Vermont addresses health of Lake Memphremagog

The Lake Memphremagog Tomifobia River and Coaticook River Basin make up part of the Saint Francis River watershed, which is shared with Quebec.

The basin includes the Barton, Black, Clyde and Johns rivers in Orleans County as well as the Tomifobia River, fed by Holland Pond, and Coaticook River, fed from ponds in Essex County.

The Caledonian Record (http://bit.ly/yhozlp) reports that the management plan includes 10 priorities out of 79 recommendations. They call for:

--Mapping community storm water systems to help find illicit discharges;

--Working with towns to develop protections for fluvial flood hazard zones;

--Creating an agricultural water quality group;

-- And contacting farmers to promote programs that address water concerns among.

The plan reflects recommendations from local watershed groups, residents, towns, property owners, the Agency of Natural Resources and natural resource professionals from other state and federal agencies.

"I am proud of the work done over the past four years by our basin planner Ben Copans," said Deb Markowitz, secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, which approved the plan on Thursday. "His excellent work with the communities in the Northeast Kingdom who are part of these river basins has resulted in a plan that will allow Vermont to protect and improve the water quality in the area for years to come."

The plan also encourages preserving high value undeveloped lakeshore property through land trusts or conservation easements.

Three other plans will be developed for other water basins in other parts of Vermont.

Lake Memphremagog is a glacial lake that straddles the Vermont-Canada border north of Newport. The lake is 27 miles long, with roughly 75 percent of the lake located in Quebec.

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Information from: The Caledonian-Record, http://www.caledonianrecord.com