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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 06/14/2011 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JUNE 14, 2011 7:30 P.M., CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Prashant Shrikhande, Anthony Pini, Kurt Lawton COMMISSION STAFF PRESENT: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Carol Pelzel, Recording Secretary GUEST: Jeanette Leete, Minnesota DNR I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. She explained the Commission had met with the City Council at 7 p.m. thus the reason for the later starting time. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Jester asked that an item be added under Reports of Commission titled West Metro Water Alliance Forum Report by Lawton and Pini. Brown asked that an item be added under that same item titled Non Reusable Bag Fee. Motion: Daniels moved, seconded by Lawton, to approve the agenda as amended. The motion carried 7-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the May 19, 2011 Conservation Commission Meeting Motion: Motion was made by Brown, seconded by Pini, to approve the May 19, 2011, minutes as published. The motion carried 7-0. IV. SPEAKERS A. Jeanette Leete—Minnesota DNR—Groundwater Sustainable Use Shrikhande introduced Jeanette Leete from the Minnesota DNR explaining he met her while attending a Watershed District meeting. Since groundwater management is a subject this Commission has been discussing he felt it would be a good idea to have Leete make a presentation to the Commission. CONSERVATION COMMISSION June 14, 2011 Page 2 Leete explained she works for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and supervises the groundwater resources State-wide. There are a total of 16 employees in this division with more than half of them working on mapping. She further explained that as funding becomes available they have fewer and fewer resources to do the general work. There is some legacy money available and they are moving forward to receiving new money to do the groundwater management planning in specific areas. Over the last two years they have developed some guidance documents which led them to being able to ask for legacy money. Leete reported the major areas of concern identified in the groundwater supply area in general seem to be in the south eastern part of the State. They have layers of very thick rock and sand stone and in sand stone there is no room for water. Water quality is also a concern. In the western part of the state they have limited sand and gravel deposits. Leete reviewed the groundwater supply areas of concern and indicated groundwater use is on the rise. She also presented a map showing impaired streams and lakes and explained another problem they are seeing is the public water supply. There are 700,000 wells throughout the State and their concern is the amount of water being pumped for distribution through the public water system. More water is used in this country than in any other country. Leete reviewed DNR's strategy for making people aware of water usage including encouraging and influencing local engagement as well as getting closer to people who are in control of what happens. Leete said she sees the DNR's role to provide basic data and to keep a household for that data so it does not get lost. They also need to adopt a long-term focus for monitoring and prevention and to evaluate other sources. She said they need to enhance data collection and sharing while simplifying access to that data for everyone. Leete said they need to approach water management in a watershed context and to provide adequate financial and technical resources. Jester said the DNR is working to encourage and influence local engagement at the watershed scale. She asked if at the surface watershed scale if they are working with the Watershed Management organization. Leete said they are not. They do not yet have the funding and these are just ideas. Jester asked if they are able to use local wells as observation wells. Leete said it may not be necessary to drill anymore observation wells but find wells to drill into. They cannot manage what they do not measure. Jester also asked if there are cities that provide data electronically. Leete responded there are a few communities that do. Jester said it would make sense for communities like Eden Prairie to work with the DNR to get the data to them electronically. Leete said as soon as they have a place to store it they would ask for it electronically. Rojas said there is a GIS person on staff and they may already be submitting the data electronically. Shrikhande said Leete has presented a lot of data this evening and asked how they can use this information for some action at the local level. Leete responded aside from storing information, the DNR would not look at the City's groundwater situation unless there was a problem or question to answer. Once a problem is identified the DNR could show the City why there is a problem. If the City decides they want to keep their wetlands, it would be time CONSERVATION COMMISSION June 14, 2011 Page 3 to start looking at water levels and have the local area evaluated. The DNR has some things they care about by law and they will monitor those issues. Jester asked if there is anything specific they can do at the local level. Leete answered people grow up without a basic understanding of groundwater and don't anticipate the impact from pumping from a well. There is a lack of a basic understanding. She said they need to get groundwater models into the schools and to make sure the school teachers have an intuitive feeling for it. The DNR does not have enough people to go to the classrooms to get the information out to the students. Shrikhande said they need to educate people that water is not an unlimited resource. This is something that is hard to connect into their daily life and to translate into their behaviors. Leete explained groundwater is presumed pure and they can't take water from a stream and drink it without worrying. Groundwater deserves special protection. Shrikhande asked how they can become proactive. Leete said Eden Prairie has established water use fees and in some places they encourage people to use rain barrels. Many of those things are laughed at because Minnesota is land of 10,000 lakes and we are supposedly water rich. Jester pointed out the City encourages the use of low water appliances and are in compliance with the DNR water fee structure. The City is at least doing something. She questioned how they can connect people's everyday life with groundwater. Leete said it is education and they need to get it down to the younger people. Daniels said he has heard that groundwater is being contaminated by outside resources. He asked if they are seeing any of that in Minnesota. Leete said the PCA and Health Department are the experts on the areas of contamination and they know what areas there should be a concern. Lawton said it would be great to take all of this information and to be able to tell grade school children that if they wash a car or water the lawn how long it would take to get it into groundwater to use again. They need to make it simple for them to understand. Jester suggested they