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Conservation Commission - 05/13/2008 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Eapen Chacko (Chair), Ray Daniels, Laura Jester, Sean Katof, Geneva MacMillan, Jan Mosman STUDENT MEMBERS: Vallari Ajgaonkar, James (JP) Maslyn, Ann Wachutka STAFF: Leslie A. Stovring, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary GUEST: Steve McComas, Blue Water Science VISITOR: Chuck Noble, Pax Christi Environmental Group I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Chacko called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. Katof, Ajgaonkar and Wachutka were absent. Jester left early. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Daniels added Item VII.A. Living Green Expo. MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Mosman, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Commission Meeting held March 11, 2008 MOTION: Mosman moved, seconded by Daniels, to approve the minutes of the March 11, 2008 meeting as published. Motion carried 5-0-0. B. Commission Meeting held April 8, 2008 Daniels changed the next to last sentence in the first paragraph of Page 6 to "Daniels said it is a conservation expo at his church." MOTION: Mosman moved, seconded by Jester, to approve the minutes of the April 8, 2008 meeting as published and amended. Motion carried 5-0-0. Conservation Commission May 13, 2008 Page 2 IV. SPEAKER/PROGRAM UPDATE A. 2007 Lake Sampling Program —Mr. Steve McComas, Blue Water Science Stovring introduced Steve McComas of Blue Water Science who has been working with City staff for a couple of years, most recently on Round and Mitchell Lakes. A few years ago he worked on Smetana, Anderson, Red Rock and Duck Lakes. Steve McComas said his work on Mitchell Lake last year came about because of reports that there was a winter fish kill in the lake which could have had an impact on water quality. If there had been a fish kill, the numbers of zooplankton would have increased and the number of algae would have decreased because zooplankton feed on algae thereby causing the water quality to go up. After taking measurements they determined that the water quality had not dramatically improved and the zooplankton population looked normal so the fish kill did not have a significant impact on water quality. McComas said the Watershed District will be sampling Mitchell Lake this year. Round Lake has been studied intensively since the 1980's, and a fish kill was conducted by the DNR in the mid 80's. Water quality conditions improved after the fish kill, but then returned to the previous conditions. Chacko asked if the results were affected by watershed conditions. Stovring said the area around Round Lake has been built out and stable for a long time. Chacko then asked how the sediments get stirred up. McComas said sometimes nutrients come out of the sediment under the right conditions. Some fish feed on lake sediments and that can cause problems if there are too many bottom feeders. For example, he said some of the problems at Staring Lake are likely caused by too many bottom-feeding fish. Mosman asked about why we don't see fewer fish in problem lakes. McComas said that is possible,but it only takes a handful of fish to restock the lakes. He said we need a balanced fish community with good predator control by larger fish so that the smaller fish don't get out of control. McComas said there are lots of variables at work in Round Lake but in the last few years things have gotten better. At this time Round Lake is not considered to be impaired by the State of Minnesota. The challenge is to keep it that way. Chacko asked how often measurements were taken in Round Lake. McComas said measurements were taken from June to September. For a lake to be considered nutrient-impaired, two to three years of poor water quality must be found. For the past few years Round Lake has tested in the mid to high 30 parts-per-billion of phosphorus and 40 parts-per-billion is the cutoff for declaring it to be nutrient- impaired. McComas noted it is cheaper to keep the lake going than to restore it so being proactive is cost effective. Conservation Commission May 13, 2008 Page 3 Jester asked if Round Lake is considered a shallow lake. McComas said it is not, but it is close. Mosman asked if shallow lakes have different standards. Jester said they have lower standards. Jester asked what effect the storm water ponds have had. Stovring said they help to keep new phosphorus from going into the lake. One of the ponds at Round Lake needs to be enlarged and repaired and two ponds were just constructed on the southeast and east side of Round Lake in the park. She distributed a diagram showing the ponds around Round Lake and noted the new ponds pick up runoff from Eden Prairie Road and other areas. MacMillan asked why there are new ponds. Stovring said when Valley View Road was widened they put in a storm water pond and a small wetland so runoff would drain through those before going into Round Lake. The Watershed District reimbursed the City for another one by Valley View Road. McComas said they sampled the new pond in 2006. It captured a lot of sediment from the construction of the road and helped to protect Round Lake. He said they will continue to work on some of the ponds at Round Lake and will monitor the lake and ponds. He