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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-09-17 EMC FINALMinutes1 TOMPKINS COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COUNCIL 121 East Court Street Ithaca, New York 14850 Telephone (607) 274-5560 http://www.tompkinscountyny.gov/emc 1 Final Minutes 2 March 9, 2017, 4PM 3 Tompkins County Old Jail Conference Room, 125 E. Court Street, Ithaca, NY 4 5 Attendance 6 Members 7 Member Seat Member Seat Steve Bissen P Town of Dryden Anna Kelles P Legislature Liaison Brian Eden P Village of Cayuga Heights Susan Allen-Gil A Associate Member Bill Evans P Town of Danby Karen Edelstein A Associate Member Pegi Ficken A Town of Groton Dooley Kiefer P Associate Member Michelle Henry P Town of Newfield Dan Klein P Associate Member John Hertzler P Town of Ulysses Jose Lozano E Associate Member James Knighton E At-Large Nidia Trejo A Associate Member Roy Luft A At-Large David Weinstein A Associate Member Vladimir Micic P Town of Ithaca Robert Wesley A Associate Member Susan Riley P At-Large Roger Yonkin A Associate Member Tom Shelley P Ithaca CAC Scott Doyle P EMC Coordinator Linda Spielman P Village of Dryden Kristin McCarthy P Administrative Assistant 8 Guests: Joel Malina and Todd Cowen (Cornell University), Cait Darfler, Bert Bland 9 A quorum was present. 10 Others –John Dennis (former Village of Lansing representative) and Ron Syzmanski (former Village of 11 Freeville representative) 12 Call to Order – Chair Brian Eden called the meeting to order at 4:04 pm. He welcomed everyone and 13 introduced speakers Joel Malina and Todd Cowen to the group. 14 Privilege of the Floor – No one 15 Agenda Review/Changes – None 16 Presentation: Options for Achieving a Carbon Neutral Campus by 2035 – J. Malina and T. Cowen 17 2 Joel Malina, vice president of university relations at Cornell University, and Todd Cowen, engineering 18 professor at Cornell and faculty director of energy at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, spoke to the 19 group about the university’s carbon neutral campus initiative. 20 They were at the meeting on behalf of the Senior Leaders Climate Action Group, which produced the report 21 “Options for Achieving a Carbon Neutral Campus by 2035.” The report covers feasible actions Cornell could 22 take to reduce energy demand and to invest in innovative renewable energy sources, including “earth source 23 heat,” which was the focus of much of their talk: 24 Here are some highlights from Joel’s portion of the presentation: 25 • Since the plan’s release, three new solar farms have gone online and 7 percent of Cornell’s electricity 26 supply is now met by solar energy. 27 • In addition, conservation efforts have helped to reduce campus energy demand to year 2000 levels. 28 • Campus energy needs for heat and power account for two-thirds of Cornell’s carbon footprint. 29 • The research laboratories on campus require lots of energy to operate, and the cold climate places high 30 demand on the heating systems. 31 • Cornell has significant energy-efficiency requirements for new building construction and plans to add 32 more. 33 • Its interactive Building Dashboard website provides real-time energy data for buildings across campus 34 to the community. 35 • The university’s fleet currently contains 700 electric vehicles (EV) and there are six EV-charging 36 stations on campus. 37 • The Big Red Bike Share will relaunch this spring. 38 39 Todd Cowen discussed the “earth source heat” solution for meeting heating and electricity demands on 40 campus. 41 • Cornell faces challenges because of the climate and limited space on campus. 42 • There is district heating throughout campus. University tries to use fossil fuels as efficiently as possible; 43 system moved from coal to methane and it’s now ready to move off that too. 44 • They’ll need to drill 3-5 kilometers (15,000-20,000 feet) to reach outcropping of rock at 120-140 Celsius 45 where they can heat circulated water. 46 • They’d start with 20 percent of the campus as a pilot test. 47 3 • Anna Kelles: Where are you in terms of seismic activity testing? Todd: The Atkinson Center received 48 funding to perform passive seismic studies, which will help project engineers site the first hole and 49 avoid any fault lines. 50 • Joel: This project is not imminent. It will be three years from now before they drill, and the two years 51 after that will be spent exploring the hole. They need to raise $4 million in funding. 52 • Todd: If earth source heat is successful here, it might work all over upstate New York and possibly in 53 fossil zones around the world. 54 • It’s an expensive endeavor upfront but will ultimately lower fuel costs. 