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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-13-17 EMC Final Minutes1 TOMPKINS COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COUNCIL 121 East Court St, Ithaca, New York 14850 Telephone (607) 274-5560 http://www.tompkinscountyny.gov/emc 1 EMC Draft Minutes 2 July 13, 4:00 p.m. 3 Tompkins County Old Jail Conference Room, 125 E. Court St, Ithaca, NY 4 Attendance 5 Member Seat Member Seat Steve Bissen A Town of Dryden Dooley Kiefer P Legislative Liaison John Dennis P Village of Lansing Susan Allen-Gil E Associate Member Brian Eden P Village of Cayuga Heights Cait Darfler P Associate Member Bill Evans P Town of Danby Karen Edelstein A Associate Member Pegi Ficken P Town of Groton Anna Kelles A Associate Member Michelle Henry P Town of Newfield Dan Klein P Associate Member John Hertzler P Town of Ulysses Jose Lozano A Associate Member James Knighton E At-Large David Weinstein A Associate Member Vladimir Micic A Town of Ithaca Robert Wesley A Associate Member Steve Nicholson P Town of Caroline Roger Yonkin A Associate Member Susan Riley E At-Large Scott Doyle E EMC Coordinator Tom Shelley P Ithaca CAC Kristin McCarthy P Administrative Assistant Linda Spielman P Village of Dryden Ron Syzmanski P Village of Freeville 6 7 A quorum was present. 8 9 Guests – John Hertzler’s daughter, Ed Cope 10 Call to Order – Chair Brian Eden called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm. 11 Privilege of the Floor – No one 12 Agenda Review/Changes – None 13 Minutes approval (June 8, 2017) – Action: Chair Brian Eden moved to approve the June 8th minutes. The minutes were 14 approved with no changes. 15 16 Update: Hydrilla Treatment – Hilary Lambert, Cayuga Lake Watershed Network 17 18 Hilary Lambert was unable to attend the meeting. 19 20 2 Presentation: Landowner-funded Small Scale Solar PV Development – Ed Cope 21 22 Ed Cope, a fixture in the sustainable real estate community in Tompkins County, spoke to the group about his 23 experiences with renewable energy and local property management and development. In particular, he was there to 24 speak about landowner-funded small scale solar PV projects. A former chair of the EMC, Ed said his passion for 25 renewable energy reaches back to the days of Mario Cuomo and Jimmy Carter, when Carter donned a cardigan to tell 26 the nation about his plan for achieving energy independence from fossil fuel and put solar panels on the roof of the 27 White House. But then Reagan and Big Oil came along and the push for renewables fell by the wayside. Ed’s personal 28 interest in it, however, did not. 29 30 He lived off the grid for a while, was a botanist at Cornell, and started buying buildings on the side and making them 31 more energy efficient. He also became more involved with city planning, agreeing with the City of Ithaca’s vision at the 32 time for big picture planning ─ “build up, not out.” An apartment building of Ed’s was one of the first in Tompkins 33 County to have solar panels installed on it (c. early 2000s). He next decided he wanted to construct his own net-zero 34 building and bought property on W. Spencer Street. Rocky and located on a steep slope, the site is a great spot for infill 35 but a tricky one for building on. The development, called Ithaka Terraces, is a “pocket neighborhood” of condo buildings. 36 37 A few years prior, Ed had worked with Renovus to identify which of his buildings were suitable candidates for solar 38 panels and then to construct a solar farm that would enable him to benefit from New York’s net metering laws. That way 39 he could take surplus energy credits from the farm and apply them to the rentals. Moreover, financially it was a no-40 brainer: The farm was a $500,000 project, with 20% of funding coming from a direct grant through NYSERDA. The rest of 41 it was a 15-year bank loan, which he would recoup through energy savings. On top of that, he would receive $250,000 in 42 tax credits. After net metering came the push for community solar. It didn’t affect him directly at first, but now with the 43 new solar laws on the books, he might have to pay an extra $300,000 in NYSEG fees. Iberdrola, NYSEG’s parent 44 company, seems favorable to landowner-funded projects but NYSEG not so much. He thinks we’ll survive Trump and 45 renewables will triumph. 46 47 Cait Darfler asked Ed what sorts of hurdles he faces as a developer and what the EMC could do to help him and others in 48 his field overcome those hurdles. He responded that Renovus and Taitem Engineering are leading the way when it 49 comes to sustainable real estate in the County, and developers need to learn from them. Bill Evans asked Ed if he knew 50 the details of the $300,000 in fees being levied against developers by NYSEG. Ed answered that he hadn’t read through 51 all the details, but the problems lie with NYSEG-run barriers and the Public Service Commission. Brian added that the 52 playing field is constantly changing and investors don’t know what to expect. Ed remarked that he would like to install 53 air source heat pumps in his new buildings. Brian said he would send him a link to a video of a HeatSmart mini-workshop 54 given to members of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative coalition. 