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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 05/11/2010 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2010 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Ravi Jaiswal, Geneva MacMillan, Prashant Shrikhande STAFF: Regina Herron, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary Leslie Stovring, Environmental Coordinator STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Gretchen Askew, Julia Wang, Stephanie Korman GUESTS: Steve McComas, Blue Water Science Scott Connell; Erin Connell I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Jaiswal, Askew, Wang and Korman were absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Jester said Leslie Stovring has offered to speak about the pond inventory and storm water pollution as Item III.B. MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by MacMillan, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 6-0. III. SPEAKER A. Lake Monitoring Report—Steve McComas, Blue Water Science Steve McComas, Blue Water Science, gave a Power Point report on his work on aquatic plants in Duck Lake, Red Rock Lake, Round Lake and Staring Lake. He noted the lakes change over time and showed a slide comparing the water clarity of the four lakes during the summer of 2009 and another showing the levels of phosphorous in each of the lakes. Brown asked if higher levels of phosphorous provide a better chance of growing plant life. McComas said it provides for better growth of algae, as it is the main nutrient that spurs algae growth. He said the goal would be to have low phosphorous levels and good clarity in the lakes Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 2 McComas showed a slide comparing the four lakes with the state's criteria for un- impacted shallow and deep lakes. He noted Round Lake is the only one of the four that is considered a deep lake. Olson asked why the criteria for deep lakes are tighter. McComas said they will have more volume and more dilution, so they should have better water quality. Shrikhande asked what the definition of an un-impacted lake is. McComas said it is a lake that exceeds the criteria established by the state McComas said a good aquatic plant base can lead to good water quality. Duck Lake has a good aquatic plant base. Jester said Duck Lake has a bad odor at times and asked what causes that. McComas said it comes from decaying plants in a shallow lake such as that. He showed slides of the various plant life found in each of the lakes. He noted that Staring Lake has very few submerged plants. He said they believe the main reason for that is because of having too many carp in the lake which keeps submerged aquatic plants from growing. He said they feed on the bottom sediments and uproot plants. They also put nutrients into the water which causes an algae bloom Brown asked if something can be done to counteract the algae blooms. McComas said we try to monitor streams in the watershed and find the source of nutrients. Stovring said this summer we are sampling a pond upstream from Round Lake, the Purgatory Lake Recreation Area and Staring Lake. Brown asked if a homeowner should report a large algae bloom to the City. Stovring said there really is nothing we can do about it,but we will work with homeowners who are interested in treating for algae Olson asked if we have ordinances to curb the use of phosphorous fertilizers. Stovring said it is a state law. Olson asked if the law has had any meaningful influence in reducing the levels of phosphorous. Stovring said the City of Plymouth did some work on that, and they have seen steady improvement. McComas said the law went into effect,but it hasn't been quite long enough to see the full effect. Olson asked how the laws are enforced. Stovring said the problem with the state law is it says people can't use phosphorous fertilizers but it doesn't restrict stores from selling it. The City of Eden Prairie has some restrictions on how much they can be displayed. Jester noted homeowners can use phosphorous fertilizers if they are just starting a lawn or if the lawn needs it Mr. Connell asked if the City could not just remove the carp from the lakes. Stovring said the Watershed District wants to do a carp study on Riley Lake, Lake Ann and Lake Susan and would like to extend the study to Staring. They collect carp, tag them and then release them back. They will monitor them for a couple of years before they would do any removal. Mr. Connell asked if there is some benefit to having them in the lake. Stovring said there isn't, but there is no way to get them all out. Brown asked if the study is making a case for or against carp. Stovring said they want to find their patterns, and the best way to get them out of the lake. Their main goal is the best way to get a lot of fish out all at once. She said Doctor Newman is Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 3 doing a plant restoration project in Lake Susan where they are monitoring fish and are rebalancing the lake. They have fish barriers in place as well. Stovring said the Watershed District is planning a nitrate treatment in Round Lake this summer instead of an alum treatment. They are doing a pilot study to see how the calcium nitrate would work as an alternative to alum. They hope this will be a stronger bond. She said they have finished the pilot study on Mitchell Lake. Jester asked how the study went on Mitchell Lake. Stovring said they the solar bees didn't work and they used an in-line aeration system. She said they are also going to work on Riley Lake and Rice Marsh Lake. Jester asked if they have any plans for impaired lakes. Stovring said the watershed district does not want to do TMDL's until 2014 at which time they will do them for