Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
Under S.212, Vermont drinking water and wastewater permitting processes would be revamped.
The bill, which crossed over to the House on March 13, would enable the Agency of Natural Resources to create a general permit for potable water supply and wastewater system connections.
Permits for potable water supply — water safe enough for human consumption — and wastewater systems connections, such as the link between a building’s plumbing and a municipal sewer line, currently take about 18 days to process, according to sponsor Sen. Anne Watson, D/P-Washington.
But she said S.212 would speed up the process.
Under new legislation, the Agency of Natural Resources would be able to minimize its workload by creating a self-certification process, or as Watson calls it, “a checklist.”
This checklist would be in the form of a manual approved by the secretary of the agency, currently Julie Moore. The design of the manual is going out to bid, according to Watson.
The new system would be used by project developers designing connections or supply systems to review prior to applying for a permit.
S.212 would assign the secretary to adopt a general permit for connections that need one.
Watson said the bill would help both newly built homes and additions.
“All told, it’s going to be cheaper and faster and easier to get water and wastewater permits as a result of this bill,” she said in an interview with Community News Service.
“There’s kind of this double level of review where both the municipality and the state need to issue permits,” Watson said. “It’s been an ongoing issue for many years that different legislators have tried to address.”
This session’s lawmakers may be up to the task.
The Agency of Natural Resource’s Wastewater System and Potable Water Supply Program issues about 200 municipal connection permits annually.
This is larger than all of the Department of Conservation’s permitting programs combined, according to Bryan Redmond, director of the Drinking Water and Groundwater Protection Division in the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
“The heart and the core of the bill is the general permit authority,” he said to the House Committee on Environment on April 2. “Functionally, this will shift connection permits from receiving individual review and individual permits to receiving coverage under a general permit with individual authorizations based on the certification provided by the licensed designer or the engineer.”
The manual would include guidance for licensed designers working on public water systems’ capacity.
“This guidance is important to improve the clarity and accessibility of standards and requirements related to connections and is a critical resource to support the general permit framework,” Redmond said.
The agency secretary would also be allowed to give municipalities authority to conduct reviews of projects that require a permit, provided that certain water and sewer lines are owned and controlled by the municipality.
If interested, municipalities could submit requests for jurisdiction. Licensed designers could be given authority by the secretary to manage a project, assuring that the conditions of the permit are met.
Josh Hanford, director of intergovernmental relations for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, supports the bill.
“Water and sewer infrastructure is one of the most costly and important assets that municipalities have, so they care deeply about getting this right,” he told the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy on Jan. 21.
Jon Groveman, policy and water program director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, echoed the view.
“I think for the program to work … municipalities need to know, developers need to know, people connecting need to know what is expected of them to make connections,” he said.
“This is about connections and doing it the right way for the system and making sure that it meets the standards of the municipality,” he later added.
Clarification (4/29/26): The Agency of Natural Resource’s Wastewater System and Potable Water Supply Program issues about 200 municipal connection permits annually. They issue about 3,000 total permits annually.