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Home My WebLink About05-15-17 WRC Final Minutes_0TOMPKINS COUNTY WATER RESOURCES COUNCIL 1 Monday, May 15, 2017 2 TCAT Main Office Conference Room 3 Final Minutes 4 Attendance 5 Member Seat Member Seat Sharon Anderson P Cooperative Extension Frank Proto P At-Large John Andersson P At-Large Elaine Quaroni P At-Large Fay Benson P Agriculture Marjory Rinaldo-Lee E Environment Chris Bordlemay E Water Purveyor Michael Thorne P At-Large Cynthia Brock P Recreation Ed Bugliosi NA USGS (non-voting) Brad DeFrees E Associate Member Liz Cameron P Co. Environmental Health Kristen Hychka P Associate Member George Fowler P At-Large Roxy Johnston P Associate Member Bill George P Municipal Government Emelia “Mia” Jumbo P Associate Member Barry Goodrich P Watershed Organization Jose Lozano A Associate Member Michelle Henry P At-Large Darren MacDougall A Associate Member Joan Jurkowich P Co. Planning Department John Mawdsley E Associate Member Dooley Kiefer P County Government Todd Miller P Associate Member Darby Kiley P Municipal Government Steve Penningroth P Associate Member Lynn Leopold P Municipal Government Joanne Trutko P Associate Member Kristin McCarthy P Co. Planning Department Tom Vawter E Associate Member Jon Negley P Soil & Water Cons. District Linda Wagenet E Associate Member 6 7 A quorum was present. 8 9 Guests: Angle Hinickle and Mike Hall 10 11 Call to Order – Chair Darby Kiley called the meeting to order at approximately 4:17 pm. 12 13 Privilege of the Floor – No one spoke. 14 15 Agenda Review/Changes – None 16 17 Approval of April 2017 Minutes 18 Action: George Fowler moved, seconded by Barry Goodrich, to approve the minutes of April 17, 2017. The 19 Council passed the motion. 20 21 SPDES MS4 Permit Annual Report – Angel Hinickle, Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District 22 23 Angel Hinickle of the Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District (TCSWCD) presented the 2016–17 24 Annual Report of the Tompkins County Stormwater Coalition. The report, which is written in accordance with the 25 requirements of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) State Pollutant 26 Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit for stormwater discharges from municipal separate storm sewer 27 systems (MS4), chronicles the progress of the 10 municipalities in Tompkins County in implementing this 28 program. 29 30 • A. Hinickle stated that she would include any questions or comments from today’s meeting when she 31 submits the report to the NYSDEC. 32 • She passed around a newspaper advertisement about lawn care that had been printed in the Ithaca Times 33 in May 2016 as part of the Coalition’s education and outreach efforts. She also shared a general 34 stormwater ad that she’d recently created and asked the Council members for feedback. Once finalized, 35 the advertisement will most likely be printed in the Ithaca Times Summer Guide. 36 • A. Hinickle continues to conduct the four-hour soil erosion and sediment control trainings. They had 46 37 people at the March 1, 2017 class and another 20 attendees at a training held at the end of that month. 38 They will probably hold more classes in the fall. 39 • Their team also continues to go to the TC3 construction class, which has about 16 students. Jon Negley 40 filled in for A. Hinickle this year. 41 • The number of visitors to the Stormwater Coalition website continues to grow. “Diverting Your 42 Downspouts” has the most page views. She needs to update a few broken links. 43 44 Frank Proto: Do we need to have a formal public hearing (re: SPDES MS4 Permit)? A. Hinickle: A public 45 meeting is not required, but it might be a nice idea in case people have questions or comments. D. Kiley: Only 46 requirement is that the report be uploaded to a website accessible to the public. 47 48 Projects of the Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District – Angel Hinickle and Mike Hall 49 Mike Hall gave a presentation to the group on a couple key projects of the TCSWCD: 50 51 • Using compost for best management practices – They are working with Cayuga Compost, Tompkins 52 County Solid Waste Department, and the Cornell Waste Management Institute to explore the use of 53 compost for sediment control. The group applied for funding to purchase a compost blower to utilize in 54 areas where it is difficult to establish vegetation, such as steep banks and ditch lines. 55 • Upper Susquehanna Coalition Focus Areas – A. Hinickle nominated the Pony Hollow Creek watershed 56 for funding from the Susquehanna Coalition’s stream team. She chose Pony Hollow because it is almost 57 entirely in Tompkins County and is a walkable watershed, which was a quality sought by the Coalition 58 for areas of study. Moreover, she has worked extensively with Newfield on stormwater and flooding 59 issues and thought it would be a good way to get town and community involved and to get other 60 watersheds in the County to contribute. 61 62 Committee Reports 63 64 Potential Pollutants – George Fowler 65 • The committee members are still fleshing out their work plan. The first step was to define the term 66 “potential pollutants,” which after further discussion they fine-tuned as “emerging contaminants.” 67 • According to the committee’s draft definition, these diverse manmade substances are found in low 68 concentrations in the environment and appear to have potentially adverse impacts on human and 69 ecological health. They include pesticides, endocrine disruptors, microplastics, pharmaceuticals and their 70 metabolites, and other chemical compounds that enter water bodies through human sources. 