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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-01-14 PACKET 06.1. Washington County Environmental Commissions Joint Meeting October 8, 2014 A joint meeting of Washington County Environmental Commissions was held at Cottage Grove City Hall, 12800 Ravine Parkway South, Cottage Grove, Minnesota, on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, in the Training Room. Call to Order Cottage Grove Councilmember Jen Peterson called the Joint Meeting of Washington County En- vironmental Commissions to order at 7:00 p.m. and welcomed the members of the Oakdale, Woodbury, Mahtomedi and Cottage Grove Environmental Commissions. The attendees intro- duced themselves. Attendees Oakdale: Jen Hassebroek, Keith Miller, A.J. Moses, Jim Persoon, Mike Saarela Woodbury: Girish Jorapurkar, Steve Kernik, Jennifer McLoughlin, Jim Muehlbauer, Roger Splinter, Stephanie Wang Mahtomedi: Christine Ahmann-Maples Cottage Grove: Ryan Burfeind, Rita Isker, Shauna Klug, Jennifer Levitt, Thaddeus Owen, Rosemary Palmer, Councilmember Jen Peterson, Emily Schmitz, Brandon Smith, Karla Bigham Commission Reports 3.a Oakdale Keith Miller stated that their Commission’s focus is on water, waste, and energy. He reported that they have achieved the second level of the GreenStep program and are working towards the third level. He provided information on their rain garden program, noting that they are looking to put in a demonstration rain garden in one of their city parks. The Commission is working to assist commercial buildings on reducing their energy consumption. The City will be working with the St. Paul Port Authority to provide Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans to businesses to complete energy improvements. Jen Hassebroek ex- plained that building tenants want to reduce their energy costs but the building owners are the ones who have to pay the costs for energy upgrades. The Oakdale Environmental Management Commission is working with the building owners and tenants on a “green lease” addendum to existing leases to work out how to allocate the costs and benefits of these improvements. The City of Oakdale was awarded a grant to create green lease addendum language. They are still working out the specifics of the program and hope to have some pilot projects with some building owners soon. There were discussions about interest from the business community in those programs and what incentives would be in the green lease. They are also putting together a Washington County Environmental Commissions Joint Meeting Minutes October 8, 2014 Page 2 of 6 business assistance package that would include information on PACE, the green lease adden- dum, and other programs and financing options. Mr. Miller stated that they installed solar on their City Hall. There was a proposal for funding to add two more solar units on each of their fire stations, but they did not get that funding. However, the City was awarded Made in MN funding to add a solar photovoltaic system to their south fire station. There are several other projects they are working on that will help them meet their goal of a 13 percent reduction for greenhouse gas emissions. They are looking for new software to help with tracking. In early May, the Commission held their fifth annual volunteer cleanup event at Tanners Lake, noting that they did not see as much trash as they had in previous years. The Oakdale Environmental Management Commission offered a free class on vermicomposting of food waste, which was funded by a grant from Washington County. Four people attended the class. They would like to do a larger class on this topic next year. Jennifer Levitt stated that Cottage Grove provided a demonstration at the City’s Public Works Open House and the kids loved it. Mr. Miller stated that the Minnesota Legislature passed Minnesota Community Solar Garden legislation last year, and many solar gardens are going in. There was discussion about efforts in other cities regarding installation of solar gardens. 3.b Woodbury Roger Splinter reported that in 2015 the Woodbury Environmental Advisory Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission are merging and will become the Parks and Natural Resources Commission. The two commissions have a similar focus and combining them will provide more efficiencies, including staff resources. Steve Kernik discussed their water conservation educational efforts. The Woodbury City Council adopted a goal to keep their water use steady. The commission hosted booths at the City’s Community Expo and at an environmental fair at a local school. The educational message at both events focused on water conservation. Commissioners felt that both events were successful with community education, particularly with school-age kids. City staff is trying to establish pilot projects focusing on irrigation, topsoil, rain sensors, and other topics to let residents know what works. There was a discussion about irrigation systems and schedules for watering and how to educate residents about conservation. Jennifer McLoughlin reported on Woodbury’s annual curbside recycling event where residents can place appliances, tires, and scrap metal at the curb for pick-up by their trash hauler at a discounted rate. This program has been very successful. Pick up usually occurs on trash day. There have been issues with other scrap collectors picking up the items, which upsets the haulers, so the past couple years they added contact information for their Public Safety Department to report scavenging. Mr. Splinter stated that today is National Walk and Bike to School Day. He reported that Woodbury has done a bike and pedestrian survey for the last two years. Stephanie Wang stated that last year they followed the GreenStep Cities Best Practices Complete Streets guidelines. They Washington County Environmental Commissions Joint Meeting Minutes October 8, 2014 Page 3 of 6 conducted an informal survey asking residents if they walk or bike and what makes it difficult. They recruited volunteers to help count bikes and pedestrians in various locations around Woodbury. They were also