When the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were passed by Congress, States were given two options for compliance. They could rely on the Federal EPA, or they could establish their own State operated EPA which under a general Memorandum Of Understanding could administer those two regulatory processes under State authority, so long as the State Standards were more strict than the Federal guidelines. And Vermont chose to create our own State EPA parallel to but using stricter standards than the Federal guidelines. As the late Mr. Crombie, during his tenure as head of the VT Agency of Environmental Protection noted, the result was that the VTEPA soon became the largest and fastest growing unit of State Government. That is why Vermont schools are being held to a far stricter standard on PCB's than any other unit of government, and possibly in the world.
When the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were passed by Congress, States were given two options for compliance. They could rely on the Federal EPA, or they could establish their own State operated EPA which under a general Memorandum Of Understanding could administer those two regulatory processes under State authority, so long as the State Standards were more strict than the Federal guidelines. And Vermont chose to create our own State EPA parallel to but using stricter standards than the Federal guidelines. As the late Mr. Crombie, during his tenure as head of the VT Agency of Environmental Protection noted, the result was that the VTEPA soon became the largest and fastest growing unit of State Government. That is why Vermont schools are being held to a far stricter standard on PCB's than any other unit of government, and possibly in the world.