VermontS.1242025-2026 SessionSenate

An act relating to miscellaneous agricultural subjects

Sponsored By: Sponsor information unavailable

Signed by Governor

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

13 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 5 costs, 6 mixed.

Large farms avoid duplicate operating fees

A person with an active Large concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) permit can avoid the $2,500 annual large-farm operating fee. The waiver applies only for a calendar year when that person pays the fee associated with the active CAFO permit. The CAFO permit must be issued by Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources under the federal Clean Water Act. Its associated fee still applies.

Animal farms face discharge permit deadlines

Beginning July 1, 2025, owners or operators of CAFOs requiring federal or Vermont permits must apply to Natural Resources and pay required fees. The Secretary can request needed information from applicants or farms, take steps to secure compliance, and refuse permits until information is provided and evaluated. The Secretary must amend and issue the CAFO general permit and Notice of Intent by December 15, 2025. A CAFO application and individual permit must be issued by July 1, 2026. The Secretary can direct farms to apply for general or individual permits.

Animal farms face pollution permit oversight

Vermont’s Natural Resources Secretary can run a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) permit program at least as strict as federal law. The Secretary can adopt rules, inspect operations and records, and require permits for operations found to discharge to state waters. Large CAFO thresholds include 700 mature dairy animals or 1,000 cattle; medium classifications generally start at 200 mature dairy animals or 300 cattle, plus discharge conditions. After an on-site inspection, smaller operations can be designated if they discharge to water and significantly contribute pollution, considering size, waste reaching water, location, drainage paths, slope, vegetation, rainfall, and other relevant factors. Designated CAFOs lose the presumption that following required agricultural practices means they are not discharging.

Covered farms pay annual operating fees

Anyone required to obtain the covered farm permit or permit coverage must pay a $1,500 operating fee each year. The money goes to Vermont’s Agricultural Water Quality Special Fund.

Animal farm permits depend on discharges

Land-applied manure, litter, or process wastewater reaching state waters from a permitted CAFO is subject to discharge-permit rules unless it qualifies as agricultural stormwater. Rain-related runoff from permitted CAFOs qualifies only when spreading follows federal rules; unpermitted large CAFOs need site-specific nutrient practices approved by the Secretary. Beginning July 1, 2025, large CAFOs need permits only when listed discharge conditions occur. These include point-source waste discharges and waste entering waters originating outside, passing through or across the facility, or directly contacting confined animals. Permits are also required for rain-related manure, litter, or wastewater discharges from large-farm-controlled land when the Secretary’s site-specific nutrient practices are not followed.

Farm nutrient plans carry continuing duties

Medium and large farms must keep nutrient-plan and practice records on site or at a nearby office, available upon request. Beginning July 1, 2025, every CAFO must have a nutrient management plan included in its permit for public comment. The Secretary can change or revoke permits through the required procedures. Starting that date, covered farms remain under their CAFO permits for five years and must renew under the permit terms. Farms can opt out by showing both that they are not discharging and that they follow federal Clean Water Act and Vermont CAFO rules.

Farms face seasonal manure spreading limits

Manure spreading remains banned from December 15 through April 1. Vermont’s Agriculture Secretary can also ban spreading December 1–15 or April 1–30 when weather, soil, or other conditions create significant runoff risks. The law requires a rule-based process for emergency exemptions. Exemptions must exclude stormwater channels, permanent planted buffers, nonfarmed wetlands, saturated soils, fields exceeding tolerable soil loss, and land within 50 feet of a drinking-water supply. They must also set frozen- or snow-covered soil requirements, require a nutrient management plan, and cap the amount spread per acre.

Some animal farms avoid state buffers

Farms that Natural Resources determines are CAFOs required to obtain permits are exempt from Vermont’s minimum planted-buffer rule. That rule applies between annual cropland and nearby waters. Federal CAFO buffer and setback requirements still apply.

Farm permit reviews check possible discharges

The Agriculture Secretary must promptly refer possible discharges found during large-farm applications, medium-farm general-permit certifications, or medium- and small-farm individual applications. The Natural Resources Secretary must require a CAFO discharge permit when federal or Vermont CAFO rules require one. For large-farm applications and medium-farm general-permit reviews, Natural Resources must promptly report when no CAFO permit is needed and federal CAFO rules are not violated. A medium farm seeking general-permit coverage after being unpermitted during the prior term also receives a verification review. Within 18 months after receiving its certification or notice, Natural Resources must verify whether the farm established that it will have no unpermitted discharge under federal CAFO rules.

Farm size counts and certifications change

Vermont counts commonly owned farms together for large-farm livestock and poultry thresholds if they adjoin or share waste-disposal areas or systems. Beginning July 1, 2017, owners or operators of newly eligible or identified small farms must certify compliance with Required Agricultural Practices. The Agriculture Secretary can also require regular certification of ongoing compliance.

Farm and forestry permit exemptions narrow

Beginning July 1, 2025, qualifying required farm practices and accepted forestry practices are exempt from Vermont discharge permits. They must not release pollutants from a point source into state waters and must follow federal Clean Water Act and CAFO rules. Farm stormwater is exempt only when farms follow state agricultural practices and Natural Resources finds them outside federal water rules and Vermont CAFO rules. This farm exemption does not cover required construction stormwater permits. Forestry stormwater exemptions cover practices defined as accepted by the forestry commissioner only when Natural Resources finds federal compliance and Vermont’s logging water-quality practices are followed.

State agencies divide farm pollution duties

Beginning July 1, 2025, Natural Resources regulates animal feeding operations under federal requirements and Vermont CAFO rules; Agriculture runs farm nonpoint-source pollution control. The agencies must cooperate, share information, and follow federal Clean Water Act requirements and state water-quality standards. They must revise or replace their coordination agreement to divide permit, grant, watershed, antidegradation, and on-farm compost duties, with Natural Resources leading federal water-funding applications after consulting Agriculture. By September 1, 2025, they must issue a roles document for public comment, review it every five years, and give notice of substantial revisions. The replacement agreement must set separate annual performance measures and require each agency’s results to be reported to the four designated legislative agriculture and environment committees by January 15 each year.

Vermont broadens and fixes water rules

The law expands and clarifies the waters, discharges, and pollutants covered by Vermont’s water-pollution rules, including federally covered waters. It also defines direct discharge and pollutant. Beginning July 1, 2025, specified federal water-law references in Vermont’s agricultural and water-pollution chapters use their January 1, 2025 versions. Later federal amendments, repeal, or other substantive changes do not automatically change those references. This fixed-version rule ends April 1, 2029.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 29 • No: 0

Senate vote • 4/17/2025

Recommendation of amendment by Committee on Natural Resources and Energy agreed to on roll call, requested by Senator Beck, Passed -- Needed 15 of 29 to Pass -- Yeas = 29, Nays = 0