55 • Joel: Cornell will host a carbon neutrality forum Tuesday, March 28, at Hotel Ithaca. There will be a 56 panel and a slide presentation. 57 • John Hertzler: How much efficiency is lost getting energy from 15,000 feet deep back up to the 58 surface? 59 • Tom Shelley: Are you working with the Icelanders, since they have extensive experience with earth 60 source heat? 61 • Steve N.: Can you combine lake source cooling/geothermal heating into one loop system? 62 Minutes approval (Feb. 9, 2017) – 63 Chair Brian Eden moved to approve February minutes. Tom Shelley seconded. The minutes were approved 64 unanimously. 65 Committee Reports 66 Energy 67 Brian: 68 • The comment period for NYSERDA’s 100-page Renewable Heating and Cooling Policy Framework 69 ends tomorrow, Friday, March 10. Seventy-five percent of energy is spent on heating and cooling and 70 domestic water use, so it’s important to move those systems off fossil fuels. As many members know, 71 Solar Tompkins has been holding HeatSmart public outreach meetings in the community. If anyone 72 wants a HeatSmart sign, let Brian know. 73 • Cornell Cooperative Extension has partnered with four installers for their Go Solar campaign to promote 74 solar energy in Tompkins County. 75 • After months of discussion with the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Tompkins County 76 Energy and Economic Development Task Force, NYSEG presented an alternative “compressor-based” 77 approach to the West Dryden natural gas pipeline. If this short-term solution is approved by the PSC, the 78 4 second part of the utility’s proposal would solicit Requests for Proposals to address how to reduce the 79 demand for natural gas and transition to electricity throughout the County. 80 • Local groups are partnering with Taitem Engineering to do case studies on different types of homes and 81 commercial buildings comparing various energy inputs, such as gas, oil, heat pumps, propane etc. They 82 are hoping to go out and tell municipal officials in the Town and Village of Lansing about the project 83 and to meet with developers whose projects have been deferred there because they can’t access natural 84 gas. 85 • He is also involved with another project on air to water heat pumps. The goal is to find five homes, 86 preferably with oil or propane heat as those systems offer the biggest potential savings, to do case 87 studies on. Members should let him know of anyone with a hydronic heating system who might be 88 interested in participating. 89 • The Tompkins County Legislature appointed an Energy Task Force last night (Wednesday, 90 March 8). The task force, which has 21 members, will work to advance the goals of the County’s 91 2020 Energy Strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our community. There is a need to 92 find concrete ways of doing this. 93 Environmental Review 94 John D.: 95 • It would be useful for members to visit the sites being proposed for community solar array projects in 96 the County. 97 • The ratepayers group subsidies for Cayuga Power expire in June of this year. The governor 98 wants all coal-fired power plants shuttered by 2020, so within the next three years there needs 99 to be owner-financed remediation of the 46-acre coal-ash landfill or the public will have to pay 100 for it. 101 • Gave an update on the Shaft 4 situation at the Cayuga salt mine. A lot of new information 102 coming out from FOIL, but a lot also still not being released. 103 Brian: 104 • Brian and John D. will do a presentation on Cargill salt mine on March 20th for the Water 105 Resources Council. Also, there is a Water Law for Activists symposium scheduled for March 106 25th at Cornell Law School. 107 • In Varna, a 36-unit housing development called Evergreen Townhouses is under review. 108 People have been promoting the use of air source heat pumps to the developers. Brian attended 109 a Town of Dryden planning board meeting about it last week. 110 5 • SEQR revisions from 2012 were just released for public comment in June 2017, and there is 111 considerable concern about the drastic scaling back of environmental review requirements. Under the 112 proposed changes, a number of actions and projects (“Type II actions”) would no longer have to 113 undergo any SEQR review. 114 Bill Evans: 115 • A draft is circulating and comments are coming in on the indoor/outdoor lighting recommendations. 116 • He attended a webinar brought to his attention by Dooley Kiefer on the smart city concept. It’s an 117 interesting idea, and GE is heavily marketing it in metropolises such as San Diego, which recently 118 transformed its street lighting into a connected digital infrastructure. In his opinion, it would be best to 119 see how things go with some of these test cities first. 