interested in the number of children who bike to school, so they counted bikes parked at bike racks at all the schools in the City. She displayed a map showing the locations where the counts were taken. During the survey they looked at gender, age, and if they are on the sidewalk, trail, or road. During the week that they did the second survey, there was inclement weather so their numbers are down but people were still out there. There was a discussion on how the survey locations were chosen and how the survey was conducted. Mr. Splinter explained that three times a year Woodbury publishes and distributes the “Green Times” newsletter to educate the public. He also stated that annually they are asked by the Council to look at submittals for the Environmental Excellence Awards and talked about the cat- egories and types of nominations that they receive. They have chosen three winners but have not yet publicized them. Mr. Kernik provided an update on the Bielenberg Sports Center and the Urban Village that is being developed across the road. He noted that there is a geothermal system at the sports center that takes the heat that is extracted from the ice and is pumped into the building to heat the rest of the building. Ms. McLoughlin reported that the state implemented legislation for a business recycling program that will take effect in January 2016, for businesses that have more than four cubic yards (a typical dumpster size) of waste each week. Businesses will be required to recycle at least three items, such as plastic, paper, glass, cardboard, etc. Right now there is grant funding available through a program called Biz Recycling to assist businesses in preparing for the new recycling legislation to get bins and to get an efficient program in place. Woodbury held a breakfast meeting with commercial property owners to educate them about the program. One of the property owners signed up 42 businesses for the program and grant funding. To help implement the Biz Recycling program, Washington County is funding a part-time position to assist Woodbury and Oakdale businesses. More information can be found at lesstrash.com. There could be additional funding from the County as they need to meet their goal of 75 percent of recycling taken out of the waste stream, which has been stagnant at 41 percent over ten years. There was a question about the development of the former State Farm site, particularly the re- moval of trees and shrubs. Mr. Splinter stated that the new development will be called City Place and it will be an urban area instead of rural, as it was when State Farm was originally built. There has been a commitment from the developers that there will be an evolution toward a more urban landscape. Mr. Kernik stated that while staff was sad to see the prairie and trees removed, the site was vacant for 10 years and there is now a new owner redeveloping the property. The trees that will be planted in the new parking lot will be fitted with a water system that utilizes captured storm water. They were initially hoping they could move some of those trees onto parkland but they were too big to move. All of the activity there has been permitted and also approved by the Watershed District. 3.c Mahtomedi It was reported that their Environmental Commission was established in 2008. They started with the Natural Steps program and are now on the GreenStep program. They are currently GreenStep Level 3 and are working toward Level 4. The Commission partnered with a local organization Washington County Environmental Commissions Joint Meeting Minutes October 8, 2014 Page 4 of 6 called MAGI, Mahtomedi Area Green Initiative, to get a wind turbine installed at a local school, which uses it as an educational opportunity for students. They also worked with MAGI to install a natural playground at a new elementary school and held a tree planting event. The City put in a community garden. Their farmers market has been a success since it started four years ago. They created a sustainability plan four years ago, with the goal to update it every year, but as a volunteer-run organization, they are still working to update it. They keep their action plans in front of them so they know what they need to do to get to the next level in the GreenSteps program. They send out a quarterly newsletter and display information on the local cable channel. Their Environmental Commission puts on an annual Earth Day event called RITE of Spring (Really Into The Earth), and this past year they had a vendor who provided free electronic recycling, except for tube televisions and tube monitors for which they charged a small fee. The Commission has a small budget for this event that offsets of costs of this event. More than 17,000 pounds of elec- tronics were brought in. They also collected holiday lights and 140 pounds of batteries. Other programs at this event included cooking shows, a bike rodeo, representatives from the Gateway Trail passed out maps, bikes were collected to be repaired and donated, a raffle for a compost bin was held, and they sold and distributed compost bins. Mahtomedi has been exploring solar gardens but they are probably not going to be able to install one on City property. They would like to educate others on the program. Their commission is also working on water conservation as the city is on White Bear Lake. One of the things they are exploring is improving their water bills. Mahtomedi’s water bills are sent on a postcard and references units; a unit equals 748 gallons, but most residents do not know what a unit is. The City is looking at tiered billing based on water usage. Their Finance Director is coming to the next Commission meeting to talk about billing. If people start conserving water, the City might not be able to fulfill some of their bonding and financing obligations. Mr. Kernik stated studies on energy conservation have shown that charging more for higher users does not have an impact but educating users on how much they are using compared to their neighbors is more effective. Ms. Levitt stated that Cottage Grove found that monthly billing helps with water conservation. For example, if