By Guy Page
Vermont’s popular county fairs will go out of business if forced to pay the $500,000 – $1 million each necessary to comply with state water runoff regulations, Jackie Folsom, Lobbyist for the Vermont Fairs and Field Days Association told the Senate Agriculture Committee Wednesday, February 21.
The Three Acre Stormwater regulations, created by legislation, have been implemented in a phased-in process that began in 2020. According to a September 2020 statement issued by the Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont must reduce stormwater runoff from commercial, industrial, residential and institutional properties by roughly 20 percent to meet clean water goals.
The Three-Acre Stormwater Permit was adopted as a statewide solution to runoff polluting Lake Champlain and other state waters. It requires landowners with more than three acres of ‘impervious surfaces’ such as roofs, driveways and parking areas, to develop and implement projects to treat runoff to remove phosphorus, sediment, and other pollutants. These plans require expensive – Folsom says prohibitively expensive – upgrades.
The impact on county fairs will be disastrous, Folsom said.
“They’ll all go out of business,” Folsom said [as quoted in the Caledonian-Record].
“There’s no way that any [of the state’s county fairs] can come up with that kind of money,” Folsom said. “Schools can raise property taxes. Wal-Mart can raise prices. But most of the fairs are non-profit, they are open 50 days a year, and they do not have the ability to go out and mortgage their grounds, and get a $500,000 to $1 million loan for something they can never repay. You just can’t make that kind of money up at the fairground.”
At present, three fairgrounds are subject to the rule: Addison County Fairgrounds, Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction, and Rutland’s Vermont State Fairgrounds. Folsom said other, smaller fairgrounds – such as the Orleans County and Caledonia County fairgrounds – likely will soon be subject to the rule as well.
The stormwater permit regulations do provide applications for grant funding to come into compliance.
Senate Ag committee members expressed sympathy and promised to seek a solution – but made no promises. Folsom said plans to meet with Gov. Scott.
“We’re going to try to get it resolved sooner rather than later, because the fairs are starting to spend an enormous amount of money on these projects,” Folsom said [as quoted in the Caledonian-Record]. “I really don’t think they want 14 fairs to close on their watch, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”