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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 01/11/2011 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JANUARY 11, 2011 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Geneva MacMillan, Prashant Shrikhande STAFF: Regina Herron, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary Leslie Stovring, Environmental Coordinator Karen Kurt, Human Resources Manager STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Joshua Auerbach and Rachel Wood I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Olson was absent. Herron said Ravi Jaiswal has resigned from the Commission. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Stovring added Item V.B. Classes and Item V.C. Utility Bill Insert. Brown added Item VII.B. Bag Fees. Daniels added Item VII.C. Troubled Waters, Item VILD. Letter to Eden Prairie News, and Item VILE. Jeff Strait's Idea Regarding Buckthorn. MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Brown, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the December 14, 2010 Meeting MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Brown, to approve the minutes of the December 14, 2010 meeting. Motion carried 5-0. IV. SPEAKER A. Minnesota GreenStep Cities Presentation—Karen Kurt Ms Kurt said she and two other students in the graduate program for Mankato State at Edina completed a project on sustainability. She presented a PowerPoint her group developed giving an overview of their project. The first section of the report dealt with climate change and our future. She noted over 50% of our global population lives in cities, and the cities produce over 80% of the emissions. The second section Conservation Commission January 11, 2011 Page 2 of the report reviewed the GreenStep Cities program that has best practices in five categories: Buildings and Lighting; Land Use; Transportation; Environmental Management; and Economic and Community Development. She said the program is sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Cities voluntarily enroll in the program and, at this time, go through a four step process. Step 1 is a resolution passed by the City Council regarding participation in the program and the posting of information on the GreenStep Cities website. Step 2 requires at least half of the best practices to be adopted, and Step 3 requires all of the best practices to be in place. She said the requirements for Step 4 status will be released in 2011. Shrikhande asked about the incentive for the program. Kurt said it is a recognition program that touches a huge part of city operations. Kurt reviewed the requirements for the Building and Lighting category and noted that Eden Prairie did not meet the requirements for public buildings, new green buildings and building reuse. She said they recommended that the City enter the monthly energy usage in the Minnesota B3 database so that we would meet the requirements for public buildings. In the category of Transportation, Kurt said the City would need to adopt a street policy that addresses street trees and storm water and modify the street standards accordingly. She reviewed the items for the Environmental Management category that Eden Prairie does now and those that would need additional work. She said the only requirement Eden Prairie met in the Economic and Community Development category was the local food item. Kurt said Eden Prairie does a lot of good things even though we haven't participated in the GreenStep program, and the City could probably attain Step 2 status just with things we are doing currently. Jester asked if she got a sense from City staff that this would be something they would be willing to work towards. Kurt said her meetings with staff were scheduled without a lot of preparation, so she didn't know if they were able to absorb the big picture. Jester asked Ms Stovring if she had a sense if Mr. Dietz and other staff members would get on board. Stovring said she thought they would and completing Step 2 would be relatively easy. Step 3 is a goal that is within reach. She said we need to know what the minimum requirements are and formalize it. Jester said it is good to know we are close, and she was surprised that it seems easier than she thought it would be. Stovring said there are more items that would have to be done if the City goes through the whole program that would be more difficult. Kurt said Step 4 is coming in the future, and there may well be others. Jester said the next step to move forward would be a formal resolution from the City Council. She asked what level of information they would need and if this presentation would suffice. Stovring thought Mayor Tyra-Lukens would be amenable to doing this, and she thought the resolution could be done fairly easily. Conservation Commission January 11, 2011 Page 3 She suggested that one possible way to get the information to the city council would be to include information on the program in a Friday packet, which would include a memo to the Council. Jester said we could take more information to them at our joint meeting in October also. The consensus of the Commission was that this was something the City should do. Jester said we reserved space in our work plan for this, and it appears to be pretty minimal to get started. She noted she would like to see us move into the higher steps. Daniels asked if we have a sample resolution. Kurt thought there is one on the GreenStep Cities website. MOTION: Brown moved, seconded by Shrikhande, to pursue participation in the GreenStep Cities program as a commission and move forward to meet the requirements of the program as outlined. Motion carried 5-0. Kurt said she could contact the individual who coordinates the GreenStep Cities program and ask him to come out and talk more about it. Jester asked if we need more information from the MPCA or from other cities in order to complete the next step. Shrikhande said he would like more information on which cities have completed the required steps. Kurt said the Minnesota examples are shown, but she was not sure where the national examples could be found as she did not work on that portion of the report. Stovring noted this is a Minnesota program. Jester volunteered to contact the MPCA person to get started and get a sample resolution. She will bring some information back to the Commission next month after she has taken a closer look at Ms Kurt's report and knows more about the process. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Nine Mile Creek Water Resource Center—Project Status Herron said the Development Agreement for the project was signed by the Watershed District and will go to the City Council for second reading on January 18. B. Classes—Stovrini! Stovring said we will have Sustainability, Reducing Waste in the Home and two workshops on green landscaping at the Expo on March 19. On April 21 Community Ed will repeat the Living with Shoreland workshop with Greg Thompson. On April 23 Val Cunningham will talk about birdscaping. There will be a garden workshop, possibly on May 4. C. Utility Bill Insert--Stovrini! Stovring said the insert is almost finished. Jester asked how those who don't receive bills by mail will be able to see this insert. Stovring said the information is posted Conservation Commission January 11, 2011 Page 4 online. She noted she is concerned that they may not be able to continue using utility bills to send out environmental newsletters. The concern is that she is required to get information out on a regular basis for both stormwater and recycling education and was unsure what other alternatives would be available. For example, the number of hits on the stormwater page on the city website has not been adequate to meet the permit requirements for stormwater education. She said she will send a copy of the insert to Ms Herron when it is done. Jester said we talked about including a reference in the newsletter to sign up for online billing because those who do that can evaluate their historic water usage. Stovring said she would see if she could fit it in. Jester said we also discussed making sure the fact that bills can be paid online is advertised on the bill itself. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Poster Ideas—Brown Brown said we discussed themes for the posters: water, recycling and plastic bags. She said the Communications Department wants to do just two posters. Jester said she would like to firm up what we will do for our booths and what information we want to present. She noted the Expo is scheduled for March 19, the same day as the Prairie View carnival. She said in the past we have done one booth on energy, and the other has been for recycling and native landscaping. She asked Mr. Daniels if he will be available to be at the Expo to do the booth on energy. Daniels said he would. Shrikhande suggested doing something on GreenStep Cities. Daniels thought that would be a little premature at this point. Jester thought it would probably be a great thing for next year once we are into that program. Wood asked if the Commission still wanted the Tree Huggers Club to do the interactive display. She said they are ready to go and their administrator thought it would be a great idea. Jester said the Commission would do the display materials and would give the students some talking points. Wood said they will have the students available for the event. Shrikhande suggested using the same interactive display as the consultant used. It displays the Watershed District with land features, and water from spray bottles is used to show how water infiltrates. Jester thought that would be an easy solution. Herron said she can check with Andrew Sullivan about using the display. Brown asked what the posters should be. Jester thought we should stick with storm water because of using the interactive display and also promote recycling. She said the Clean Water Minnesota organization has good materials. Conservation Commission January 11, 2011 Page 5 Jester asked if we would include raingardens. Daniels said he has the display rain barrel. Jester was not sure the barrel would fit into the space. Daniels said he usually brings two tables that can be put at the sides in addition to the table included with the booth. Brown said we would need one table for the interactive display. Jester said we will set up on Friday evening. She and Ms Brown will work with the Communications Department on the posters. Brown suggested Mr. Shrikhande could also help with the storm water poster. B. Bay Fees—Brown Brown said Washington, D.C., is the only city that currently has a non-reusable bag fee in place. They use revenue from the fee d to clean up the Anacostia River. She said there has been a significant reduction in the use of plastic bags in D.C. since the fee was implemented, and they believe 50% of the bags have been removed from the river because of the clean-up efforts. She said other countries have been more progressive in this area. The City of San Francisco has banned plastic bags, and several areas are considering a ban on non-reusable bags. She said she has not yet been able to get a copy of the D.C. ordinance,but she did get copies of the bans put in place in Westport, CT and Brownsville, TX. Jester said she wondered if there are similar problems here that we can point to like the bags in the Anacostia River. Brown said one of the problems is that people put things into plastic bags and that doesn't allow it to decompose. Jester asked if that means we are not supposed to be using plastic in garbage. Brown said we are supposed to be using compostable, biodegradable bags. Brown said the American Chemical Council has sued some cities about their regulations. She said we need to get our information right so we can counter the arguments. Jester said this is not an easy issue to tackle. Brown said retailers have embraced it because of the reduction in the number of bags used, and WalMart is looking into banning plastic bags. The consensus was to get more information on cities that impose fees or ban non- reusable bags. C. Troubled Waters—Daniels Daniels said the movie, Troubled Waters, was shown in Minneapolis at a couple of theaters. It is an hour-long documentary about the effect of agricultural runoff on the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. It defines the problem and shows the potential solutions for the problem. D. Letter to Eden Prairie News—Daniels Conservation Commission January 11, 2011 Page 6 Daniels distributed copies of a letter he sent to the Eden Prairie News challenging an opponent of global warming. He said he has a PowerPoint presentation on climate change. E. Jeff Strait's Idea Rmardins! Buckthorn—Daniels Daniels said Mr. Strait suggested the City contract to have buckthorn picked up, taken to St. Paul or Burnsville, and burned as energy. He thought this sounds like one of those really good ideas that will need to be promoted. One of the obvious issues with this would be the cost. He said he will keep the Commission informed about it. