HomeMy WebLinkAboutJanuary 13, 2024 - Enfield Water Protection Committee MinutesEnfield Water Protection Committee Minutes January 13, 2024
Attending: Nancy Spero, Stephanie Redmond, Mary Julien (MJ) from NYSRWA, Becky
Sims, Julie Schroeder, Dan Walker, Tom Joyce
Minutes respectfully submitted by Nancy Spero
The Next Enfield Water Protection Committee Meeting is
planned for Tuesday, February 13 at 6:30 pm. Please mark
your calendars.
We talked about updates and plans for the new year in many areas:
MJ reported that there has been no update, or information from NYS regarding the Draft
Water Source Protection Plan (DWSP2). She has tried to contact them and there is no
word yet about when they will provide us with feedback.
We discussed water testing. It is now a new quarter in the financial calendar, so we can do
water testing at anytime. The CAFO farmer spent a week doing manure spreading and
tilling in December. The weather report predicts that there will be rain events and warmer
weather the end of next week. Therefore it would be good to do testing, possibly Thursday
January 25. Tom Joyce and Becky Sims volunteered to do this testing. Stephanie will talk to
Grascen to make sure that this timing will work for their lab.
MJ and Dan discussed getting copies of the CAFO Nutrient Management Plan and annual
compliance reports. Dan contacted the DEC for region 7 (our region) but the farm is
actually in a different county (Schuyler County). MJ and Dan can look into if there are
incident reports and complaints. Someone could use FOIL to get copies of any DEC
reports, incident reports, and annual compliance checks. Dan and MJ will continue to look
into this.
Brochures for Enfield: Grascen of CSI sent us a copy of their brochure welcoming people to
the Cayuga Lake Watershed and telling people about their projects and services. The water
testers can pick up some copies when they drop off the samples, and these can go in the
Town Hall/Clerk’s office and at the Enfield Community Center. (see PDF below)
Tom Joyce with the help of MJ and Julie Schroeder will work on adapting the brochures in
Appendix C of our Water Source Protection Plan specifically for Enfield. Everyone in the
committee should look at the brochure in the draft plan and contact Tom with your ideas.
The Town Board is beginning to review the edits the Sub Division regulations done by the
Planning Board. They are also continuing to look at the Site Plan Review regulations. There
has been interesting ongoing discussion about other ways that we might be able to protect
people’s supply and quality of water in Enfield as things are changing and more people will
be wanting to move to Enfield in the future.
We again discussed the importance of the Town completing the flood plain maps and
adopting these for the Town. Then it is important to follow up on National Flood Plain
Insurance Plans. Stephanie will follow up on getting a representative from the program to
speak at the Town Board meeting in the near future. Then the Town needs to decide
whether or not to join this program.
Stephanie has been talking with Cooperative Extension about their Clean Energy/Climate
Smart programs.
The Town created a Sustainability Committee for the Town at its last meeting. Nancy Spero
and Harry Stewart will be a members of this committee.
We began to discuss other ways to protect the Town water, including trees as a natural
buffer to water pollution. water districts, an aquifer overlay district and Critical
Environmental Areas being created. Without Zoning there may be a limit to the types of
protections the Town can adopt. Becky is planning to talk with the Town Board about
grants that may help with a feasibility study to look at our town’s water needs. (See links
below).
Below are links for following up on the issues discussed above Possible grants and the
brochure from CSI:
Possible grants:
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/water-environmental-programs/water-
waste-disposal-predevelopment-planning-grants/ny
https://hcr.ny.gov/community-development-block-grant
https://www.cityofithaca.org/764/FEMA-Flood-Risk-Information