120 Unique Natural Areas 121 Steve N.: 122 • The UNA Committee met on Monday (March 6). The brochure is almost completely finished. The 123 printed trifold will stay the same, but they are hoping to have a nicer online version with photographs. 124 • Plan to update the invasive species list. Robert Wesley will help prepare it. He thinks hydrilla should be 125 included. 126 • Talked about the next steps of updating the boundaries of the new UNAs 127 • Three UNAs need to be delisted. 128 • Will send 500 postcards to the next round of landowners and notify the municipalities 129 • The Committee has $2,000 to use for outreach purposes with the Planning and Sustainability 130 Department. One idea is to prepare a step-by-step SEQR “cookbook” for people interested in using the 131 UNA information to present to their municipalities or to preserve it more. 132 • They might hold a public forum at the Tompkins County Public Library to introduce the new UNAs. 133 Will probably invite Nick Hollingsworth to speak on his wetlands data. Bring snacks! 134 • Still debating a name for UNA-195 135 • Last, they want to add a municipal boundary layer to the interactive map. Scott is going to look into it. 136 • Michelle Henry submitted a UNA candidate to the committee for their consideration. 137 Strategic Planning 138 • Anna had to leave the meeting early, but Brian passed on her message that she’d like to start a Doodle 139 poll to find a time for everyone to meet offsite to discuss strategy. 140 • Scott reminded everyone to sign up for a committee if they haven’t already. 141 142 6 Executive 143 Brian: 144 • Need to pull together a roster of all the members with their contact information and committee 145 assignments so people know how to get in touch with one another. Michelle: Please include dates, 146 times, and locations of committee meetings. 147 • Also imperative that we get the Annual Report to the County Legislature. 148 • The EMC has offered to work with a group of senior-year students in an engineering communications 149 class on writing a convincing proposal based off the Council’s wind power FAQ. 150 Staff Report 151 Scott: 152 • There are still seats open for at-large members as well as for representatives from certain municipalities. 153 • Also, the Planning and Sustainability Department is recommending that two parcels previously withheld 154 from foreclosure be sold to their municipalities. One is located in the Town of Ulysses and the other in 155 the Village of Freeville. 156 Election of Vice Chair 157 Tom Shelley moved, and Steve Bissen seconded, the appointment of Steve Nicholson as vice chair. The motion 158 was approved unanimously. 159 Member Items/Announcements 160 • Steve N.: The Town of Caroline wants to hold another meeting on the South Hill Rec Way. There are 161 four municipalities involved in this extension. He is hoping to have the EMC co-sponsor the meeting. 162 • Brian: Is anyone opposed to the EMC co-sponsoring such a meeting? (No one objected.) 163 • Dan Klein: Some landowners adjacent to the proposed trail extension, especially in the Town of 164 Caroline, are vehemently opposed to this project and packing town board meetings to voice that 165 opposition. We need Caroline residents who are in favor of the trail being extended to show up at the 166 town board meetings and/or write a note (can be one sentence long) expressing their support. There is a 167 lot of support for the trail, but the board members need to hear from these people. 168 • Steve N.: One issue is, who owns the land? NYSEG owns the railroad right-of-way, but it turns out 169 some landowners were falsely/incorrectly claiming they owned that property. 170 • Dooley: It’s important for people who live alongside the current South Hill Rec Way and have found it 171 to be a positive experience to come to meetings and voice their support for the extension. Also she is 172 now the official PDEQ legislative liaison to the EMC. Anna is no longer on that committee. 173 7 • Michelle: What are some of the concerns being voiced by residents regarding the extension – besides 174 “not in my backyard?” 175 • Scott: The perception among some residents is that it could lead to an increase in crime and a decrease 176 in privacy. 177 • John H.: All the farms in Ulysses used to have windmills. Would that in any way allow for the 178 possibility of windmills being constructed on agricultural lands now? 179 Adjournment – Chair adjourned the meeting at 5:41 p.m. 180 Prepared by Kristin McCarthy, Tompkins County Planning Department 181 Approved by EMC: 4/13/2017 182 183