This week’s episode of Tap Talk is a direct follow-up to last week’s show, “What We Can Learn from Vermont’s Flash Drought.” In that episode, we primarily discussed the impact of flash drought to private well users in Vermont. This week, we hear about the challenges from the other side of 2025’s water crisis: those experienced at public water systems. Sille Larsen, water resources program manager from the Vermont Department of Environment Conservation, tells Jennifer and Steve about the steps taken at the state’s water systems and the value of collecting data for understanding longterm drought impacts.
Topics Discussed
- Meet Sille Larsen | LinkedIn
- Sille’s Water Hero: Ray Solomon; Sille’s colleague, mentor, and friend in Vermont DEC’s Engineering and Water Resources Program.
- Vermont’s 2025 drought: How severe and widespread was it?
- How did Vermont DEC coordinate with other state agencies to respond to the drought?
- How did the drought impact public and community water systems, as well as agricultural and ecological resources?
- How many public water systems in Vermont were impacted? What kinds of issues did they have?
- Conservation measures put in place during the drought and their effectiveness
- Vermont’s drought viewer and reporting tools – How did people use them?
- Have those tools significantly changed how the public and/or state agencies understand and respond to drought?
- How did the drought impact water systems that use springs as their source?
- How did this drought shift planning for future water crises?
- Connect with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
“87% of our water systems fall in that category: very small, serving 500 or fewer people. When you think about drought emergency response — economy of scale is a thing. They still have to do all the same operational requirements and monitoring requirements, but just with much less resources available.”Sille Larsen
Go Further
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About the Guest
Sille Larsen is the manager of the Engineering and Water Resources Program at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. Originally from Denmark, she has also worked as a water resources engineer at the Vermont Department of Health and as an environmental engineer at Grontmij A/S. Her current role involves administering a range of technical programs that cover areas such as emerging contaminant monitoring, source permitting and protection, groundwater management, and water system infrastructure.
Sille holds a BSc in Biotechnology and an MSc in Environmental Engineering Technology, both from the Technical University of Denmark.