55 56 In closing, Ed said he couldn’t go without paying homage to Dooley Kiefer for her many years of dedication to 57 environmental preservation in Tompkins County. In particular, he lauded her efforts to block construction of a nuclear 58 power plant in the County as well as expansion of the Interstate*. [This refers to successfully opposing the construction 59 of an elevated highway to solve the West End “Octopus” by splitting the traffic into two parallel bridges. EMC member 60 Roger Yonkin, who had been a former Department of Transportation highway engineer, had put forth this solution, 61 which was publicly proposed by the League of Women Voters of Tompkins County.] 62 63 Committee Reports 64 65 A. Climate Adaptation – Michelle Henry 66 67 3 • Committee decided to focus their efforts on flood prevention and mitigation, given momentum is already 68 building in this area and committee chair James Knighton is a member of the City of Ithaca’s flooding task force. 69 On the to-do list is to improve communications with communities across New York State on this topic; develop a 70 list of ongoing flood relief efforts and key contacts for them; draft a questionnaire for local municipalities and 71 stakeholders; and connect with Anna Kelles to get a better tie-in with County Legislators. 72 73 • Steve Nicholson shared that officials in Vermont learned a big lesson the hard way about resiliency planning 74 when the state was hit with back-to-black flooding after Hurricane Irene. They had crafted a list of buildings and 75 services that should be tended to first during recovery, such as hospitals and the roads leading up to them. 76 However, what they failed to consider is that before you can fix the hospital, you have to fix the road leading to 77 the mine holding the gravel you need to rebuild the road that takes you to that hospital. 78 79 B. Environmental Review – Brian Eden 80 81 • The DEC public comment period for the portion of the Ithaca Falls site that has been cleaned up will close July 82 17. Unfortunately, remediation of the site has never been tackled comprehensively as the area is segmented 83 into 4-5 separate clean-up programs that fall under the jurisdiction of different Federal and NYS funding 84 programs. As a result, the costs involved have been far higher than they needed to be and recontamination has 85 occurred repeatedly. Brian hopes the Environmental Review Committee will have time to submit something 86 before the deadline. 87 88 • The City of Ithaca’s waterfront zoning proposal was addressed at the latest Planning and Economic Development 89 Committee meeting. There is a sense of urgency because the TM-PUD used to keep Maguire Cars from 90 constructing in Carpenter Park expires in September. There is nothing in the plan about preserving the 91 floodplain. Tom Shelley was unsure whether the Conservation Advisory Council will be able to do anything in 92 regards to it. 93 94 • Earlier in the week, NYSEG held a public Q&A on smart meters. Brian and other EMC members who attended, 95 including Dooley and Michelle, concurred that the session was poorly orchestrated. People were not allowed to 96 record the meeting, which did little to foster trust in the transparency of the process; the moderators were ill 97 prepared to answer questions from the audience; and too much time was spent debunking pseudoscience 98 regarding radio signals and other types of misinformation. Dooley also commented that the presenters spent 99 way too much time trying to convince the audience how smart meters would benefit them. Instead, in her 100 opinion, they would have been better off being open and admitting that the meters would benefit them as a 101 company in the short term because it would enable them to document and analyze their customers’ usage, 102 which in turn would allow NYSEG to offer them time of use rates. Steve N. added that the Public Service 103 Commission is requiring NYSEG to install these smart meters in their whole territory and within the next few 104 years every NYSEG customer will have to have one. [Although at present these meters can be obtained free of 105 charge, there is likely to be a future charge to continue individual meter reading.] 106 107 • Of the 687 facilities in New York State requiring a SPDES permit, Cayuga power plant is number 17 on the list 108 requiring improved contaminant discharge conditions. 109 110 • In regards to Cargill’s Cayuga Mine Shaft 4 construction project, Cait Darfler reported that members of CLEAN 111 had met with NYSDEC staff to present more recent technical analysis done by John Warren and other geologists. 112 Unfortunately, according to Cait, the reception they received was supposedly one of blank stares. 113 114 4 • John Dennis reported that a meeting in Albany with the DEC regarding Shaft 4 is rumored to potentially also lead 115 to a meeting of the State Legislature’s standing committee on Environmental Conservation. Cait added that the 116 Cargill permit is up for renewal in November and a draft resolution requesting a draft EIS be performed is 117 circulating among the municipalities. 