{"id":833,"date":"2024-11-05T16:17:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T21:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.seagrant.w3.uvm.edu\/2024\/11\/05\/the-state-of-vermont-seeks-public-input-on-2026-clean-water-budget\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T17:49:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:49:01","slug":"the-state-of-vermont-seeks-public-input-on-2026-clean-water-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/2024\/11\/05\/the-state-of-vermont-seeks-public-input-on-2026-clean-water-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of Vermont Seeks Public Input on 2026 Clean Water Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\tThe Clean Water Budget process presents an annual opportunity for the public to become involved in decision-making for clean water action in Vermont. The Clean Water Board is composed of representatives from five state agencies and four members of the public appointed by the governor. Every year, the Clean Water Board recommends a Clean Water Budget to the governor after considering feedback from the community. Members of the public can participate by commenting on the Budget by Sunday, November 17. If you have ideas for protecting and enhancing Vermont&#8217;s water resources, sharing them with the Clean Water Board is the most effective way to see them realized.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe purpose of the Clean Water Budget is to fund projects, such as floodplain restoration, stormwater management, and lake management that protect and enhance water quality in Vermont for the sake of our communities and the natural environment. These clean water projects impact clean water across agricultural lands, roadways, natural resources, developed lands, and wastewater treatment.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tMany of these projects contribute to Vermont\u2019s Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). TMDLs are the maximum amount of any specific pollutant that can enter a waterway while meeting water quality standards. You can think of a TMDL as a pollution budget to ensure Vermont\u2019s waterways remain clean.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tVermont\u2019s large-scale nutrient TMDLs are in Lake Champlain, Lake Memphremagog and Long Island Sound Basins and target reductions of phosphorus and nitrogen pollution in our waterways. You may have firsthand experience of the effects of nutrient pollution if you have ever tried to go the beach during the summer but found that it was closed because of an unsafe cyanobacteria bloom.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis year the public comment process runs from October 18 through November 17. You can participate in three ways:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n\t\tAttend and voice comments at the <a href=\"https:\/\/dec.vermont.gov\/water-investment\/cwi\/clean-water-board\/clean-water-board-meetings\">Clean Water Public Hearing<\/a> on November 8, 2024 at 8:00 AM (attend virtually or in person in Montpelier)<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tComplete the <a href=\"https:\/\/dec.vermont.gov\/clean-water-board-questionnaire\">State Fiscal Year 2026 Clean Water Budget Questionnaire<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\n\t\tSend written comments to <span class=\"spamspan\"><span class=\"u\">ANR.Cleanwater<\/span> [at] <span class=\"d\">vermont.gov<\/span><span class=\"h\"> (subject: Clean%20Water%20Budget%20Comment) <\/span><\/span> with the subject \u201cClean Water Budget Comment\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\n\tThe Board is particularly interested in hearing from you to determine:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\twhether each line-item is receiving enough funding<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\twhether there are additional clean water problems in the state that are not being addressed in the Budget<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\twhether you support the recommendations provided<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n\tHearing your thoughts allows the Board to make an informed decision about how to best distribute funds to meet the needs of Vermonters and create a positive impact on the state\u2019s waterways for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSee the <a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/37d89baeb8e546d5879f15188f703429\">Clean Water Storymap<\/a> for more background on the Board and Budget process and the <a href=\"https:\/\/dec.vermont.gov\/water-investment\/cwi\/clean-water-board\">Clean Water Board Webpage<\/a> for more information on the State Fiscal Year 2026 Budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Clean Water Budget process presents an annual opportunity for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}