(Host) An environmental group says the state has failed to adequately control pollution from large farms.

In a new report, the Conservation Law Foundation says the farms require Clean Water Act discharge permits. The organization says the state has not implemented the permit program.

But Vermont officials say the state tries to work with farms to get them to properly manage their waste.

VPR's John Dillon reports:

(Dillon) CLF says several large and medium size farms in Vermont qualify as "concentrated animal feeding operations'' and should be subjected to tighter regulation.

The CLF report cites public records that show at least three of the large farms and thirty percent of the medium farms the state inspected discharged pollution into state waterways. Anthony Iarrapino is a CLF staff attorney.

(Iarrapino) ``The reality that we found in our report, which is based on the state's own records, from their own inspections, is that there have been significant discharges from a number of industrial-scale agriculture operations that are subject to the Clean Water Act. They haven't been addressed, even though there have been a number of inspections.''

(Dillon) Farm run off is a major cause of pollution to Lake Champlain. And the state lists 30 rivers, streams and lakes around the state that are damaged by farm pollution.

Iarrapino says the large farm permit program - run by the Agency of Agriculture - is inadequate.

He says the Ag Agency has an inherent conflict of interest, since one of its main jobs is promote farming in Vermont.

(Iarrapino) ``And on the other hand being regulators who are in charge of enforcing against agriculture operations that don't keep raw manure and other waste out of the waters in which we fish and swim.''

(Dillon) But Agriculture Secretary Roger Allbee disagrees. He says his agency handles both roles, and aggressively implements the large farm regulations.

(Allbee) ``Our role, number one, is to carry out the regulations and the law.  And we've had a number of occasions in actually implementing the LFO law this year, and doing the inspections, we had indicated to farmers by a certain date they have to meet the standards, and if they didn't they would be under penalty.''

(Dillon) Both Allbee and George Crombie, the secretary of natural resources, criticized both the message of the CLF report - and the messenger.

Here's Crombie.

(Crombie) ``And now they're going after the poor dairy farmer in the state of Vermont. ... You know, from my perspective, it's really piling on. The Agency of Agriculture and the Agency of Natural Resources have really worked hand in hand to work with the farmers and we know that's the best way and proactive way to work with the farming community.''

(Dillon) But Iarrapino says the CLF report also calls for increased funding to help farmers pay for pollution control measures.

For VPR News, I'm John Dillon in Montpelier.