The goal of the Water Quality Division is to maintain and enhance the quality and quantity of Vermont's lakes, rivers and wetlands to support healthy ecosystems and appropriate public uses. There are 808 significant lakes and ponds, 7,100 miles of rivers and streams and 300,000 acres of wetlands in Vermont. The Division:

• Conducts chemical, physical and biological environmental monitoring and publishes assessments of streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands.


• Provides guidance to citizen monitoring programs to determine the quality of the State’s water resources and the threats to that quality.


• Assures that stream flows below dams, water withdrawals and hydropower reservoirs meet minimum standards.


• Issues grants and provides technical assistance to support local nonpoint source pollution management activities in lake and river watersheds.


• Devises strategies to protect high quality waters and bring impaired waters into compliance with water quality standards.


• Implements regulatory programs relating to wetlands, stormwater, erosion control, and for aquatic nuisance control, lakeshore encroachments, stream alterations, and the Vermont Water Quality Standards.


• Administers an aquatic nuisance management program, a river management and flood hazard mitigation program, and sponsors Water Education for Teachers (Project WET).


• Prepares watershed plans for 17 major planning basins through a public-private collaboration that identifies water quality problems and develops and implements corrective strategies.