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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 01/13/2009 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JANUARY 13, 2009 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Heritage Room I & II 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Eapen Chacko (Chair), Ray Daniels, Laura Jester, Sean Katof, Geneva MacMillan, Jan Mosman STAFF: Leslie A. Stovring, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Vallari Ajgaonkar, Alexandra(Alex) Baumhardt, Michael (Paco) Caughill SPEAKERS: Steve McComas, Blue Water Science Walter Eshenaur and Ryan Jones, SRF Consulting VISITORS: John Tyler, Mitchell Lake Association Bob Shurson, Mitchell Lake Association Brian Flanagan, Mitchell Lake Association Mark Enochs, CH2M Hill I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Chacko called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM. MacMillan, Katof, Ajgaonkar, and Baumhardt were absent. Daniels arrived late. Chacko said tonight's speakers would give their presentations before the regular business meeting. II. SPEAKERS A. Steve McComas, Blue Water Science Steve McComas distributed copies of his report, Lake Monitoring Results for Duck, Red Rock, Round, and Staring Lakes, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, 2008. He reviewed the water quality results presented in the report, noting the data includes Secchi disc (clarity), total phosphorus and chlorophyll measurements. Chacko asked if everyone agrees those are the key measures for water quality or, if not, what prompted him to go with these measures. McComas said everyone does not agree on these as key measures as there is more to a lake and its quality than these three; however, these measures are associated with the nutrient quality and are common tests for evaluating water quality. He reviewed the results of the measurements for each of the four lakes, noting total phosphorus is the most important element for algae growth. Chlorophyll is the main pigment in algae, which is a plant basically. Daniels arrived at 7:10 PM. Mosman asked if low phosphorus and chlorophyll indicates other pollutants. McComas replied not necessarily, and noted Red Rock Lake has PFC's which are Conservation Commission January 13, 2009 Page 2 usually associated with the presence of chemicals used in products such as Scotchguard. However, these chemicals are not currently connected with specific health problems. Jester asked if there are no standards for PFC's. Stovring said there are some recommendations with regard to fish consumption with the presence of PFC's, similar to mercury. Duck Lake - Mr. Tyler asked if Duck Lake has a high population of carp. McComas said they are not sure because there has not been a good fish survey there. Mr. Tyler asked if it has a high weed content. McComas said it does have some weeds. Jester noted there is an area on the north side of the lake that stays open much longer than the rest, and she wondered if there was warmer water coming from somewhere to cause that. McComas said a spring could be the source of warmer water. Round Lake - McComas said there was fish manipulation of Round Lake in the 1980's. Limnologists from the University of Minnesota recommended the fish be removed from the water and then the water quality tracked. He said the research paper on that manipulation has been widely referenced world-wide. McComas said Round Lake has the highest overall summer average for transparency and also has the lowest phosphorus. That lake is considered to be in protection mode, and they want to maintain water quality. Red Rock Lake — This Lake also had clear water early on, but it decreased with an algae bloom later in the summer. Starinz Lake - McComas noted Staring Lake started with a very low transparency and went down from there. They suspect a big fish effect, and aquatic plant studies in that lake indicate it has zero rooted plants. Staring has blue-green algae almost the entire summer. It is a nutrient rich lake. John Tyler asked if they suspect a large population of carp in Staring. McComas said he thought it does, although it is hard to quantify the amount of fish in a lake. He said Doctor Sorenson from the University of Minnesota is working on a population study. He said carp jumping in the lake is an indicator of large quantities of carp. He noted Mitchell Lake does not have as many carp. Daniels asked why there was such a tremendous jump in the amount of phosphorus in Duck and Red Rock Lakes with the July 28 measurements. McComas said he suspects there was a concentration of algae in the sample which would give higher phosphorus measurements. Mosman asked if algae blooms are ever a good thing. McComas said blue-green algae are not good as there can be toxic strains associated with those algae. Early in the season there are a variety of algae that can be taken up and utilized by the lake's food chain,but later in the summer the blue-green algae often start to dominate. Mosman asked if ways to decrease algae blooms will be evaluated at some point. McComas said the best way is to reduce nutrients within and entering the lake. Stovring noted the Pollution Control Agency says if a lake has a look of blue-green paint over the