BERLIN, Vt. (AP) - State and local officials are trying to find a compromise over drinking water and recreational uses of a pond that supplies the state capital.
The capital, Montpelier, has been getting drinking water from Berlin Pond, in tiny neighboring Berlin, for about 100 years. Fishing, swimming and kayaking were banned for much of that time until the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the state has control over how the pond is used.
Montpelier voters have passed a charter change to give control of the pond back to the city, but it must be approved by the Legislature.
City Manager Bill Fraser said Montpelier’s water treatment plant isn’t made to filter out certain parasites that might be introduced by people using the pond.
“We’re not trying to be alarmists, and we’re not trying to be difficult,” Fraser said. “But we have an obligation to the health and safety of the people that we serve water to.”
Legislators have asked that Montpelier and the towns surrounding the pond work with the state on a compromise.
Meanwhile, Berlin, a town of about 3,000 residents between Montpelier and Barre, is working with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department to build an access area to the pond this summer, Commissioner Louis Porter told Vermont Public Radio (https://bit.ly/2rfI6fZ).
“We are always interested in working with towns or anybody else who wants to provide public use to public waters. And that’s our role in this,” Porter said of discussions about how to balance the need for safe drinking water with the public’s right to access to the state’s surface waters for recreational uses.
A select board chairman in Berlin, True Nelson, is optimistic that a compromise can be reached.
“The only thing that people want is low-impact, light recreational use,” he said. “We’re talking canoes. We’re talking kayaks. We’re talking, you know, fishing.”
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Information from: WVPS-FM, https://www.vpr.net
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