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS Wood said there is nothing new. The Tree Huggers Club has not yet had their first meeting of the year. IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Herron said there is nothing new from last time. B. Ideas for Life in the Prairie Newsletter Jester said it will be interesting to see how that evolves if Ms Stovring doesn't have the ability to do billing inserts in the future. C. Website Content Herron said she added the work plan to the website. Jester said we should put something about the Expo and the workshops out on the website. Daniels thought we might put something for kids on the websites similar to the one on climate change that is on the EPA website. Herron thought we could create a link to their website and to other websites of interest but there is a question of staff time and budget. She noted there are a lot of limitations with interactions on the website. Brown suggested we post factoids every day. Jester thought we might post a survey regarding the GreenStep Cities program. X. NEW BUSINESS A. Pond Management Research and Framework Discussion Herron said this is on the work plan and asked if the Commission would like her to begin by surveying other cities like she did for the pervious paver item. She thought Bloomington has done something similar. Jester thought that sounds good as we need a little more background on this. Conservation Commission January 11, 2011 Page 7 XI. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS A. MN Water Sustainability Framework—Article and PowerPoint Shrikhande said copies of the article in the Star Tribune and the PowerPoint presentation by Deborah Swackhamer were included in the Commission packets. He reviewed the PowerPoint presentation about the framework and noted it is a 25- year plan to protect, conserve and enhance the quantity and quality of the state's groundwater and surface water. Shrikhande said it will be presented at the Minnetonka City Hall on January 22. He asked if anyone on the Commission had contacted the Freshwater Society as we discussed last time. Jester said she had not yet done that. Jester said there is no mandatory regulation in agriculture, and it has been an uphill battle for decades. She asked how we should move forward with the water initiative as there don't seem to be any mandates about this in the GreenStep Cities program. Shrikhande said he hasn't been able to formulate anything. He said there doesn't seem to be incentive to track usage. Places like New York City are introducing automatic tracking where residents can see usage on a more than daily basis. We need to build awareness and tie in the sustainability index but there is no concrete plan. Jester suggested Mr. Shrikhande write an article on this for the Environmental Corner using bullet points and any "shocking statistics" available. Daniels said we need to stay on top of water sustainability because he believes we can have a strong influence on this now that our State Senator and State Representative have moved up in the legislature. Jester thought contact with the state representatives should be made by the City Council, and she urged Commission members to be cautious if we speak to our representatives as a person serving on the Commission. Daniels said he would like to keep this item on the agenda and hear reports about what is going on at every meeting. Shrikhande said he will follow up on some of the points we discussed in earlier meetings. We talked about organizing around a campaign to feature water conservation. Jester thought we should try to find a business to highlight. Brown said she thought about that in connection with GreenStep Cities, and we might highlight what certain businesses are doing to conserve water and other things. Jester thought Nine Mile Creek Watershed District might have a good handle on businesses or organizations in the area that are doing the right thing now. Herron said she forwarded the idea to highlight a business to the Communications Department, and they said we needed to talk about things the City is doing. There will be a change in leadership with the new City Manager and she can bring it up again. We also have an Economic Development Manager who does "meet and greets" with businesses around the City. Conservation Commission January 11, 2011 Page 8 Daniels thought we could work in conjunction with the Eden Prairie Chamber where they would do the highlighting of the business. Jester thought that would be one avenue to work. She thought we might want to find a speaker to give us information about groundwater and water conservation. Shrikhande said we might contact the Minnesota Water Resource Center. Jester said we also mentioned the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) at the last meeting. XII. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Saturday,January 22—Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework (Minnetonka City Hall) B. Saturday, March 19—Chamber of Commerce Expo (Grace Church) Jester reminded the Commission members that we will be setting up for the Expo on Friday night. Daniels said the Pax Christi Eco Fair will be held on February 29. Shrikhande said he would like to join Mr. Daniels for that event. XIII. NEXT MEETING C. Tuesday, February 8, 2011 XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Brown moved, seconded by MacMillan, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:20 PM.