection of Conservation Law Foun-
Agency to state officials. dation Vermont, said it’s a
The Monday letter to the step in the right direction.
secretary of the Vermont Similar concerns were raised
Natural Resources Agency in a 2008 petition filed by
says the program is failing to the Vermont Law School
comply with the Clean Wa- Environmental and Natural
ter Act. It directs the state to Resources Law Clinic that
make significant changes in resulted in a corrective ac-
how it regulates water pollu- tion plan in 2013 in which the
tion from concentrated ani- Sailboats and a passenger ferry dot Lake Champlain as seen from Battery Park, Aug. 14, 2015 in state agreed to take steps
Burlington, Vt.
mal feeding operations, or Associated Press to improve parts of its pro-
CAFOs, which raise animals gram, including its dealings
in confinement. David Cash, EPA administra- In Monday’s letter, the EPA really important to reflect with CAFOs, the letter states.
There are 37 large and 104 tor for Region 1 in Boston. Ex- concluded that the Agency that this is sort of about the It’s clear that Vermont has
medium CAFOs in Vermont, cess phosphorus runoff from of Natural Resources must operation and administra- not adequately addressed
along with 1,000 small farms farms, roads and urban ar- be responsible for CAFO tion of government and deficiencies in its CAFO pro-
that might be considered eas has fueled toxic algae permitting, monitoring, should not be taken as a gram or complied with the
such operations, according blooms Lake Champlain, and enforcement, which reflection on the work being requirements of the 2013
to the EPA. sometimes forcing the clo- includes doing routine done by farmers,” she said. plan, Cash wrote in the let-
Two state agencies Natural sure of beaches. Sources of farm inspections, enforcing The state has regulated ter to the state.
Resources and Agriculture excess phosphorus into lakes management plans for the farms through no-discharge “EPA has closely observed
Food and Markets regulate and waterways include fertil- placement of manure and permits issued by the Agricul- program operations in Ver-
agricultural water pollution in izers, leaking septic systems other nutrients on fields, and ture Agency, “so nothing is mont for well over a decade
Vermont, which is where the or discharges from waste- administering discharge allowed to leave the farm,” and despite having had am-
problem lies, the letter states. water treatment plants, ac- permits. Vermont Natural Moore said. The EPA is show- ple time and opportunity to
The division of responsibilities cording to the EPA. Resources Secretary Julie ing that there is evidence of cure longstanding program
“is interfering with the regula- The EPA mandated that the Moore said Tuesday that the occasional discharges from deficiencies, many of which
tion of Vermont’s CAFOs and state clean up Lake Cham- agency takes its obligations farms, often in response to were outlined in the 2008
preventing Vermont from plain and in 2016 released under the Clean Water Act severe weather, she said. withdrawal petition, ANR
adequately addressing agri- new phosphorus pollution very seriously. The Conservation Law Foun- has failed to do so,” Cash
cultural water quality,” wrote limits for the water body. “At the same time I think it’s dation, the Vermont Natural wrote.q

Cuomo defends COVID-19 nursing home decisions in combative

House committee hearing

By MICHAEL HILL combative congressional spread through the state’s ures. Cuomo told the pan- counting of the number of
Associated Press subcommittee hearing nursing homes in 2020. el that its report “provides deaths at nursing homes
Former New York Gov. centered on his handling Members of the Republi- no evidence to support and assisted living facilities.
Andrew Cuomo began of the COVID-19 pandem- can-led House Select Sub- Trump’s main allegation, Critics have also zeroed
testifying Tuesday in a ic as the virus began to committee on the Corona- repeated for three years, in on a directive issued in
virus Pandemic released a that New York’s guidance March of 2020 that initially
report ahead of Cuomo’s killed thousands in nursing barred nursing homes from
testimony that accused homes. In fact, the report refusing to accept pa-
the Democrat of staging finds no causality whatso- tients just because they’d
a “cover up” to hide mis- ever. Not one death.” had COVID-19.
takes that endangered Cuomo resigned from of- The order was issued to
nursing home residents. fice in August 2021 amid keep hospitals from be-
During the hearing, Cuo- sexual harassment allega- coming overwhelmed
mo fiercely defended his tions, which he denies. with COVID-19 patients
administration’s actions Cuomo was widely seen who were no longer sick
during the pandemic and as a reassuring figure in the enough to require hos-
said the subcommittee early months of the pan- pitalization, but needed
was seeking to turn at- demic, but his reputation nursing home care for oth-

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo listens to remarks while tention away from former suffered after revelations er conditions and couldn’t
attending a meeting, March 17, 2022, in New York. President Donald Trump’s that his administration re- simply be discharged or
Associated Press pandemic leadership fail- leased an incomplete ac- sent home.q