A yearslong effort to reduce water pollution caused by road salt came to an abrupt end Wednesday after Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the measure.
Lawmakers have spent the last four years working on a bipartisan solution to Vermont’s growing chloride contamination problem. A bill that won final approval in the Legislature last month sought to curb road salt usage by teaching municipal road crews and commercial applicators how to use less of it.
In his veto message to lawmakers, Scott said their proposal could result in costly lawsuits for the towns and businesses that have a legal obligation to keep roads, sidewalks and parking lots safe.
“By requiring Vermont’s municipalities and commercial businesses to reduce the amount of salt and salt alternatives used to make roadways, parking lots, stairs and sidewalks safer during the winter months, it could result in more injuries and vehicle accidents leading to increased liability, risk of litigation, and expense,” Scott wrote Wednesday.
Washington County Sen. Anne Watson, the Democratic chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and a lead sponsor of the bill, said chloride levels are on the rise in waterways across the state. She said the legislation was modeled after a program in New Hampshire that’s substantially reduced road salt usage.
"I think this maintains a really unfortunate status quo where we don’t have great tools right now to address or reduce chloride pollution in our waterways.”Washington County Sen. Anne Watson
She also said there's nothing in the legislation that "requires" municipalities or businesses to participate in salt-reduction efforts.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that this has been vetoed,” Watson said. “And I think this maintains a really unfortunate status quo where we don’t have great tools right now to address or reduce chloride pollution in our waterways.”
The bill envisioned a voluntary certification program in which the Agency of Natural Resources and Agency of Transportation would instruct municipal and commercial applicators on how to use less road salt. In exchange for that certification, towns and companies would receive new legal protections against lawsuits for slip-and-fall injuries and other accidents related to pavement conditions.
Those protections weren’t robust enough to win support from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which said the legislation posed undue legal risks to its members. Josh Hanford, with VLCT, said the litany of requirements needed to earn the “affirmative defense” protection would be too onerous for many towns to achieve.
Municipalities, according to Hanford, would have to keep meticulous records related to the type and rate of salt applications, dates on which the treatment was applied, and weather conditions during every deicing.
“If there was one misstep, they don’t have any protection,” Hanford said last month.
Scott, who formerly owned a contracting business, said he’s primarily concerned about the legal implications for private companies that plow driveways and parking lots.
Water quality advocates had sent out “action alerts” in recent days urging Vermonters to tell Scott to sign the bill. Salinity levels in Lake Champlain, and in rivers such as the Winooski, the Lamoille and the Missisquoi, have in some areas nearly doubled over the last 25 years. State officials say fish, frogs and other aquatic animals can suffer harm from chloride levels of 50 milligrams per liter; dozens of locations across the state, mostly in Chittenden County, have seen chloride levels hit four to nine times that amount.
“It doesn’t go away. I mean it’s actually in some ways sort of a pervasive, toxic substance when it’s in the environment,” Kathy Urffer, director of policy at the Connecticut River Conservancy, said Wednesday.
Urffer said New Hampshire's program, which has been in place since 2013, shows that states can reduce road salt usage without impacting public safety.
“We can still protect our people while also using the right amount of salt,” she said.
