Sugarbush recently completed a large part of a multi-year water-quality remediation project that significantly improved the health of nearby streams. It was the first project of its kind in Vermont and led directly to the removal of a stormwater-impacted waterway from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources’ list of impaired waterways. Here’s how it works.
Rainfall and snowmelt create polluted runoff by picking up particulate matter, including road salt, sand, and gravel, as the water moves over the ground toward brooks and streams. That runoff ends up in local rivers and, ultimately, in Lake Champlain.
In order to ensure that the streams remain healthy, the main parking lots at Sugarbush use a series of management practices to treat the runoff of nonpoint source pollution before it reaches waterways.
Through these best-management practices of groundwater infiltration, filtering runoff through grass swales, and stormwater ponds, Sugarbush is able to keep its stormwater runoff clean and maintain the water quality of the nearby streams.