71 • Once the work plan is in place, the members will work toward a deliverable. To this end, they’ve drafted 72 an implementation plan that the Water Resources Council (WRC) can pass to the Tompkins County 73 Legislature to assist with battling the issue of emerging contaminants. 74 • The plan consists of three general categories: eliminate the knowledge gap between what we know and 75 don’t know about emerging contaminants through enhanced or new data collection; recommend county- 76 and state-level policies to reduce introduction and transportation of emerging contaminants into our water 77 system, and apply physical interventions to curtail introduction and transport of emerging contaminants 78 into the local environment. 79 80 Grants – Jon Negley 81 • The governor has approved the 2017–18 Environmental Protection Fund budget, a summary of which J. 82 Negley distributed to the WRC members. It’s at $300 million, similar to last year’s budget. 83 • A few more dollars are going to climate change mitigation/adaption, but in general the amounts 84 earmarked for most line items stayed the same. There are some new programs this year. 85 • The biggest item of note for the WRC is probably the Water Quality Improvement Program, which will 86 once again be run through the Consolidated Funding Application. 87 88 Education and Outreach – Lynn Leopold 89 • Now that the paddling brochure is finished, the next step is for committee members to distribute them at 90 locations mentioned in the brochure where people can rent or purchase paddle craft. 91 • The clean boating brochure is still being worked on. 92 • Gene Little of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary wants to attend their committee meetings. He offered a lot 93 of input on the paddling brochure and most likely will do the same for the clean boating one. 94 95 Watershed Rules and Regulations – Chris Bordlemay 96 This committee didn’t meet. 97 98 Workshop to Protect Water Resources – Joan Jurkowich 99 • The group met this month and laid out a timeline with the goal of holding training in September or 100 October. 101 • On May 25th, a couple of their members will be going to the Tompkins County Council of Governments 102 to get their input on priorities for training. 103 • Also, the committee would like to present their final proposal and any budgetary needs they may have at 104 the July 17th meeting of the WRC. 105 106 Monitoring Partnership – Roxy Johnston 107 • The committee had a very productive meeting with representatives from the NYSDEC and Finger Lakes 108 Water Hub. For monitoring on the south end of the lake, they will most likely use the NYSDEC long-109 term monitoring site, as it meets their need for consistency in data (it was used for site 3 and lake source 110 cooling), but no one has confirmed that location yet. The NYSDEC will work with the Finger Lakes 111 Institute to select a northern site. 112 • The NYSDEC will be conducting training in our area shortly and will work with the Cayuga Lake 113 Watershed Network (CLWN) and Community Science Institute (CSI) to coordinate the volunteers. The 114 CLWN and CSI would like to train a lot of volunteers so they can look for alternate sources of funding. 115 They will also most likely work with the Floating Classroom so they can get more people out on the water 116 with the larger boat. 117 • The NYSDEC committed to sharing raw data on the CSI website, which is unusual because normally 118 people only receive a summary as part of the Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program, known by the 119 acronym CSLAP. They also committed to meeting once or twice per year with local representatives. 120 • No updates on TMDL as of May 8th. 121 • Jeff Myers retired from the NYSDEC. They have no specific replacement plan. 122 • The NYSDEC is going to do extensive harmful algae bloom monitoring. 123 124 Updated Water & Sewer Study – John Andersson 125 They are going to meet to discuss their second objective. 126 127 Chair Report – Darby Kiley 128 • WRC Committees need to submit budget requests for next year within the next month. 129 • She followed up with Brian Eden to tell him that WRC backing of the Cargill letter is “postponed 130 indefinitely” per the motion passed at the last meeting. 131 • Ed Marx is retiring in August. 132 133 Staff Report – Joan Jurkowich 134 There was nothing additional to report. 135 136 Announcements 137 • F. Proto: Last week, there were two gentlemen representing Federal Emergency Management Agency 138 (FEMA) in Caroline to examine the bridges because of the high water. The FEMA contractors said they 139 would be working their way around Tompkins County. 140 • J. Negley: Brian Caldwell, a professor at Cornell University, wrote an op-ed piece for the Ithaca Journal 141 arguing that efforts to manage the hydrilla infestation in Ithaca have been a failure. J. Negley is drafting a 142 response to Caldwell’s letter on behalf of the Hydrilla Task Force. 143 • Liz Cameron: The County’s public health engineer is also retiring, and the vacancy has been posted. 144 Please pass on any candidates to her. 145 146 Adjournment 147 Chair Darby Kiley declared the meeting adjourned at approximately 5:46 pm. 148 149 Prepared by Kristin McCarthy, Tompkins County Planning and Sustainability Department 150 Approved by Water Resources Council: 6/19/2017 151