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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 04/14/2009 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,APRIL 14, 2009 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Heritage Room I & II 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester (Chair), Dan Trebil (Vice-Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Ravi Jaiswal, Geneva MacMillan, Greg Olson STAFF: Leslie A. Stovring, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Vallari Ajgaonkar, Alexandra(Alex) Baumhardt, Michael (Paco) Caughill I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. Caughill was absent. A. New Member Welcome Jester welcomed the new Commission members and asked everyone to give their name and why they were interested in serving on the Conservation Commission. After everyone introduced themselves Jester noted that this is the last meeting for the Student Representatives. She thanked them for their service. II. PUBLIC MEETING—NPDES STORMWATER PERMIT UPDATE Stovring discussed how the Conservation Commission is listed as the review body in the City's Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). The City of Eden Prairie wrote a SWPPP in 2003 that included a number of Best Management Practices (BMPs). In 2006 the City was also listed as one of 30 cities required to write a Nondegradation Plan. One of the BMPs for the stormwater permit is an annual Public Meeting. This meeting is intended to satisfy this requirement. There are two phases for the Storm Water Permit Program. Phase I includes the larger metropolitan areas, including Minneapolis and St. Paul. Phase II is for suburban areas and other larger outstate cities. As a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4), the City must file a permit application with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Stovring said an important part of the program is education and public outreach, and she reviewed some of the BMPs that are used to accomplish that. This can include utility bill inserts, educational pieces on the City's web site, new resident packets, workshops, multi- media productions, an annual Public Meeting and an annual submittal to the City Council. In addition we provide opportunities for the public to play an active role in the development Conservation Commission April 14, 2009 Page 2 and implementation of the storm water program. This includes development of a rebate program for shoreland restoration and rain garden construction. The City also coordinates educational activities as well as water quality improvement projects with other agencies and organizations such as the League of Minnesota Cities, the three Watershed Districts in the city, and the Metropolitan Council. Stovring said the third part of the program is to address the issues of illicit discharge detection and elimination. This includes educating City employees and the public about the hazards and potential impacts to aquatic, wildlife and human health associated with illegal and improper disposal of wastes. To address these issues the storm sewer system is being mapped and pond inspections are conducted to detect and reduce illegal and/or improper connections. The annual City Clean up Day and other measures are also used to provide the public opportunities to help reduce illicit waste. Construction site runoff controls are the fourth part of the program and are designed to provide erosion controls and solid and hazardous waste management on construction sites of 1 acre or more. Post-construction runoff control is also addressed to make sure the pollutant reduction measures remain effective after development. Stovring said another part of the program addresses infiltration of stormwater, to help with water quality treatment and volume control. For example, the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District (NMCWD) requires that one inch of water stay on the site through infiltration or reuse of stormwater. She noted incorporation of infiltration practices will be a very big effort in the future. Jester asked how quickly this will become a requirement for the City. Stovring said they are considering starting revision of the City Code this year to standardize the requirements across the entire city. Right now, City Code only requires a developer to prove they cannot provide for infiltration of stormwater and then we work with them to determine what can be done within our guidelines. Jester asked if the Nine Mile Creek requirement is the standard for the whole District. Stovring said that was correct. Stovring stated that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is currently looking at requiring this one-inch standard also. Jester asked if this applies to development or redevelopment. Stovring said it applies to both. Stovring said there are requirements for Pollution Prevention and Good Housekeeping practices for municipal operations, many of which the City was already doing before the permit program began. In 2007 the City purchased a new street sweeper and uses that year round. This winter the City has discontinued use of sand on streets. The City also has a large number of sand sumps to collect sand. She said the sand collected in those is then disposed of or used to build items such as berms. Jester asked if it can be reused on streets. Stovring said it cannot as it gets ground up and becomes to fine as well as contaminated with other materials. Jaiswal asked if it could be used in concrete blocks. Stovring said not that she knows of. Stovring said we also are required to inspect our structural pollution control devices; 20% of the outfalls and basins that receive stormwater; and all stockpiles, storage and material handling areas. Conservation Commission April 14, 2009 Page 3 Stovring said wellhead protection requirements were added in response to concerns that the storm water pollutants could potentially migrate into the ground water. As part of those requirements we have a well sealing/abandonment program, and will look at existing