When does a river qualify as impaired?

ADDISON COUNTY — At 7:15 a.m. on May 1, a member of the Addison County River Watch Collaborative stretched a long pole with a plastic cylinder into the water of the Lemon Fair River, a tributary to the Otter Creek that runs through Orwell, Shoreham, Cornwall and Weybridge. Later that day, the sample was sent off to a lab, where it was tested for concentrations of phosphorus, nitrogen, E. coli and turbidity. The collaborative samples the Otter Creek and its tributaries on the first day of every month, exclud … (read more)

This is Part I in a three-part series. The Otter Creek, Vermont’s longest river, runs through the state’s most heavily cultivated land, and thereby contributes more non-point source phosphorus pollution to Lake Champlain than any other source in Vermont, … (read more)

Thirty years ago, the Addison Independent reported and published a multi-part series on Lake Champlain water quality and how it was being negatively impacted by phosphorous run-off from agricultural and non-farm pollution. The story, which was written by … (read more)