surface, it is important to keep small children and pets out of the lake. Conservation Commission January 13, 2009 Page 3 Daniels asked how Mr. McComas classified the four lakes. McComas said the definition of a shallow lake is one with 80% of the lake area 15 feet deep or less. That would mean that Round Lake is a deep lake, while Duck Lake would be classified as a shallow lake. He thought Staring is probably a deep lake. Shallow lakes are naturally nutrient rich. John Tyler asked Mr. McComas if he was employed by the City and what his role is. McComas said he has a two-person company that is contracted by the City to do sampling. Mr. Tyler then asked if the Conservation Commission has a budget for the lakes. Chacko replied the commission is advisory only. Stovring said the City hired Mr. McComas in 2005 to do aquatic plant surveys primarily in Round Lake. We are now looking at some of the lakes that are impaired but have not been looked at as closely to see what could be done to improve water quality. Mr. Tyler asked if the City has a budget for lake projects. Stovring said it does through the stormwater utility. Mr. Tyler asked if the City would take action as a municipality or if it would be joint action with the watershed districts. Stovring said the City coordinates with the districts and shares their results. Daniels noted phosphorus has been banned for the last few years and asked if that will make any difference in these lakes. McComas said phosphorous has been restricted, not banned. It can be used if soil samples indicate it is needed or it is a new lawn. He said the restrictions have dramatically reduced the amount of phosphorus that is being applied to lawns, and it looks like it will help since many of the lakes he has been on are not getting worse. Mr. Tyler asked if harvesting weeds and removing carp would be a remedy for Staring Lake. McComas said carp removal would be handy along with other things to reduce the phosphorus levels. He said aquatic plant harvesting is not the No. 1 phosphorus removal technique. Mr. Tyler asked what the No. 1 technique is. McComas said it is best watershed management practices, and we need to look at the lake sediments because fish are a factor. Mr. Tyler asked how you impact sediment that has high levels of phosphorus positively. McComas said almost all lakes in town have a high level of phosphorus in the sediments; the challenge is to keep it in the sediment. In Round Lake not much phosphorus is getting into the water column. He said there are chemicals that can be added that tie it up. Mr. Tyler asked if high concentrations of carp can stir up the sediments and release sediments. McComas said they can. Stovring asked if other fish could cause the same problems. McComas said bullheads can cause problems, along with high densities of blue gills and sunfish. Stormwater ponds can have high densities of minnows that feed in the sediments also. Chacko asked what the goal of water quality policy would be and what would the guidelines mean. McComas said the goal would be to improve the lakes to meet state standards. Conservation Commission January 13, 2009 Page 4 McComas said another water quality measurement factor we work with is E. coli as an indicator of waste products. The City of Eden Prairie has an on-going program for goose control, and most of the E. coli in Round Lake comes from geese. Chacko thanked Mr. McComas for his presentation. B. Walter Eshenaur, SRF Consulting — Lower Pumatory Creek Streambank Stabilization Project Stovring introduced Walter Eshenaur Ryan Jones from SRF Consulting. They have been working with the City on streambank stabilization and erosion correction projects in the Lower Minnesota River Watershed District(LMRWD). Walter Eshenaur gave a PowerPoint presentation about the Lower Purgatory Creek streambank stabilization project (Study Area 4). He said for the last year and a half they have been working with the City to look at four different areas. Two of the areas are on Riverview Road West (Study Areas 1 & 2), one is on Riverview Road East (Study Area 3) and one is on Purgatory Creek (Study Area 4). He said the two areas on Riverview Road West are deep gullies cut from culverts under the road. The Riverview Road East area is along the Minnesota River bluffs where part of the road has been washed into the river. Only Study Area 4 has been completed at this time. Mr. Eshenaur reviewed the Purgatory Creek project, noting it goes through the floodplain to the Minnesota River. The area was quite degraded and in need of stabilization. He said they analyzed the area and determined it has organic, sandy soils sensitive to disturbance. He said there are three alternatives for stabilization: engineered; vegetative; and bioengineered. They chose to use vegetated geo-grids to stabilize it and also constructed J-hooks that cause eddies in the creek. Ryan Jones, SRF Consulting, reviewed the construction activities that were started in late October last year. Mr. Tyler commented this looked like an immense project and asked who sponsored the construction. Stovring said LMRWD did a survey to look for problems, and they gave the City a map of all the areas found and four areas were selected for work. The LMRWD contributes 50% of