septic systems and will encourage those be abandoned and the property connect to City utilities. One additional layer to the program was addition of the requirement to complete a Nondegradation Plan. Eden Prairie was one of 30 cities selected to do a nondegradation analysis to determine if pollutant loading since 1988 is significant. As part of that analysis, we evaluated turbidity, phosphorus and volume of water. She said we were just notified that the PCA has completed review of the loading assessments and that they will be setting up meetings with the individual cities to go over the results and provide recommendations. Olson asked how salt impacts the water. Stovring said there is research being done on how to use salt while reducing impacts to the environment. Eden Prairie now goes out before a storm to pre-wet the streets, which uses less salt than when we were mixing it with sand. Jester noted they have an educational forum on salt use every year because chloride is very toxic to aquatic life. Stovring said what it comes down to is a balancing act between public safety and environmental concerns. Jaiswal asked about the phosphorus evaluation. Stovring said phosphorus is a nutrient that not only helps grass grow, but also algae and aquatic weeds. She noted that most lawns do not need additional phosphorus in Minnesota. State law now requires that phosphorus fertilizer only be used on new lawns or where a soil test indicates it is needed. Jester thanked Ms Stovring for her presentation. III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Jester added Item VII. B. Report on City Council Action. MOTION: Daniels moved, seconded by MacMillan, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 7-0. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Commission Meeting held March 10, 2009 Stovring said she checked with Kitty Porta, and only the Commission members who attended the March 10 meeting should vote to approve the minutes. The remaining will need to abstain from the vote. MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Jester, to approve the minutes of the March 10, 2009 meeting. Motion carried 3-0-4, with Brown, Jaiswal, Olson and Trebil abstaining. Conservation Commission April 14, 2009 Page 4 V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Chamber of Commerce Springy Expo Stovring said over 1,400 people attended the Expo and the speakers she spoke with were happy with the number of people who attended their presentations. Jester noted it was a beautiful day for the event and said she and Commissioner Daniels set up and manned a booth that focused on recycling and alternative energy. She said they talked to a lot of people and many of them were very interested in these topics. B. "Waterosity"—Landscape Arboretum Stovring said she received more information on this event which is scheduled for July 11 and 12. She said the Landscape Arboretum is promoting water quality with this event. They called about our storm water program and asked if the Commission could provide a booth at the event that talks about our storm water and water quality programs. They said it would not have to be done on both days. Jester said she would like to commit and then see who would be able to be there. Stovring said she will not be able to be there due to a family commitment. For the benefit of the new Commission members, Jester noted in the past Commissioners have volunteered at City events to promote the Conservation Commission and environmental issues. Jester said if we sign up we will need to be there and man it. MacMillan asked if we could sign up for it and then cancel later if no one was available on either day. Stovring said she will put it on the agenda for next month and will provide more information on the event to Commission members. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. Welcome to New Members (See Item I.A.). B. Street Sweepinp,/Sprins! Hydrant Flushin! Jester said someone at the Expo came up to our booth to ask why the hydrant flushing happens before street cleaning and if the water from the hydrant flushing could be used to sweep the streets. Stovring replied they usually start the street sweepers a couple of days before the hydrant flushing, and most of the streets are swept before the hydrant flushing is done. They are not always in sync as the hydrant flushing is done by the Utility Department and the sweeping by the Street Department. Trebil asked if the sumps catch everything. Stovring said they catch sand and debris but not much of the finer, silty material. Conservation Commission April 14, 2009 Page 5 VII. OLD BUSINESS A. Future Joint Meetings Stovring said a joint meeting with the Parks & Recreation Commission has been set for Monday, August 3, and that will replace our regular August meeting. She said we need to let them know what agenda items we want for the meeting in addition to native landscaping for the parks. Jester suggested an item on rain gardens and demonstrations for paver use. She thought we could educate each other on how we can be more effective in our own areas. She said at the City Council workshop there was a suggestion we work with a couple of different commissions to promote activities such as water conservation, native landscaping and water quality improvements. For example, Council Member Case suggested the Commission work to discourage excessive lawn watering and encourage native landscaping with citizens, starting with City property. MacMillan suggested an item on recycling receptacles. Stovring said they are currently looking at how to incorporate recycling back into the park system. Jaiswal asked about the wind energy source mentioned earlier. Daniels said Xcel Energy has a program regarding wind energy. Brown said the last she heard they had a waiting list but had no wind capacity. Daniels said last October they were supposed to come on line with additional capacity. Daniels said he would like to have an overview of what they are doing in the Conservation Areas. Jester said she knows that they are burning in the