all impaired lakes in the Watershed District. She didn't know if they will look at the Purgatory Creek Watershed at the same time. She said her goal is to collect baseline data so we are ready for 2014. If we start doing storm water permits we will have good history. MacMillan asked if we have any idea this will work. McComas said calcium nitrate is supposed to tie up phosphorous. This is an experiment because we know alum works pretty well. MacMillan asked who makes the decision on what is used. Stovring said the Watershed District do most of the projects. We are just starting to look into what we can do. There have been a lot of studies but we haven't done much work. Stovring said we will look at carp removal in Staring Lake. McComas added we will see if the plants come back in Staring after that has happened. Stovring said Neill Lake has a berm in place to create open water levels. We are going to evaluate water quality there as that runs into Purgatory Creek. Brown thought we might have something like a carp fishing contest in Staring Lake to help educate the community about what is happening there. That way we could get community involvement and draw more attention to the lake and its problems. Stovring said the biggest challenge is to educate the public. McComas said at a lake in Wisconsin they tagged six carp and then offered a$500 prize for each of the tagged carp that were caught. MacMillan asked about the article she read that said storm water is piped under Neill Lake. Stovring said Barr Engineering designed a storm water system that goes all the way from Eden Prairie Center, under Neill Lake, to the marsh area beyond the lake. She didn't know if they did that because of the berm they built there. MacMillan asked how big the pipe is. Stovring thought it is a 24-inch pipe. Jester asked if Mr. McComas has a written report for the 2009 study. McComas said it is on-line. Stovring said we have a lake page on line and could like that. Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 4 B. Pond Inventory and Storm Water—Leslie Stovrini! Stovring said there are two things going on, and the big one is the storm water inventory of storm water ponds, storm water wetlands and rain gardens. Before now we only did a visual inspection,but we have expanded that and will go out, look at them and check the capacity of the ponds. We will check where the natural bottom of the pond was and where it is now in order to know how much it has filled up. If it is 50% full, it needs to be dredged. She said the Watershed District is starting a study to look at the watershed inputs to lakes. She said if we start getting into more projects and studies like this we will need to add to the fund. We will do the study this year and look at what we are going to do next year. We have some storm water treatment capacity we have to replace according to the requirements for the PCA. We need to expand and increase the treatment to replace what we lost down by the river. We have a deadline of 2020 to get the whole city inspected. In 2011 we will finish Staring Lake and do Neill Lake and continue on from there. Olson noted there are numerous studies planned over the next several years and asked if there will be any actions taken pursuant to the study during that time frame. Stovring said we have money for actual projects in our draft budget for 2011. She said the Neill Lake berm was repaired over the winter, and the creek bank stability project was done this winter. Jester asked if we are putting in for any clean water funds. Stovring said we got a small grant from Hennepin County for stream bank stabilization. The Watershed District is not willing to partner for some of the projects. Olson said there is a lot of money involved with this stuff, and they are all pretty valuable. He thought the Commission would be in a position to help the City Council understand and educate the community if we had a better handle on what is going on with this. He was not quite sure how we would go about it,but he saw an opportunity for the Commission to add some value. Stovring said in 2011 our storm water permit will be redone. We will write a new permit with new requirements and this Commission will be a part of that. There are opportunities for other workshops or programs as well. Jester asked if there is any role for us in educating or advising the Council. Stovring said when the permit is rewritten the Commission will need to do that. As the Staring Lake project progresses, the consultant will come to talk to the Commission. We will have to prioritize projects. The PCA likes to see citizen involvement in the planning. Olson asked when we would expect to get a progress report on the Staring plant inventory. Stovring said we will have it by August. She said staff meets with the PCA next week to hammer out the details. We will collect data and then analyze it. MacMillan asked who will collect the data. Stovring said Wenck Associates will do that. Jester asked if we should add the Staring Lake watershed pond inventory to our August schedule. Stovring said we should. Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 5 Stovring said staff is writing up a budget for 2011-2015. We are increasing our current program for shoreland restoration and infiltration, and there are some funds for public education and outreach. Jester said we talked about adding another rebate program for energy conservation to the budget. Stovring said that would not come out of her budget as her budget items have to be related to water. Brown asked if she got her email about the display and if we can afford it. Stovring said she will bring it up and asked what the timeframe is on that. Brown said July 4th is one event, and it would be wonderful to have the display then. We could change out the graphics for the audience we are directing to. Stovring said it will be important to use it for storm water education. IV. MINUTES A. Minutes for the April 13, 2010 meeting MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Olson, to approve the minutes of the April 13, 2010 meeting as published. Motion carried 5-0-1, with Brown abstaining. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Commercial Recyclins! Initiative Code Amendment— Status Herron said this is scheduled for a public hearing at the City Council's May 18 meeting. If approved, the next step would be a second reading at their June meeting. Jester asked about the public hearing at the Planning Commission on April 26. Herron said they recommended approval, and there were no comments from the public. She said the report to the Council gives a timeline of how and when it was brought up and that it has gone to the Planning Commission and the Chamber of Commerce. She said it went to the Planning Commission first because it involved Chapter 11 of the City Code. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. Commission Banquet Presentation Jester said she sent out the draft Power Point on Friday but she didn't get any comments back from the Commission members. She reviewed the presentation and said she would like input on the talking points. Olson thought it would be helpful to say that we are looking for ways to reduce storm water runoff because that is a priority coming down from the state and the Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 6 Watershed District. Brown thought we could expand on our work with other commissions and City staff and the point"Educate" should be expanded. Brown said she liked the idea that we are trying to live up to our name, "Eden Prairie." Shrikhande thought we could expand on what we have done to research best practices in other cities. Jester said she could mention that we are looking at raingardens in Plymouth. VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEMBERS Daniels said his sermon with the theme about the earth was well received. He attended the Eco Fair and thought was also well received. Brown said she was somewhat disappointed that the Living Green Expo was primarily on the "low-hanging fruit." There were a lot of things off topic. It was well attended, and there were a huge number of exhibitors. Jester said the discussion on eating locally was really good. She didn't realize how many locally-grown items are available at Marshalls. Shrikhande asked if we have a list of topics we could present to groups like the Boy Scouts. He thought that would be a good idea so we know what the Commission members are comfortable speaking on. Jester said we haven't given many formal presentations,but several Commission members have presented to church and school groups. MacMillan said the Freshwater Society and the University of Minnesota workshop talked about the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound. Shrikhande said he heard about how the commercial development around Tyson's Corner in Virginia has affected the land use and runoff after all the development occurred around the D.C. beltway. He said they are studying how the aquatic plants are being affected by the pollution in the waters. Brown noted last month's issue of the National Geographic was entirely on water. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Rainwater Garden Research Olson said he didn't think anything was decided at our last meeting when Mr. Dietz commented that our street system is still young enough so there are not any streets planned to be reworked in the next ten years. He thought rain gardens were something we would encourage on residential properties, and there was something about$500 being available for those through the City. Jester said Ms Stovring has used $2000 of the $2500 available for that,but money might be available next year. Brown thought we might do a tour or showcase a different planting every time. Herron said they have a list of commercial or residential projects that have implemented rain gardens. She will take photos and put together a map to share at Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 7 the Planning Commission workshop. Brown thought it would be good if the citizens of Eden Prairie to see that too. Olson asked if there has been any type of evaluation done by staff about the differences rain gardens have made. He thought it would be good to get some statistics about that. Jester said rain gardens are designed to hold rain water so they would have some volume figures. Daniels thought it would be good to have a map showing the location of the rain gardens. Herron said when we present to the Planning Commission in June, we can highlight it. B. Porous Pavers Research Olson said he visited with Hedberg Landscaping and learned how much preparation has to go into the soil for porous pavers. He said it depends on the type of soil you have,but with clay soils about 28 inches of base is required just to prepare the surface so it gets pretty expensive. He thought the concern the City would have about permeable surfaces for driveways would be that the base is prepared properly. Olson said one of the big issues is maintenance because salt and sand accumulate in the cracks and needs to be cleaned out. He said there are different applications but they all cost a lot. He thought we need to do more research with other cities or other vendors to find out more about how it is handled. He didn't think the City is about to take a position that people should do this. Herron said concrete and asphalt are permitted at this time. The question from City staff is maintenance issues and if Minnesota winter conditions can sustain it because