BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -Vermont’s top environmental regulator says the state’s largest composting operation should not be located where it is in a flood plain and historic Indian site.

“I believe it has to move,” Natural Resources Secretary George Crombie said of Intervale Compost Products, which has been in a battle with state regulators for several months.

At the same time, Crombie said he believes the state needs to revamp its composting regulations so that the fast-growing industry is governed by clear rules.

“Both the Agency of Agriculture and the Agency of Natural Resources are going to take a look at our regulations to make sure they’re conditioned to fostering composting,” he said. “It’s something we want to encourage.”

Composting is generally well loved by environmentalists because it keeps tons of waste from going to landfills, turning it instead into garden compost and topsoil.

“This is a way to divert a lot of material from landfills, so there is a real pressure out there” for the industry to grow, said Pat O’Neill, program director at the Composting Association of Vermont.

He agreed new rules are needed to govern the industry. “The regulations haven’t kept up with this new business.”

In September, the state said it had found a series of environmental violations at the Intervale composting site, including the storage of leachate laden with bacteria in lagoons built without the needed state permits.

The Intervale site also was ruled this year to be a commercial enterprise and not a farm.

That makes it subject to Vermont’s stringent Act 250 land use law, from which farms are exempt.

Another composting center, Vermont Compost Co. in Montpelier, also is under scrutiny, as the District 5 Environmental Commission considers whether it, too, needs an Act 250 permit.

Kit Perkins, executive director of the Intervale Center, said she was open to hearing Crombie’s reasons for thinking the Intervale site should be moved.

“I’m looking forward to hearing more about that from him,” she said. “We wouldn’t be doing it for this long if we didn’t think it was the right place or if we thought that we were having an adverse environmental impact.”

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Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com

AP-ES-11-24-07 1135EST