Sometimes increasing society’s resilience to future floods means abandoning things we built in the past. Following Tropical Storm Irene there have been at least 30 flood-prone properties purchased with an additional 67 buyouts planned.
Spring flooding presents a challenge to the trees living along rivers. They risk root death due to water -logged soils and don’t yet have their leaves to produce oxygen to pump down to the roots.
Dead Fish – A Sign of Spring, Albany Advances Money for Water, EPA Forwards Water Rule, Using Satellites to Monitor Algae Blooms, Goldfish Threaten Colorado Lake, California Water Crisis and more...
On March 17 nearly 200 water quality activists gathered at the Vermont State House in Montpelier to call for strong water quality protections and stable ongoing funding for water projects. During a press conference held during the day a farmer,…
On March 23 Vermont and Quebec recommitted to working jointly on lake management issues. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and Quebec Premier Phillippe Couillard signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging their governments to cooperative lake…
LCC has received a grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program to map and manage populations of floating leaved invasive plants, water chestnut and European frog-bit, in the northern portion of Lake Champlain.
In the last few months courts in Washington State and Iowa have ruled that manure can be a pollutant. While many may see these decisions as obvious, manure has more frequently been considered a resource rather than a pollutant. In reality it can be…
There is no poop fairy. That’s the ingenious marketing message used around the Denver, CO area to nudge irresponsible pet owners to begin taking care of their dogs’ waste. Their public service announcement notes, "Like the Loch Ness Monster or…
Emergency actions alleviate immediate problems but can create long-term vulnerabilities. That happened in Rutland when flooding threatened the cities drinking water supply, but the quick work to protect it created vulnerability to future floods.
April showers bring May flowers, or so the proverb goes. April on average is a wetter month than March, though not as wet as May. As sunlight strengthens in spring the air gets warmer, and there is an abundance of moisture in the form of snow and ice…
As the snow banks slowly recede they unveil the last five months’ detritus. From leaves to old newspapers to cans to dog waste to road sand, all of this will end up in the nearest stream without some help. It’s time for spring cleaning.
Two more fiery train derailments this month highlight the vulnerability of people, wildlife and waterways from the dramatic increase of crude oil transport by rail. The latest debacle has added pressure to improve rail transportation of flammable…
On February 20 in Montpelier the House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee recommended H. 35, the water quality bill by a vote of 7-2. The bill still needs approval from the Agriculture and Ways and Means Committees before heading to the…
The National Weather Service announced on Monday, February 16, 2015, that Lake Champlain is completely covered in ice. Remarkably, this is the second year in a row that the ice has extended over the entire lake surface (last year it closed February…
Vermont Gas has halted work on a controversial proposal to supply natural gas to International Paper (IP) in Ticonderoga via a pipeline under Lake Champlain.
It’s snow season. Diligent public works employees spend hours clearing snow and applying salt and sand to roads in order to make daily commutes safer. But eventually, when the snow melts, the sand and salt flows into that river and Lake Champlain.…
The importance of agricultural tile drains as a contributor to water quality pollution is gaining more attention. In addition to its other provisions, the water quality bill recently passed by the House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee…
The layer of ice now sitting atop Lake Champlain insulates the water from the atmosphere and alters some of the physical phenomena that are sometimes seen around the lake.
Read more about Lake Champlain's threatened and endangered bird species, fishing regulation changes, replica boats, invasive species in the Adirondacks, erosion and more.
Water quality improvements for Lake Champlain were a central theme when Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin stepped to the podium to deliver his inaugural address on January 8th. The Governor called for increased accountability for farm pollution and the…
Earlier this week the Vermont House unanimously approved H.4, a bill to ban the manufacture and sale of harmful plastic microbeads from personal care products and over the counter drugs. These plastic beads are problematic because they wash down…
The spiny waterflea arrived in Lake Champlain last summer, becoming the 50th invasive species in the lake. We know it won’t be the last. Recently, a group of environmental professionals discussed what species posed the greatest risk of being the next…
Since 2011 the region has made considerable investments in preparing for future floods. We all want to be more resilient when disasters like Tropical Storm Irene or the lake flooding of 2011 come about.
Last August a blue-green algae bloom over the water treatment intake for Toledo, Ohio caused the city to test for the presence of microcystin, a toxin produced by some blue-green algae species. They found more than 1 part per billion of microcystin…
The flooding from Tropical Storm Irene made tangible the community costs that can occur when landowners develop floodplains. Homes and structures built too close to the water washed away becoming dangerous projectiles and in some cases damaging…
While skating along the flat clear ice of Mallets Bay four or five years ago, Jamie Leopold noticed a geyser of water shooting straight up into the air – 30 to 50 feet high. He may have witnessed a particularly large ice volcano.
On January 21 a truck went through the ice on the banks of Fort Ticonderoga. Luckily both the driver and passenger made it out safely but the vehicle is at the bottom of the lake. It's now the driver's responsibility to get the truck out of the water…
Read more about algae blooms and nutrient levels, Wisconsin farms pollution reduction, manure in court rulings, how diabetes medication affects fish health, and more.
Join the Lake Champlain Committee (LCC), Satellites, Weather and Climate (SWAC) and Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI) partners as we consider how to structure investigations of the places we live using a variety of technology.
Legislators in Vermont pondering how to fund Lake Champlain clean-up efforts might be encouraged by a new study coming out of the University of Vermont suggesting Vermonters are willing to put up some money. The average survey respondent was willing…
If you have traveled outside the developed world you are probably aware that safe drinking water is not to be taken for granted. Tourists are routinely told to only drink bottled water or risk dysentery. Not so in the United States where all tap…
Key funding for Lake Champlain has been included in the comprehensive budget package passed by Congress last week. At the urging of Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the final budget includes a $3 million increase over last year for Lake Champlain…
In early December TDI New England filed a state permit application seeking approval for construction of a 154-mile underwater and underground transmission line that would deliver 1,000 MW of hydroelectricity to the Vermont and New England grid.
On Wednesday December 17th New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would ban fracking, the controversial fossil fuel extraction method. LCC strongly supports this move. Fracking involves injecting large amounts of water, sand and chemicals…
Legislation passed in early December will add portions of the Upper Missisquoi and Trout Rivers to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Forty-one states and territories now have rivers listed in the system which was established in 1968 to…
As climate change continues to bring increasingly intense storms to our region, communities will have to adapt to avoid flood damage. One way to do so is by restoring and protecting wetlands. In part two of LCC’s publication Lessons From the Floods w…