of the cycle of freezing and thawing. She said the way the code is written doesn't specify whether it is single family or commercial, and it is all handled the same way. It holds up very well for a residential driveway,but there are different concerns about a high traffic area. Olson asked if the code applies just to driveways. Herron said it is driveways and parking areas but would not apply to walkways or patios. Olson asked what obstacles there would be from the City if a homeowner wanted to put in a permeable surface on their driveway. Herron said right now there is no permit required for it. Jester noted code says you can only put in asphalt or concrete. She said we were just hoping to get it to where it is an option but not necessarily promote it. She noted the City of Chaska got a grant to put in a permeable surfaced parking lot at their government building. She asked if Mr. Olson checked with any neighboring cities. Olson said he talked to Excelsior. He said the Volkswagen dealer in Maplewood has a pervious surface on their parking lot. He thought it is worth continuing to examine information about the requirements for underlying soils and also to have a permeability index. Jester asked if the Commission felt this is something worth pursuing with the Planning Commission. The consensus was it would be worthwhile to have the discussion and push it a little further. Olson said he gets the sense it is a kind of unknown now. Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 8 Herron said about two years ago we reduced our parking standards to five per 1000 square feet of gross floor area. We have allowed developers who can demonstrate they don't need all the required parking to landscape an area and provide proof of parking in that location. Jester asked if that is the same for commercial and business park development. Herron said the idea of proof of parking can apply to commercial, industrial and office,but the parking ratio varies. It is based on land use and the square footage of the building. Olson thought it would be good to survey communities around this area to see what their ordinances contain and if they have any opinions formed about the whole idea. Jester thought we need further research on other ordinances. A discussion followed regarding following up with other communities. Jester thought the research done so far is very valuable, and she thought it would be good to call a couple of cities to get more information for the Planning Commission meeting. Herron said she will provide a copy of our ordinance to Mr. Olson. Shrikhande asked if we are looking at this as a means to preserve water quality. Olson thought it is more of a value in reducing storm water runoff which gets to the issue of water quality. Jester said it also involves reducing the public infrastructure necessary to deal with it. C. Ideas for Life in the Prairie Newsletter Herron said the Communications Department is looking for broad ideas that they could expand upon. They would write the actual article,but we would provide ideas. Jester thought we could use topics we are looking at. MacMillan thought the idea of toxins that got into the water supply is a big issue, and we might want to look at that. Jester thought water quality may have been one of the topics we suggested. Shrikhande thought it is important to make it simple enough in the message to have people understand it. Jester said specific examples of where things are working here would be important, such as the green roof on the dental office. D. Website Content Jester said we found out we can't change the format of our page,but we can add to the list of files. She thought there is an issue with where a search for words such as "environment" takes you on the website and it would be nice to not have to search for words like "conservation" or"environment." Herron said we could put a link to the Conservation Commission page for that. Jester thought it is hard to find the Commission's page from the City's home page. She would like to get a link between the Conservation Commission and water resources. Jester said she thought we reach more people though the newsletter. X. NEW BUSINESS A. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Herron said there is nothing new from the previous month. Conservation Commission Minutes May 11, 2010 Page 9 XI. UPCOMING EVENTS A. May 12, 2010—Commission Banquet B. June 28, 2010—Joint Workshop with Planning Commission Herron noted she did not include the regular meeting for June because of the joint workshop on June 28. Jester asked if the Commission members would want a regular meeting in June in addition to the workshop with the Planning Commission. The consensus was to have a short meeting to prepare for the joint workshop. Jester said we talked about a tour of the water treatment plant. Herron said we haven't worked that out but she will talk with Mr. Dietz about it. Jester asked if it made sense to see a rain garden or two at the June meeting. MacMillan thought we could look at them on our own if we knew where they are located. Daniels said he will get pictures of the Edenvale rain garden to Ms Herron, and it would be good to have some photos of the ones in Plymouth this spring. C. July 4, 2010—City 4th of July Event Jester said we might have our new display for this event. Brown asked what our objective is for this event. Daniels said it is to be there and have a presence. Brown thought we need to think through what we are trying to accomplish in order to be as strategic as possible. Jester thought that is another agenda item for the June meeting. XII. NEXT MEETING A. Tuesday,June 12, 2010 XIII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by MacMillan, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:20 PM.