118 119 • Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) have been identified in Cayuga and Dryden Lakes. 120 121 • Apparently, Bergen Farm in Schuyler County has not submitted reports on its water withdrawals since 2010 or 122 2011. Until they file these reports, the NYSDEC will not review their proposed project. 123 124 • Brian and John took a trip to the Tully Valley mudboil area and said it was fascinating. Bill Kappel, USGS, who has 125 studied the mudboils extensively, could make for a great speaker in the fall. 126 127 C. UNA – Steve Nicholson 128 129 • The Committee didn’t have a chance to meet. They are working with Scott and GIS specialist Sharon Heller on 130 creating larger-size maps for the municipalities to display in their town halls, etc. They have to have them 131 finished by September. 132 133 • Dan Klein asked if the UNA maps will identify areas that are private property. Steve N. thought it was a good 134 point and said he’d bring it up with Scott and Sharon. 135 136 D. WRC Liaison – Michelle Henry 137 138 • The Outreach and Education Committee is working on their Clean Boating brochure. 139 140 • The Workshop to Protect Water Resources Committee has chosen ditching as the subject for their Fall 2017 141 workshop. 142 143 • The Cayuga Lake Monitoring Partnership Committee reported there is no news on the TMDL from the DEC. 144 145 • CSLAP sampling is taking place at Taughannock and Union Springs. Volunteers will be keeping an eye out for 146 HABs and collecting any they find. The Community Science Institute and Floating Classroom are looking into 147 additional funding to study shallower areas of the lake. 148 149 E. Outreach and Communications 150 151 There was no report because Susan Riley, the committee’s chair, was absent. 152 153 F. Nominating/Membership 154 155 There was no report because no one has signed up to be on this committee. 156 157 G. Executive – Brian Eden 158 5 159 Bill’s lighting recommendations have been posted to the EMC website, and a press release will go out shortly. 160 Brian shared that he and Bill will be presenting these findings at a public hearing of the County’s Shared Services Panel. 161 162 Joan Jurkowich is drafting County SEQR revisions and would appreciate receiving input from EMC members. 163 164 The Town of Dryden will hold a public hearing on the special use permit for the two proposed solar projects on July 20. 165 166 Staff Report – Kristin McCarthy 167 168 Nothing to report 169 170 Member Items/Municipal Reports 171 172 • Tom reported that the City is still struggling with the Mayor’s proposal to replace Ithaca’s numerous public 173 advisory boards and committees with a small number of umbrella commissions. Brian asked Tom if he knew 174 whether the CAC would be absorbed by the proposed Natural Resources Commission, but Tom had missed the 175 last CAC meeting and didn’t have the most up-to-date information at hand. 176 177 • Cait said a new affordable housing project in Trumansburg is stirring up controversy, with pushback coming from 178 several members of the community. She and others active in local government there are encouraging people in 179 favor of such initiatives to attend public meetings and otherwise demonstrate their support. Cait added that she 180 advised the project’s developers to check out Bill Evans’ recommendations for minimizing the use of blue-rich 181 LED lights in indoor and outdoor lighting systems. 182 183 • John Hertzler asked if there was any news on the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreements for solar projects 184 being negotiated by the IDA on behalf of municipalities like the Town of Ulysses. Brian relayed that Jennifer 185 Tavares, head of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, reported at an earlier meeting that day of the 186 County’s Energy Task Force that the program is being pulled back because every municipality wanted to make 187 individualized tweaks to it, making it impossible for the IDA to create a standard, which was the original intent. 188 189 • Brian remarked that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a finding of no significant impact regarding the 190 chemical treatment of the hydrilla infestation off the shore of Aurora, NY. He found it concerning that the Corps 191 planned to use chemicals within 275’ of the Wells College water intake. Also, he has written a couple of letters 192 to the editor recently advocating for a long-term management approach rather than a sole reliance on 193 herbicides for the control of the hydrilla invasive. 194 195 Adjournment 196 197 Chair Brian Eden adjourned the meeting at 5:40 pm. 198 199 These draft minutes will be formally considered by the EMC at its next monthly meeting, and corrections or notations 200 will be incorporated at that time. 201 202 Prepared by Kristin McCarthy, Tompkins County Planning and Sustainability Department 203 6 Approved by EMC: 204 205