the project costs. Mr. Tyler asked what the cost of the project was. Stovring said construction was $98,000 for the Purgatory Creek area project, and the feasibility studies were approximately $20,000 each. Mr. Tyler asked how big the area was. Eshenaur said they stabilized 450 feet of the creek. Mr. Tyler asked how many sites like this exist. Stovring said we have budgeted money annually through 2011 to do projects like this. Mr. Tyler asked if there are any other joint projects with watershed districts. Stovring noted there are none currently ongoing, but one is planned for Lower Riley Creek, which is listed as an impaired water by the State. The City has already completed one section of creek stabilization, just south of Pioneer Trail on Riley Creek in conjunction with a development there. The District did not contribute to this project. Conservation Commission January 13, 2009 Page 5 Jester said this looks like what she has seen in other floodplains, the root cause is the change in hydraulics because of development. She said the City is working towards infiltrating more stormwater. Eshenaur said there are other watershed districts metro- wide that are requiring new development to infiltrate large quantities of water. Stovring said this project was done because the creek was threatening the wetland in that location. Mr. Tyler asked if there are other similar projects on the horizon. Stovring said she is writing an RFP for Lower Riley Creek right below the Hennepin Village development. However, this would be done when the area is developed to reduce disturbance. Eshenaur reviewed the area where Riverview Road East collapsed. He said the road is still used for foot traffic, but has been abandoned as a road since the late 1980's. The area is extremely steep and unstable, and there is no vegetation on the slope. He presented aerial photographs presenting a historic review of the erosion in that area. He noted there are springs in the area so there is lots of groundwater within the banks. He reviewed potential ideas on how to stabilize the area. Jester asked what size rock would have to be used to stabilize it. Eshenaur said they would use 15-24" rock. Jester then asked where the energy of the river will be moved, and if it would just move to the next bank downstream. Eshenaur said it doesn't seem to do that. There is a concentration of groundwater in this area. They looked at building a trail along the top of this area. A discussion followed about the construction details and the cost of the stabilization project. Stovring said we need to take the study to the LMRWD to see what they want to do. We would look at collaborative opportunities to fund this. The big issue is safety, and the question is what will happen in the future if we don't stabilize this area. Chacko thanked Mr. Eshenaur and Mr. Jones for their presentations. III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chacko suggested the commission not go into the charter draft discussion tonight because two of the commission members are absent, but rather do some work on the budget proposal. MOTION: Mosman moved, seconded by Jester, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 4-0. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Commission Meeting held December 9, 2008 Chacko said the word "recycling" should be changed to "recycled" in the last sentence of Item V.B. on Page 5. MOTION: Jester moved, seconded by Daniels, to approve the minutes of the December 9, 2008 meeting as amended. Motion carried 3-0-1, with Jester abstaining. Conservation Commission January 13, 2009 Page 6 V. REPORTS FROM STAFF VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR VIL OLD BUSINESS A. Budget Proposal for Enemy Conservation Programs Stovring said City Manager Neal and Public Works Director Dietz responded to Mr. Daniel's proposal. They both liked the proposal,but they want some more thought put into it and would like a couple of examples as to the types of rebates proposed. They suggested we try to come up with an estimate of how much an average homeowner would save. Mosman said she liked the idea of starting smaller and growing. Mosman said there is such a national awareness of energy conservation and that the proposal builds off what we have been doing with McKinstry for the City's energy savings. Jester agreed that we need to tie it into the 20-40-15 program and what the City is doing with that. Daniels said in his proposal he hesitated to tie the Commission to a certain program, and we didn't specify a certain amount of money to put into the program. Stovring noted Mr. Dietz said the City Council will want to know more details on what this will cover so they know we thought about how much time will have to be spent on it and where the money will go. Chacko suggested we use the water conservation fund as a model and asked who put time into that when it was implemented. Stovring said that came from the previous Environmental Commission. Chacko asked if they had oversight. Stovring said staff looks at the program each year to evaluate how it should be spent. Stovring said we need to give examples of what we would do with the money. Chacko volunteered to help write up the proposal for a programmable thermostat rebate, to