Vermont Was Supposed to Get an Audit of Its Lake Champlain Cleanup. It Never Happened.

ProPublica · Jonathan Mingle · 2026-11-04 15:05 UTC

Halfway through a 20-year push to get Vermont’s waterways in line with tougher EPA standards, some lawmakers worry the project’s strategies aren’t as cost-effective as they could be — especially as a state-mandated audit was never done.

This summer, Vermont’s Clean Water Board celebrated a milestone: Over the past decade, the state has invested nearly a billion dollars to clean up its polluted streams, rivers and lakes. The vast majority of that money has gone toward Lake Champlain.

“I think that’s something to be extremely proud of,” said Douglas Farnham, the board’s chair.

Vermont was supposed to get an independent evaluation of what it has gotten for all that money. But that study was never done.

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