Code of Vermont Rules › Agency 20 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND MARKETS › Sub-Agency 010 - ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION › Chapter 008 - REQUIRED AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES RULE FOR THE AGRICULTURAL NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION CONTROL PROGRAM › Section 20 010 008 - REQUIRED AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES RULE FOR THE AGRICULTURAL NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION CONTROL PROGRAM

Current through June, 2024
Section 1
			 General
1.1
Preamble:
Agriculture has been identified as a major contributor of non-point
			 source pollution to surface waters of Vermont. For example, the Lake
			 Champlain Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), as modeled by the
			 Environmental Protection Agency, estimates that nutrient losses from
			 agricultural activities represent 29% of the total phosphorous load
			 to the Lake Champlain basin and over 40% of Vermont's contribution to
			 the phosphorous load to the basin. Agriculture contributes non-point
			 source pollution to surface and groundwater from multiple sources,
			 including cropland erosion, farmstead management, crop storage, and
			 manure storage and application. While contributions of non-point
			 source pollution from agriculture may vary from watershed to
			 watershed, the overall impact to water quality from agricultural
			 lands, when not managed well, is significant.
The Vermont legislature first directed the Agency of
				Agriculture, Food and Markets to develop a comprehensive Agricultural
				Non-Point Source Pollution Reduction Program in 1992. The Accepted
				Agricultural Practices Rules (AAPs), which regulate farming
				activities in order to protect water quality, became effective in
				1995 and were revised in 2006.
As a result of Act 64--the Vermont Clean Water
				Act--the Agency of Agriculture was tasked with updating the AAPs to
				further reduce the impact of agricultural activities to water quality
				across the State. The Required Agricultural Practices Rules (RAPs)
				are an updated version of the AAPs, re-written to a higher level of
				performance.
Act 64, which was signed into law by the Governor in
				June 2015, amended and enacted multiple requirements related to water
				quality in the State. The act required the Agency of Agriculture to
				amend several provisions of the AAPs in order to improve water
				quality in Vermont. The first change was to rename the Accepted
				Agricultural Practices Rules the Required Agricultural Practices
				Rules. The RAPs are standards to which all types of farms must be
				managed. Act 64 further required the Agency of Agriculture to:
-- Establish requirements for a Small Farm
				Certification Program;
-- Establish nutrient, manure, and waste storage
				standards;
-- Make recommendations for soil health;
-- Establish requirements for vegetated buffer
				zones;
-- Establish requirements for livestock exclusion
				from surface water;
-- Establish nutrient management planning standards;
				and
-- Establish standards for soil conservation such as
				cover cropping
The standards and rules that follow are intended to
				improve the quality of all of Vermont's waters by reducing and
				eliminating cropland erosion, sediment losses, and nutrient losses
				through improved farm management techniques, technical and compliance
				assistance, and, where appropriate, enforcement. This rule strives to
				balance the complexity, variability, and requirements of farm
				management with the need to improve that management in order to meet
				the State's goals in improving and protecting water quality.
Soil quality and soil health are critical elements of
				an overall agricultural non-point source pollution reduction program.
				Agricultural soils are recognized as a critical resource for the
				overall prosperity of Vermont's agricultural community and for the
				public at large. Efforts to build soil organic matter, increase
				biological activity, and reduce compaction, including reduced
				tillage, use of composts, establishing crop rotations, cover
				cropping, and the elimination of annual cropping on highly vulnerable
				lands, will be essential to the success of programs whose goal is to
				improve Vermont's water quality. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture,
				Food and Markets supports and endorses all practices that lead to the
				goal of healthy soils and productive agricultural
				lands.
1.2
Enabling
			 Legislation:
As defined in
			 6 V.S.A.
			 §§
											4810 and
			 4810a,
			 the Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs) shall be management
			 standards to be followed by all persons engaged in farming in this
			 State. These standards shall address activities which have a
			 potential for causing agricultural pollutants to enter the
			 groundwater and waters of the State, including dairy and other
			 livestock operations, all forms of crop and nursery operations and
			 on-farm or agricultural fairground registered pursuant to
			 20 V.S.A. §
											3902, and livestock and poultry
			 slaughter and processing activities. The RAPs shall include, as well
			 as promote and encourage, practices for farmers in preventing
			 agricultural pollutants from entering the groundwater and waters of
			 the State when engaged in animal waste management and disposal, soil
			 amendment applications, plant fertilization, and pest and weed
			 control. Persons engaged in farming who are in compliance with these
			 practices shall be presumed to not have a discharge of agricultural
			 pollutants to waters of the State. The RAPs shall be designed to
			 protect water quality and shall be practical and cost-effective to
			 implement, as determined by the Secretary.
1.3
Purpose:
The RAPs are farm and land management practices that will control and
			 reduce agricultural nonpoint source pollution and subsequent nutrient
			 losses from farm fields and production areas to surface and ground
			 waters of the State or across property boundaries. The RAPs also
			 establish minimum construction and siting requirements for farm
			 structures in floodplains, floodways, river corridors, and flood
			 hazard areas.
1.4
Authority:
6 V.S.A. Chapter 215 (Agricultural Water Quality), including
			 §§ 4810, 4810a, and 4811, and Act 64 of the Vermont General
			 Assembly (2015 session).
1.5
Enforcement:
Violations of this rule are subject to enforcement by the Secretary
			 of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and the
			 Attorney General under the provisions of
			 6 V.S.A. §§
											4991 -
			 4996
			 and additional remedies available to the State under other applicable
			 Vermont law.
1.6
Further
			 considerations under the RAPs:
6 V.S.A. §
											4810a(b) requires
			 that on or before January 15, 2018, the Secretary of Agriculture,
			 Food and Markets shall amend by rule the Required Agricultural
			 Practices in order to include requirements for reducing nutrient
			 contribution to waters of the State from subsurface tile drainage. As
			 part of the rule amendment process, the Secretary may also evaluate
			 the current status of effectiveness of the Required Agricultural
			 Practices, the implementation of additional best management
			 practices, and the current water quality condition of waters of the
			 State. The Secretary may consider additional changes to the Required
			 Agricultural Practices, as appropriate, to meet the water quality
			 goals of the State.