The vermont agricultural water quality partnership

VAWQP History

In 2002, the State of Vermont and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed on a plan of action (Total Maximum Daily Load – TMDL) to improve water quality in Lake Champlain.  In 2011, after several years of litigation, EPA withdrew approval for the TMDL for Lake Champlain.  Much of the litigation leading to EPA’s withdrawal from the agreement focused on water quality impacts from agricultural.   Agencies and organizations working in the agriculture arena started looking for ways to be more comprehensive in delivering water improvement.  Agency and organization leaders recognized a more coordinated and formal partnership could lead to improved communication and more efficient delivery of water quality improvement practices on the ground.   A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on January 10, 2012 formally establishing the Vermont Agricultural Water Quality Partnership.  When the Lake Champlain TMDL was first revoked, a number of agency leaders began to coalesce around the idea that we needed to do things differently.  This started with an agreement to be more strategic in how we coordinate among the multiple agencies working on agriculture and  water quality.  We formed the VT Ag Water Quality Partnership in Jan. 2012 with the formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.

The MOU Established a framework for state and local level coordination, collaboration, communication, and leveraging of funds, as well as helping us to identify, prioritize and target our work to those areas most impaired.

A revised MOU was signed in 2018 and 2024, you can review that agreement for more in depth understanding of this.