consider having a groundwater model at their next display. Basically, it is the good graces of the cities to try to get their groundwater consumption under control. Shrikhande said they may want to start water sustainability and people may pick up on that. This is something this Commission should discuss further. V. DISCUSSION A. Recap on Greenstep Cities Presentation to City Council and Next Steps Jester said she felt their presentation to the City Council went well with the outcome of unanimous support from the City Council. She questioned what this Commission's next steps would be. The Resolution did state they would have some steps implemented or a work plan by next June. CONSERVATION COMMISSION June 14, 2011 Page 4 Rojas said they do have a list of best practices for initial implementation. A number of those practices have already been implemented and they have a good start in putting this information on the MPCA website. Rojas said she would send the MPCA a copy of the resolution adopted this evening. One of the things they will talk about later in the agenda is communication strategy and to show that this Commission and City are working on this program. Jester said if there are things this Commission needs to do they are looking to staff to tell them. Rojas said the MPCA is a resource and they want the City to provide input and feedback to them. Jester asked between now and the next meeting they try to identify items this Commission can work on at their meetings or outside of their meeting. She suggested they develop a work plan and discuss this further at a future meeting. VI. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Pond Management Update Rojas said she brought this topic forward to the City Manager and Community DevelopmentDirector to ask for more direction. They indicated they would talk to Council Member Nelson to let her know it has been discussed at the Commission's past meetings such as research and education opportunities. Rojas said she forwarded a link to the City of Chanhassen's website on pond management to the Communication Department as an idea for the Life in the Prairie environmental corner. VII. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. Arts in the Park—Recap Jester reported it was a cold rainy day. Because of the weather, she set the display up for only a couple of hours. VIII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Water Wise E-Newsletter(Sue Brown) Brown explained the City of Chanhassen puts together a WaterWise Conservation Program Weekly newsletter during the summer attempting to make people aware of the water situation. She said she felt this was an interesting program and is something this Commission may want to develop. It is distributed by e-mail for people who sign up. They also do something through their newsletter that is distributed throughout the City. Jester said it would be interesting to receive feedback from Chanhassen about the program. B. West Metro Water Alliance Forum Report (Anthony Pini and Kurt Lawton) CONSERVATION COMMISSION June 14, 2011 Page 5 Pini reported that he and Lawton attended a series of four forums offered by the West Metro Water Alliance on protecting water resources. They found the forums to be very interesting and were three hours in length with each targeted at public entities. Pini said he attended three of the four with the fourth not being held until September. The main thrusts of the presentations were about nutrient management, volume control, water control filtration and infiltration. Pini said they are trying to get policy makers to understand the issues with water quality and volume. He indicated the two things that stood out for him were use of rain gardens and rain gardens in city right-of-ways. Pini said this is something this Commission should discuss further. Jester indicated the Commission has previously had a presentation on this. She said it will be interesting when the City has a new Public Works Director to see if that person has experience with rain gardens. Pini said the rain gardens in the right-of-way will take some study and some planning as well as homeowner's involvement. Pini explained they also talked about organizing people in neighborhoods to do cleanup to protect water quality. They focused on soil cleanup that would keep soil, leaves and debris in the street before it goes into the storm drainage and into the lakes. He suggested they consider having someone from the Water Alliance make a presentation to the Commission on organizing a community cleanup. Lawton said they could also get the Girl Scouts as well as other organizations involved in the cleanup. He explained they are also talking to kindergartners about leaves in the street and cleaning things up they don't want in the water. Pini said the main thing is that such an event would educate people and community involvement raises awareness. Lawton said they need to change people's behavior. Jester said when they get to the component of complete green streets they should look further into the right-of-way rain gardens in the street redevelopment projects. C. Non Reusable Bay Fee (Sue Brown) Brown reported she has been in contact with the Secretary of State in Washington D.C. regarding an ordinance they recently implemented for a non reusable bag fee. She is attempting to find out what they went through to get this ordinance implemented. The ordinance requires each retail establishment to charge each customer making a purchase a fee of five cents for each disposable carryout bag provided to the customer with the purchase. Brown passed around a corn resin bag distributed by Lakewinds. These bags are in compliance with the ordinance they would be proposing but would have to be purchased for five cents where current plastic and paper would not be allowed. The bags have to be compostable. Jester indicated this should be a discussion item for a future meeting. CONSERVATION COMMISSION June 14, 2011 Page 6 IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Rojas reviewed the Project Profile included in the agenda material reporting the Planning Commission forwarded to the City Council a project by Grand Haven at Marsh Cove to change from Church to Low Density Residential. This will be a 16-lot residential subdivision. The Planning Commission also continued the Metropolitan Ford project and held an informational meeting for GE Capital. B. Ideas for Life in the Prairie Newsletter Rojas explained the City is in transition right now. Life in the Prairie will now be published every other month and distributed through e-mail. C. Website Content Lawton reported a meeting has been set up with the City's Communication manager for Friday. At the next meeting they will have a better idea of what they have, don't have and what they can put where. Rojas reported the City has contracted with a consultant to redesign the City's website. X. NEW BUSINESS XI. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS XII. UPCOMING EVENTS XIII. NEXT MEETING Tuesday, July 12, 2011 X. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Motion was made by Brown, seconded by Pini, to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried 7-0 and the meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m.