Political ferment
Toolbox
Published: October 2, 2007
In the annals of silliness the recent dust-up over environmental violations at the Intervale in Burlington ranks high. It is in the nature of politics for advocates to try to embarrass their opponents, but it's easier than you might think to come away smeared by the mud that you have been throwing.
Or the compost.
Rob Roper, chairman of the Republican Party, thought he saw an opportunity to embarrass top Democrats when he learned that the composting operations at the Intervale Center were in violation of environmental regulations. According to state officials, the composting center was storing liquid from the compost in unlined lagoons near the Winooski River. This leachate, which was used on Intervale land, contained dangerous E. coli bacteria.
It turns out that the composting facility also will have to obtain an Act 250 permit because of the possibility it might be disturbing American Indian artifacts. The Intervale is known as a site of early Indian habitation.
But more recently it was a junk heap. Before the developers of the Intervale turned it into a community garden and farming operation, the land was a neglected area of junked cars and other refuse. In two decades, community activists, gardeners and farmers have transformed its 350 acres into a model of sustainable local farming and healthful recreation at the edge of the city.
State officials are right to crack down on environmental violations. It is curious that the people running the composting operation had not seen the danger of its leachate storage methods. Manure lagoons on a far grander scale have become an enormous environmental hazard in places such as North Carolina that are home to massive industrial hog and chicken operations.
The environmental issue might have ended with the Intervale managers' promise to resolve their problems. But Roper brought attention to the issue by pointing out that House Speaker Gaye Symington actually works for the Intervale. Rep. David Zuckerman, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, farms 16 acres at the Intervale.
"They want to be environmental stewards for the State of Vermont," Roper said. "They are not even capable of governing this little plot of land in Burlington in which they are intimately involved." He called the Intervale "a veritable who's who of left-wing politics."
By calling attention to Symington and Zuckerman's connection to the Intervale, he does them a service. The Intervale is a pioneering community project that has been a huge benefit to the people of Burlington and has reclaimed valuable land for agriculture. Few are going to view Symington's role as a fund-raiser for the project as somehow laying on her shoulders the responsibility of monitoring its compost. That Zuckerman farms land on the Intervale is to his credit. Ask either of them whether they believe the state should come down hard on the environmental violations, and they will say yes.
Symington was caustic with regard to Roper's charges. "Many of us in the Legislature have jobs outside our State house roles," she said. "This is mine. I understand it is part of Mr. Roper's job to wake up each day and figure how he can embarrass people who happen to be Democrats."
Roper earned that jab.
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