thought this year might be more of an algae year. Stovring asked when the barley straw will be placed. McComas said they need the water to warm up a little to make the straw more efficient, so it will be done in about a week in 2 ponds. Jester asked if they plan to do a fish kill. McComas said they are doing fish removal from Bren Lake pond where there are too many fish. They trap net some of the fish to improve the water quality in that pond which should help the other ponds that flow into Round Lake. Daniels asked why they don't stock the lake with more predatory fish like bass. McComas said the lake actually has a nice balance with a high number of bass. MacMillan asked if people can fish in Round Lake. McComas said they can. Stovring asked how often a fish survey is done. McComas said every 5-10 years depending on the lake. Daniels asked how long it takes for the fish population to change. McComas said it could take only a couple of years. Jester asked if they have done a plant survey. McComas said there is a lot of milfoil but that comes and goes. They have also done sediment surveys. Mosman asked what conditions are favorable for milfoil. McComas replied high levels of nitrogen in the sediments and low pH levels are favorable. He noted Ms Jester is an expert on the milfoil weevil. Mosman said she heard that milfoil is spread more by birds than by boats and asked if that is true. McComas said he did not agree. Jester noted the spread of milfoil in the Midwest follows boat traffic. McComas said birds are not the primary vector for spreading milfoil. MacMillan asked about the milfoil weevil. Jester said it is an aquatic weevil that lays eggs in the tip of the plant so the integrity of the plant is compromised. McComas said it can wipe out a milfoil canopy. He noted milfoil can be present and not take Conservation Commission May 13, 2008 Page 4 over; however, some lakes like Lake Minnetonka have a real problem with milfoil. Mosman asked where the weevil came from. Jester said it has always been here. Chacko asked if the City is doing lake surveys. Stovring said the Watershed District was doing them but stopped a number of years back. The City started doing it and now the Watershed District is getting back into the game. She said they had a meeting with the Watershed District to discuss what the District will do and how the City could help. A discussion followed regarding the benefits of harvesting plants from the lake. McComas said their goal in 2008 is to keep Round Lake unimpaired. They plan to look at the plants, the nutrients and the forage base and will harvest some fish to look at stomach contents. He noted harvesting is a better alternative than chemical treatment. McComas said they will have a better idea about how Round Lake looks at the end of the summer. Daniels asked what happens to the plant material they harvest. McComas said the plants are about 90% water and the dried plants are very good for composting. It will decompose in two to three weeks on land,but it is important to keep the harvested weeds far enough away from the lake so it doesn't drain back into the lake. Daniels asked if they would be a good source of biofuel. McComas said there is no woody content in them so they should be very good for that. Chacko asked what the group formed at Mitchell Lake is planning to do. Stovring said one of the residents is part of the CAMP program at the Metropolitan Council. They plan to do a harvest on 15% of the lake. They are going to try out solar bees which are used to aerate the lake sediments. McComas noted it is supposed to help control algae growth but is not optimistic. Stovring said Mitchell Lake is listed as nutrient impaired. She said the report on Staring Lake was never finished, so the City may have Barr Engineering Company or Mr. McComas finish that. She thought the problem at Staring may be in large part due to carp. Stovring said they plan to sample Duck, Red Rock and Staring Lakes this summer. Chacko asked if there are things we should be doing that we are not currently doing since we have activities planned going out 3-5 years. McComas replied that one of the ongoing things is the phosphorus fertilizer restriction. Stovring said there is a Saturday morning workshop downstairs in the Heritage Room on Pond and Lake Care. Mr. Noble asked if there are opportunities for public volunteering. Stovring said there are opportunities in the wetland evaluation program and that more opportunities are being explored. Mosman asked if the phosphorus restrictions are city by city. Stovring said it is statewide now but the restrictions are stricter in the metropolitan area. Conservation Commission May 13, 2008 Page 5 IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Clean Up Planning - June 21, 2008 Stovring asked for volunteers for the Summer Clean Up event on June 21. She said they are reorganizing the event and will need volunteers to direct traffic. They will be redoing the parking lots so that two lots are designated for trash and they need people to direct traffic to the electronics area if that is what they have. Jester asked if everything will be recycled. Stovring said everything that can be recycled will be, but there may be some items that will end up in the trash. Noble said his group is trying to encourage more recycling and want to have zero waste as a goal. They are very interested in getting involved in that kind of thing. Jester suggested they help with the Summer Clean Up on June 21. Mosman said she will be in town for the June 21 event. Jester left at 8:00 PM. Chair Chacko recessed the meeting at 8:00 PM. Chair Chacko resumed the meting at 8:10 PM. V. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. Proposed speaker for July Chacko suggested Tim Goodman as the speaker for the July meeting. He said Mr. Goodman did a report for St. Louis Park in 2004 on single-stream recycling. Stovring noted he is a good speaker and all our events and activities are done by July so that is good timing. Chacko said Mr. Goodman could tell us his experience with how that kind of experiment is going. B. Request from Pax Christi Environmental Ministry for speakers on water conservation topics Chacko said he received an email from Mike Stoner who is a very active member of the Pax Christi ministry. Mr. Stoner asked if the City had a good speaker on water quality issues. Chacko forwarded the email to Ms Stovring and asked to have it on tonight's agenda. Chacko said he emailed Mr. Stoner back asking about the audience and other details. Noble said they discussed this at their meeting on Saturday, and they are looking to try to get the congregation or the public together for an hour or so to learn about water in Eden Prairie. He said he is going to approach Hennepin Technical College about this, and others in the group are contacting other groups. Stovring said the speaker would depend on what kind of water they want to talk about. Chacko said we will wait for the response from Mike Stoner. VI. OLD BUSINESS A. Recycling at Events Planning Conservation Commission May 13, 2008 Page 6 Chacko said he was thinking about doing a zero waste event at one of the City's summer events. The Pax Christi group did a zero waste event at the Volunteer Bonanza. Noble said their event went very well and they ended up with only four bags of regular trash. Randy's Sanitation did the composting and they bought biodegradable plates and bags from Litin Paper. Volunteers directed and monitored people placing waste in the various receptacles. Chacko asked if the event went smoothly. Noble said they put signs at eye level rather than on the containers and had a container for each waste stream. Noble said they will review the event at their next meeting and he will get more feedback about does and don'ts. He thought as time goes on and there are more zero waste events people will look for the compostable and recycling containers as they become more educated about recycling. Stovring said this might work at the Taste of Eden Prairie event, and we might be able to get a grant for this kind of thing for next spring. Mosman suggested Sunbonnet Days in September. Stovring said the International Festival also has food. VII. NEW BUSINESS A. Living Green Expo—Daniels and MacMillan Daniels checked with the people at SouthWest Metro about having a bus run directly to the Living Green Expo. They said it would be a problem because their funding is decreasing for outside events. Daniels asked if we could pay for the bus, and he said it would be $110 per hour but we would also have to open it up to private bus lines to get bids. Daniels also visited with the people from Green Light Recycling in Blaine. Stovring noted we used them for electronics recycling for many years. Daniels said Menards plans to get into the business of collecting CFL bulbs so that people can bring in their old bulbs and Menards will package them for recycling. Daniels said he and Ms MacMillan attended the session on the State Capitol program on paper reduction. He noted there was a fuel cell car at the General Motors display that runs on liquid hydrogen. He also visited the Xcel Energy display to discuss wind sources. Xcel has exhausted the amount of wind energy they have to sell,but are planning to bring on about 50 Megawatts in November and December. MacMillan said she visited the cleaning products exhibits. She also visited the farm exhibits and actually bought groceries for four-five months from one of the exhibiters. She said the exhibits showed a simpler way of living. MacMillan said she decided the best way to spread the word at St. Andrews Church was to set up the display board and talk about non-toxic cleaning compounds at the Conservation Commission May 13, 2008 Page 7 Women's Board meeting. She will continue to pursue that with the women's groups there. Chacko said he got a card from the University of Minnesota about plant information online that includes the type of information we were talking about at the last meeting. He suggested we put their link on our website. VIII. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS /HANDOUTS/COMMUNICATIONS IX. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Pond and Lake Care Seminar—May 17 Chacko asked if this is on the website. Stovring said it is on the Public Works page and may also be on the front page of the website. B. Summer Clean Up - June 21 C. Rain Barrel Workshop - June 28 Stovring said this signup for this event is through Community Education. X. NEXT MEETING A. June 10, 2008 XI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Daniels, to adjourn. Motion carried 4-0. Chair Chacko adjourned the meeting at 9:00 PM.