Conservation Areas to help control exotic species. Daniels said they are trying to bring back some of the areas to native plants. Jester thought we should also have a joint meeting with the Planning Commission. There is a lot of impact on the environment with redevelopment or development issues and the commission can provide guidance for the planning process. She said we got clear direction from the City Council that they do not want any more commissions directly involved in the planning process. She thought we could develop a list of best management practices the Planning Commission can suggest and recommend to developers in the City. Stovring said one item that could also be added would be energy conservation. Stormwater management is addressed through City Code and the update to this code would strengthen these requirements. Jester asked if we changed the code requiring asphalt or concrete driveways. Stovring said we have. Jester said we should send the work plan for the 2009 meetings to the new Commission members. We plan to evaluate green building codes within the metropolitan area and develop a plan to forward to the City Council. She thought we could take a look at other cities to see what they are doing with green building codes. Conservation Commission April 14, 2009 Page 6 Stovring said we could talk to Kevin Schmieg about that at the next meeting. Jester said even if we don't meet with the Planning Commission before the fall we could still work on the best management practices we would like to see implemented. She asked if any Commission members would like to research green building codes on the web to see what our neighboring cities have done. Stovring suggested we wait until we talk to Kevin Schmieg next month because he will know where we can start looking and what would work or not work in Eden Prairie. B. Report on City Council Actions Stovring said our Work Plan was approved and the ordinance goes in for second reading on April 21. There were no comments on first reading. It has to be published and then it will be in effect by the end of the month. We can take a look at it at the next meeting. Jester said she would like the new members to have a copy of the ordinance that revises the role and responsibilities of the Conservation Commission. Jester asked Ms Stovring about the status of the memo regarding the budget that Mr. Chacko and Ms Stovring sent to the Council. Stovring said the budget will go through the Budget Advisory Commission before it goes anywhere else. That process for the 2010 budget starts soon. The amount requested was $13,500 which was to get a little money to start with the rebates. She noted we are out of money in the appliance rebate program. Brown asked about the Recycle Bank program for recycling. Stovring said it is a coupon program through Allied Waste that involves receipt of coupons based on the weight of items recycled. VIII. NEW BUSINESS IX. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS /HANDOUTS/COMMUNICATIONS X. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Infiltration Seminar,April 16, 2009 at 6:30 pm—Heritage Rooms VII Stovring said there are about 12 people signed up for the seminar on Thursday. Minnetonka will encourage those signed up at their seminar to come to Eden Prairie as they cancelled their seminar. B. Eden Prairie Clean Up—Saturday,June 21, 2009 Stovring said she did not think we need volunteers for this event at this time. C. Rain Barrel Workshop—June 27, 2009 at Staring Lake Outdoor Center Jester asked if there have been any signups for this. Stovring said she didn't know. Conservation Commission April 14, 2009 Page 7 D. Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources Joint Meeting—August 3, 2009 (This will be in place of our regular August meeting) XI. NEXT MEETING A. May 12, 2009 Jester asked when the SWPPP will be presented to the City Council. Stovring said it would be presented in May or June as it is due by June 30th. Jaiswal asked if there are any studies on alternative forms of energy for our area. Stovring said Hennepin County has an energy conservation task force and they have been active in this. She said Eden Prairie also has the 20-40-15 program in place where we work with a consultant to make our facilities and fleet more energy efficient. There is also new technology being developed as the needs for energy conservation and efficiency become more of a demand. For example, one new technology is the use of solar balloons as they provide a larger surface for solar absorption in a smaller footprint. Stovring said they are like metallic balloons but are eight feet in diameter and can be used to power a building. Jaiswal asked about wind turbines. Stovring said we are trying to work these into the energy conservation program but they were too expensive at the time they were evaluated. Brown asked if there are ways we can talk to the School District about this information. Stovring said our consultant has been in discussions with the School about this and that the consultant thinks there are additional things they can do cost- effectively. Jester said they have been very impressed with the consultant when they presented to us. Jaiswal asked what we do about the algae in lakes and ponds. Stovring said the City and the Watershed Districts do work together on water quality improvement projects. For example, the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District is currently working on Round Lake, Mitchell Lake and Lake Riley. Jaiswal asked what is done to control algae. Stovring said it is a combination of treating stormwater inputs, treating the water to inhibit algae growth or to pull phosphorus out of the water to bind it in the sediments. The City has also conducted a number of lake studies that are on the City's website if anyone would like to read about the quality of the individual lakes. XI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Daniels, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 7- 0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 8:30 PM.