you water your lawn a lot one month, you can reduce watering the next month to lower the amount owed. In addition, it is easier for residents to pay a monthly bill instead of quarterly. There was a discussion about tiered billing and how it impacts water usage. There was a question about ideas on how to re-use stormwater. Mr. Kernik stated that a couple of Woodbury’s golf courses used to use water that was collected on the course for irrigation, but there were some issues including one pond that infiltrated very fast so there was not enough water. The municipal golf course collects water runoff which is then re-used for irrigation. Ms. Levitt stated that at the Cottage Grove City Hall building, all the rain water that falls on the building is collected in a 20,000 gallon cistern, which is used for irrigation on the site. This system is governed by the plumbing code as it is hooked to a physical building. Ms. McLoughlin noted that the Washington County Environmental Center also has a similar system. It was reported that a couple of State agencies are in the process of polling different utilities across the state to identify different ways to re-use stormwater and wastewater; that information should be available in the next year and a half. 3.d Cottage Grove Thaddeus Owen reported that the City has focused on how to increase recycling in the city. One area being looked at is increasing recycling at River Oaks, the City-owned golf course. Ryan Burfeind explained that the City has been working with Washington County to obtain a grant to Washington County Environmental Commissions Joint Meeting Minutes October 8, 2014 Page 5 of 6 purchase more recycling containers to put around the golf course. Currently the only items recy- cled at River Oaks is cardboard and a little bit of aluminum. Currently there is no recycling avail- able to the golfers, so part of that grant will be used to get recycling containers to place on the course and at the club house. The City is also tracking waste use at the course so once the program is implemented, they can compare the counts for waste and recycling. There will also be educational materials available for golfers on what can be recycled. Mr. Owen noted that there is a nonprofit that is working on a universal recycling labeling scheme for recycling bins. Mr. Owen reported that for the second year, at Strawberry Fest, which is Cottage Grove’s annual festival, the Environmental Commission had a booth with educational signage and free tokens for kids and adults to help engage the community on environmental issues such as the Blue Thumb Initiative, rain gardens, recycling, and other topics. Another event sponsored by the Cottage Grove Environmental Commission was performances by the CLIMB Theater at three of the City’s elementary schools on recycling. Next year they will provide performances on water conservation for K-2 students. Mr. Owen provided information on the Sustainable City Award, which the Environment Commis- sion presents to individuals and businesses. This was the first year of the award, and Werner Electric was the recipient. Mr. Owen reported on a grant received from the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) which was awarded to provide Aerologic Growing System (Tower Garden) at Pinehill Elementary School. A short video clip was presented that showed tower gardens at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Ms. Levitt explained that the City made a presentation at the school regarding opportunities to partner with the City, and one of the teachers requested applying with the City for the SHIP grant for the tower garden, which she had applied for in the past and was not successful in receiving. The City is the financing mechanism to help support this project. Each grade will have their own tower and will be able to plant and harvest the vegetables. They are planning to use the produce on a snack cart. Emily Schmitz stated that the first harvest should be just before Christmas, and there could be three harvests each school year. Mr. Owen stated that the Commission also reviews air permits, water permits, and other types of permits at facilities such as 3M. 3.e Washington County Ms. McLoughlin summarized the presentation from Washington County. There was information on the new recycling continuum that will be put in place in 2015. Mr. Owen asked if the work group for the recycling continuum looked at the State of Oregon, which does a lot of work around recycling. Ms. Hassebroek stated that the County hired a consultant to figure out the most effective ways to increase recycling rates throughout the county. One of the key points from the cities that participated was that they don’t have a good way of measuring recycling rates. Oakdale did a pilot project with their five garbage haulers to review how they are making their calculations on their annual recycling reports. It was found that they all measure differently. Ms. McLoughlin stated that grant funding will tie to how well a city is doing. Currently cities have to collect the data from the haulers but in 2015 the County will take that over so the reports will be standardized for all haulers and cities. She provided information on the Biz Recycling grant program to help businesses with recycling. She talked about the County’s pilot program to put a composting element in their own Washington County Environmental Commissions Joint Meeting Minutes October 8, 2014 Page 6 of 6 facilities, to develop best practices for future applications. There was a discussion about composting services. The County is working on a food waste recycling program with various school districts. There has not been a lot of interest about that by some of the school districts. There was discussion about opportunities to recycle at gas stations and other business areas. There were also questions on how school districts would be affected by the new recycling laws and how enforcement would work. Ms. McLoughlin discussed the recycling program that has been implemented at Cottage Grove Elementary School. Adjournment The joint meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.