include the information requested by Mr. Dietz. Mosman thought it would be helpful to have choices on different materials, and she thought it would be good to have the programmable thermostat, insulation or others for the rebate. She thought it should be open to anyone in the community. Stovring said if we do furnaces the question is what would be a reasonable furnace rebate. Chacko said they can cost about$5,000. Mosman noted the price goes up a lot for efficiency. Chacko said there are rebates and tax incentives available through CenterPoint and the federal government so we would be entering another area where there is money already. Stovring thought the $100 appliance rebate makes it more likely that individuals will select Energy Star models. Stovring said we should finalize this at the next meeting. Chacko said he will provide something on quantifying benefits. Daniels said we need to come up with one good example. Conservation Commission January 13, 2009 Page 7 Mark Enochs said his company, CH2M Hill, is building a solar house and they have solar starter kits. Stovring said there is a need for good residential, small-scale solar projects. Mr. Enochs said there was a Solar City national tour this year with 50 stops in Minnesota. He said they have a three-panel system where you can watch the savings accumulate on a computer monitor. Chacko asked what the cost would be. Mr. Enochs said they haven't determined that yet;however, solar has come down in price. He said they put this up last year,but they haven't got everything figured out yet. Stovring said we might look at sources such as solar or residential wind turbines. Mr. Enochs said in the past two years his engineering firm has been working with the City of San Francisco to implement a solar mapping function. You can use it to click on an aerial image of your area, and it will automatically calculate the amount of solar energy it would take to run the building as well as the cost of the solar panels needed. Mosman asked about having different speakers at our meetings on topics such as wind and solar energy. Mr. Enochs noted his company does wind energy too. Jester thought we might have workshops on these topics. Stovring said workshops run about$500-$1,500. Daniels said he would include that as a good example of the education piece. Jester asked what the deadline is for getting comments to Ms Stovring. Stovring said she would need them by the end of the month. VIII. NEW BUSINESS IX. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS /HANDOUTS/COMMUNICATIONS Daniels said he got the name of the company that is doing the Coon Rapids recycling. The contact there is Jon Stein with Consolidated Container Company. Mark Enochs said he serves as an engineer for the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District. He noted the board meets the first Wednesday of every month and extended an invitation to Commission members to attend. He said they are implementing projects in Chanhassen and Eden Prairie to reduce phosphorus. At the next meeting they will present information on six lakes they have been monitoring in the District. X. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Pax Christi Environmental Ministry Program—February 8, 2009 Chacko noted the Pax Christi Fair will occur before the next meeting. Daniels said he had a trial run at the High School Science Fair, and there were 10-12 people who stopped by the tables even though the tables were not located in a high traffic area. He invited anyone who wanted to join him at the Pax Christi event. Chacko said he would be at the event. Mosman asked if there would be room for the packaging display she put together that shows six months worth of packaging. Daniels asked her to send him a photo of the display. Conservation Commission January 13, 2009 Page 8 B. Clean Enemy Resource Teams (CERTS) Conference—February 10— 11, 2009 Brian Flanagan noted the Solar City project was in the Sun Newspaper. He asked how to get involved with the CERTS organization. Mosman said she is going to the conference in St. Cloud so she will learn more about the group. Stovring said we heard about the group, and this is a relatively inexpensive conference. C. Chamber of Commerce Yard & Garden Expo—March 21, 2009 at Grace Church Chacko asked about the plans for the Expo. Stovring said we have three speakers and eight booths,but the vendors we offer booth space to must be non-profits. Jester asked if we are still looking for speakers for the Expo. Stovring said we have arranged for Fresh Energy, Fortin Consulting and Rain Xchange to speak. Jester asked if we will have a recycling booth at the Expo like we did last year. Stovring said we have two table spaces and she thought there would be room on the tables for that. Nine-Mile Creek Watershed and Friends of Birch Island are trying to get spaces on either side of us. D. Infiltration Seminar,April 16, 2009 at 6:30 pm—Heritage Rooms V11 Daniels asked what the cost of this seminar will be. Stovring replied the speaker is $200, and she is ordering more raingarden books for $250. E. Rain Barrel Workshop—June 27, 2009 at Staring Lake Outdoor Center XI. NEXT MEETING A. February 10, 2009 XII. ADJOURNMENT Chair Chacko adjourned the meeting at 9:25 PM.