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Home My WebLink About11-08-18 Final EMC MinutesEMC Final Minutes 1 November 8, 2018 4:00 p.m. 2 Tompkins County Old Jail Conference Room, 125 E. Court St, Ithaca, NY 3 4 Attendance 5 Member Seat Member Seat Steve Bissen E Town of Dryden Jonathan Zisk P At-Large Maureen Bolton P Town of Enfield Amanda Champion P Legislative Liaison Cait Darfler P Town of Ulysses Susan Allen-Gil E Associate Member John Dennis P Village of Lansing Karen Edelstein A Associate Member Brian Eden P Village of Cayuga Heights Bill Evans A Associate Member Pegi Ficken E Town of Groton Anna Kelles E Associate Member Michelle Henry P Town of Newfield Dooley Kiefer P Associate Member Anne Klingensmith P Town of Danby Dan Klein E Associate Member James Knighton E At-Large Jose Lozano A Associate Member Vladimir Micic P Town of Ithaca Osamu Tsuda A Associate Member Steve Nicholson P Town of Caroline David Weinstein A Associate Member Susan Riley P At-Large Robert Wesley A Associate Member Tom Shelley P City of Ithaca Roger Yonkin A Associate Member Genny Shipley P At-Large Scott Doyle P Planning Staff Don Smith A At-Large Kristin McCarthy P Planning Staff Ron Szymanski A Village of Freeville Regi Teasley P At-Large Guests – Kevin Price, Roland Scott, Ken Jaffe, Hilary Lambert, Marty Hatch 6 7 Call to Order – Chair Brian Eden called the meeting to order at 4:03 p.m. 8 Privilege of the Floor – None 9 Agenda Review/Changes – The recap of the Oct. 18th waste reduction outreach event was 10 moved to earlier in the schedule. 11 Approval of the Minutes – A motion was made by Maureen Bolton, seconded by Susan Riley, 12 to approve the Sept. 13, 2018, minutes. Motion carried. 13 14 Presentation – It’s Happening Faster Than We Thought It would– Peter Bardaglio, TCCPI 15 16 Peter Bardaglio of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative shared his annual 17 presentation on the current state of global warming. The PowerPoint of his talk is posted on the 18 EMC website. Here are a few highlights: 19 • Highest monthly average for greenhouse gas emissions in 800,000 years 20 • C02 emissions went down but methane emissions went up. 21 • A report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change cautions 22 we have only 12 years left to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius 23 above pre-industrial levels. 24 • Globally, coal use continues; renewables are increasing but not at a fast-enough pace. 25 • Most sobering climate change news of 2018 so far – A report from the Proceedings of 26 the National Academy of Sciences in early August explores how destructive climate 27 feedback loops can occur if global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius. 28 • Gulf Stream at its weakest in 1,600 years 29 • 2018 shaping up to be fourth-hottest year on record; May-July (2018) ranked as hottest 30 summer ever. Seventeen warmest years have occurred since 2001. 31 • So far this year, 1.2 million acres (5,319 fires) have burned in California. 32 • These extreme weather events took place on every continent at the same time, 33 which itself is evidence of climate change. 34 35 Some good news … 36 • Gov. Jerry Brown signed bill committing California to 100% use of zero-carbon electricity 37 by 2045. The state is the largest economy worldwide to make such a commitment. 38 • U.S. Supreme Court will allow young peoples’ climate lawsuit against U.S. government 39 to proceed in courts. 40 41 Oct. 18th Waste Reduction Program Debrief: Susan Riley 42 • Feedback from audience was overwhelmingly positive. A few people have asked to use the 43 PowerPoint presentation for their own projects. 44 • Susan would have liked to hear more from the presenters from Ontario County. Brian said 45 he thinks they were in listening mode and appreciated learning about measures they could 46 implement in their own county. 47 • Vlad Micic regretted not asking about the increase in nonrecyclable plastics in the landfill. 48 • Members should start brainstorming ideas for the spring outreach event. 49 50 Committee Reports 51 52 Climate Adaptation: Regi Teasley 53 • Committee might focus on carbon farming next. Sara Hess attended last meeting. 54 • Michelle Henry and Regi Teasley met separately to follow up on previous flooding work. 55 • Groups plans to meet with Scott Doyle to discuss overlap between flood risk, carbon 56 farming, and harmful algal blooms. 57 58 Environmental Review: Brian Eden 59 • Due to lack of attendance by other members, Brian has suspended meetings indefinitely. 60 • Arguments in the Article 78 lawsuit against Cargill will be heard in Tompkins County 61 Supreme Court November 26th. A rally in support of the lawsuit will take place in front of 62 courthouse beforehand. 63 • Updates were given on a variety of local environmental issues: Lansing Rod & Gun 64 Club’s failure to comply with an EPA stop work consent order, Cayuga Power Plant 65 proposal to convert from coal to natural gas, community concerns regarding 66 environmental impacts of Cornell North Campus expansion, Trinitas project in Varna, 67 Old Library demolition and possible asbestos contamination, Freese Road Bridge 68 construction, and restructuring of City of Ithaca stormwater utility fees. 69 • Brian asked County to examine pesticide use at its facilities. 