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Basin 15 - Basin Planning for the Watershed Drained by the Passumpsic River

What's New

2024 Public Meetings and Comment Period for Draft Passumpsic Tactical Basin plan

The Water Investment Division is developing the 5-year update of the Passumpsic River Tactical Basin Plan, including an updated list of actions from the 2019 plan. Find the Passumpsic River Draft Tactical Basin Plan here and review the summary Passumpsic River Draft Plan Story Map here.

The final draft of the plan will be available for review and public comment from October 1 to October 31, 2024. Comments on the plan can be submitted via email to: ben.copans@vermont.gov or to Ben Copans, VT DEC, 374 Emerson Falls Road - Suite 4, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819.

A virtual and in-person meeting will to present the draft plan will be held on:

October 22, 2024: 5:30 – 7:00 PM

  • In-Person:  Caledonia Conference Room, Agency of Natural Resources, 374 Emerson Falls Road, St Johnsbury, VT 05819. Please park and enter on the left side of the building.
  • Virtual Teams meeting link

The draft plan will also be discussed at the Northeastern Vermont Development Association Executive Committee Meeting on October 24th and at the Caledonia County Local Workgroup meeting planned for November 7th.  The following Links to Existing Uses and a Report Card that details the status of 43 strategies from the 2019 plan are also now available.

Please contact Ben Copans, Watershed Planner at ben.copans@vermont.gov or (802) 490-6143 with any questions.

2019 Passumpsic Tactical Basin Plan

The Passumpsic River Tactical Basin was published in October of 2019. The Plan provides an overall assessment of the health of the Passumpsic River basin and defines on-going and future actions and strategies to address high-priority pollutants such as pathogens, sedimentation and stream channel erosion. The Plan presents the recommendations of State and Federal resource agencies, watershed partner organizations, planning commissions, municipalities, and individual citizens.  Public meetings on the draft plan were held in June of 2019 in coordination with Northeast Vermont Development Association, the Burke Conservation Commission, and the Caledonia and Essex County Natural Resources Conservation Districts and comments received on the draft plan were responded to in a responsiveness summary included as an appendix. 

Map of water quality remediation and protection priorities in the Passumpsic River Basin

Maps of water quality remediation and protection priorities identified in the 2019 Passumpsic Tactical Basin plan 

A summary of the Passumpsic River tactical basin plan is available at the following link: 2019 basin plan Summary

The full plan is available at the following link: 2019 Passumpsic Tactical Basin Plan

A story map providing a summary of the plan is available at the following link: Passumpsic Story map

Projects that have been identified or completed in the basin can be found in the Watershed project database and the interagency clean water projects dashboard available on the Clean Water Portal.  

A report on water quality conditions in the Passumpsic River basin is available at: The Passumpsic Watershed - Water Quality Assessment Report 2018 (January 2019)

The previous version of the Passumpsic tactical basin plan was published in 2014 in conjunction with the Upper Connecticut River Basin.  This plan is available at the following Link: 2014 Passumpsic and Upper Connecticut River Tactical Basin Plan

Our Major Partners & Stakeholders

The priority projects and strategies in the tactical basin plans are completed with help from our partners. The list below is not an exhaustive inventory of all the folks that help make the waters of the Passumpsic River Basin clean for consumption and recreation. Many thanks to all those who volunteer and support Vermont's goals for water quality excellence