​On March 31, the Food and Agriculture Law Society will be sponsoring a brown bag lunch from 12:45-2PM in the Map Room on the topic of water quality and agricultural runoff in Vermont.  The talk will specifically focus on phosphorus loading in Lake Champlain.  Eric Smeltzer, an Environmental Scientist with the Department of Environmental Conservation at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, will be speaking on the scientific issues around phosphorus trading and compliance with the Lake Champlain TMDL.  Smeltzer has over 30 years of experience working on lakes and ponds in Vermont.  Professor Pat Parenteau, a water quality expert himself, has agreed to moderate the discussion.  He describes Smeltzer as a scientist who "knows way more about lakes and ponds in this state than anyone else on the planet".

Here is Smeltzer's bio from the Vermont EPSCoR Streams Project homepage:

"Eric works in the Water Quality Division at the Vermont ANR, primarily on Lake Champlain issues. He attended Bates College (BS in biology, 1976) and the University of Minnesota (MS in ecology and limnology, 1980). Phosphorus management on Lake Champlain has been Eric's major area of focus since the 1980s. His work on Lake Champlain has involved discharge impact studies, development of phosphorus water quality standards, phosphorus budget and lake modeling studies, intergovernmental phosphorus reduction agreements between Vermont, New York, and Quebec, the Lake Champlain Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) document, and Vermont's Clean and Clear Action Plan. Eric works closely with the Lake Champlain Basin Program, and is a member of its Technical Advisory Committee. He is also the Vermont program manager for the Long-Term Water Quality and Biological Monitoring Program for Lake Champlain."

This will be a great discussion for any student interested in agriculture and water quality and is open to the public.  For any questions about this event, please contact Allen Smith (AllenSmith@vermontlaw.edu). ​