70 • City is supposed to pick preferred developer for Green Street Garage site this month. 71 72 Unique Natural Areas: Steve Nicholson 73 • Committee met October 10th. Consultants prepared maps and members made minor edits. 74 • Maps will be emailed to EMC in advance along with a draft resolution. A few maps will then 75 be highlighted at December meeting with opportunity for members to give feedback. 76 • Approval of the resolution will be an action item on the December agenda. 77 • In 2019, consultants will work on last batch of 30 UNAs and finish entire inventory. 78 79 Waste Reduction: Tom Shelley 80 • Tom was pleased with how the Oct. 18th outreach event turned out. 81 • On Oct. 18th, he also gave a one-hour presentation/in-class discussion on the pending 82 single-use thin-film plastic shopping bag ban for Tompkins County to students in his “Global 83 Garbage” class at Cornell. 84 • County Administrator and Attorney want to hear from all the stakeholders before plastic bag 85 ban moves forward. 86 • County Administrator is supposed to share his thoughts from the internal/administrative 87 perspective at next PDEQ meeting. 88 • There is some concern the County Health Department might make a “public health” issue of 89 reusable bags. 90 91 Water Resources Council Liaison/HABs Action Plan Update: Michelle Henry 92 • WRC is updating its Water Quality Strategy. 93 • The Water Withdrawals Committee gave a presentation on their activities. 94 Executive: Brian Eden 95 • Former EMC chair James White recently passed away, just shy of his 102nd birthday. A 96 professor emeritus at Cornell, he was involved in forming Cayuga Lake Watershed Network. 97 • The new Tompkins Center for History and Culture might include a section on sustainability. 98 • Committee needs ideas for future presentations. David Weinstein could speak about Freese 99 Road Bridge. Climate smart farming is another possible topic. 100 • The Talanoa Dialogue with Ithaca and Tompkins County took place Oct. 29th in preparation 101 for UNFCCC COP 24 in Poland. 102 • Greenstar expansion is a hot-button issue as new structure not slated to use heat pumps. 103 Brian cautioned that the situation is complicated, with multiple issues at play; for example, 104 heat pumps would call for a commercial designer and Greenstar does not have the financial 105 wherewithal to pay for such services. (HeatSmart brainstorming ways to help with funding.) 106 107 Staff Report: Scott Doyle 108 109 • Scott had a productive meeting with staff from the County Department of Emergency 110 Response on Climate Adaptation Committee’s flooding survey results. 111 • County Legislature may standardize bylaws for all advisory boards. 112 • Council needs to select a nominating committee at December meeting. The slate of 113 officers for 2019 will be presented at the annual meeting in January. 114 • Scott gave update on greening of the County fleet. Highlights include a great 115 EVTompkins Ride & Drive event with municipal partners, and the purchase of five new 116 electric vehicles by the County Health Department with help from the grant funds. 117 118 Flood Risk and Community Resiliency Conference Report – Scott Doyle 119 • Due to time constraints, Scott’s report on the Community Development Institute conference 120 was deferred to a future meeting. 121 • Attendees included academics, staff from FEMA, other government bodies, and nonprofits, 122 as well as interested citizens. Scott made valuable networking contacts and forged new 123 partnerships as a result. 124 • He will forward links to presentations given at the conference. 125 (https://cardi.cals.cornell.edu/training/cdi/2018-institute/) 126 127 Municipal Reports and Member Announcements 128 • Town of Ithaca Conservation Board shared a memorandum with the City of Ithaca Parks, 129 Recreation, and Natural Resources Commission outlining its concerns with the Cornell North 130 Campus Expansion project. These include conflicting information on the anticipated total 131 amount of CO2 emissions and lack of data on methane emissions resulting from the use of 132 natural gas. Commission members hope to either support that letter or write their own. 133 • Town of Newfield is interested in electric charging stations. Millard Hill community solar 134 project almost completed and will be ready to go on the grid by summer. Burdge Hill Solar 135 project continues afoot, with developer Delaware River continuously in contact with 136 neighbors regarding any issues and in compliance with Planning Board demands. 137 • City and Town of Ithaca are collaborating on deer management plan. 138 • Village of Trumansburg Planning Board issued a ‘neg dec’ for the 46 South Street affordable 139 housing site proposed by Ithaca Housing Neighborhood Services so no environmental 140 impact statement is required. Project has been submitted for preliminary site plan review. 141 142 Chair Brian Eden adjourned the meeting at 5:36 p.m. 143