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EQECM 03/12/2013 MINUTES Environmental Quality and Energy Commission Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Call to Order Chairperson Velin called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Commission Members Present: Courtney Ehlers, Eric Boyles, Jack Velin. Richard Svanda and Paul Westby Commission Members Absent: Jonathan Bonkoski, Todd Olin Others Present: City of Fridley Public Works Director James Kosluchar, Kay Qualley, Environmental Planner, staff liaison Guests: Tim Kelly, District Administrator, Coon Creek Watershed District and Dawn Doering, Information and Education Coordinator, Coon Creek Watershed APPROVAL OF JANUARY 7, 2013, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MINUTES MOTION by Commissioner Svanda and seconded by Commissioner Ehlers to approve the January 7, 2013, Environmental Quality & Energy Commission minutes. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON VELIN DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. New Business Chairperson Velin asked for introductions from the Commission and guests. Presentation from Coon Creek Watershed District, Tim Kelly, District Administrator Ms. Qualley showed a map of Fridley delineating the three watershed-oriented organizations: Coon Creek, Rice Creek Watershed Districts and the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. Mr. Kelly presented a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation about the history, role and responsibilities of Coon Creek Watershed District. He explained that as District Administrator for Coon Creek Watershed District, he wore a lot of hats and CCWD was subject to a variety of laws. CCWD was originally established as a ditch authority in 1950 and is the second oldest watershed district in the state. Changes occurred in the early 1980’s as a result of the Metropolitan Management Act. This affected the district and Watershed Management Organization’s joint power board. CCWD has the original “as built” designs of ditches in regard to culvert placement. In 2005, the MPCA assigned CCWD MS4 permitting authority (the City of Fridley is also an MS4 permitting authority). In the last ten years their role has been a combination of coordination and management of “paper”. Their mandates include Drainage Law, Watershed Law, Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act, Wetland Conservation Act, and Federal MINUTES Environmental Quality and Energy Commission Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Clean Water Act. CCWD reviews and aids in the development of stormwater pollution prevention plans for development. The organization looks at public health and safety in terms of water quality management. The district has distinct water quality impairments. Our role, as stated by Mr. Kelly is to prevent degradation of the resources. They are a ditch authority, watershed district, water management organization. CCWD does not want to duplicate what cities are doing. They focus on pre-development conditions. Mr. Kelly went on to review the following topics (summarized below): Responsibilities Protect public health and safety, provide for the sustainable use of water; prevent unacceptable damage to water; balance economic development with hydrologic performance and the well- being of present and future generations. District Mission Mange groundwater and surface water drainage systems to prevent property damage; maintain hydrologic balance; protect water quality for the safety and enjoyment of citizens and the preservation and enhancement of wildlife habitat. Mission Goals Prevent property damage from flooding, erosion or degraded water quality. Ensure balance between inflow, outflow and storage of water. Ensure that water is protected from contamination. Provide for a variety of beneficial uses including the safety and enjoyment of the watershed’s resident. Preserve and enhance wildlife. Cover the day to day operations and support the Anoka County Conservation District. CCWD provides grant support, support to the City of Fridley Public Works Director Kosluchar. Mr. Kelly gave examples of performance-based multi-scale work like that for Coon Rapids shopping centers, Springbrook Creek, ultimately to the positive benefit of the Mississippi River. Strategies Promote collaborative efforts. Encourage and enable locally led management. Facilitate performance-based, multi-scale solutions. Continually evaluate the performance of the resource and adjust programs and activities to increase effectiveness. Technical Advisory Board Potential and on-going projects are reviewed by the Technical Advisory Board and assessed for strengths and weaknesses. Fridley Public Works Director Kosluchar is a member of the CCWD Technical Advisory Board. MINUTES Environmental Quality and Energy Commission Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Goal 1: Prevent property damage. CCWD is focusing on Springbrook Creek in 2013 (for more than one city, to facilitate, plan and create agreement about how to proceed) and Pleasure Creek where they are exceeding goals for coliform bacteria. CCWD manages monitoring stations, typically preferring them to be upstream from the receiving body of water, as close as possible without having monitors affected by backflush from that body. One of the monitors on the Mississippi is in Fridley, just below East River Road. Planning: WRAPP(Watershed Restoration Plan) is being worked on now and modeling. Monitoring: Goal 2 Balance Inflow, Outflow and Storage of Water Requirement that all new development must infiltrate first inch of water from a rain event. This requirement will cover 90% of storms. Control of rates and volume. Planning: XPSWMM/Atlas 14 Modeling is an exciting research project which will have far- ranging impacts on flood plains, insurance and development or re-development. The original Technical Publication 40 for measurement of storm events contained data based upon only five rain gauges scattered about the state. Their results were extrapolated and that is how flood plain th and associated maps were produced, as an extrapolation of these numbers. Now, on March 15, 2013 (if the original release date holds), NOAA will release Atlas 14. This project used 3200 highly calibrated rain sensors and will be considerably more accurate than the old model. One of the sensors, in fact, is located in Fridley. What will happen (showed slides) is that old flood plain area (100 year events) that was based on 5.8 to 6 inches of rain will now be based on more like 7.6 inches of rain. Springbrook Nature Center will get a continuous rain gauge. 303D Springbrook Creek is on the Impaired List. Goal 3: Protect Water Quality CCWD permits land disturbance on areas greater than an acre or adjacent to water resources. Stabilize streambanks, construct or retrofit existing stormwater facilities. Examples are Springbrook Retrofit Study, Stoneybrook in WRAPP. Monitor Springbrook and Laddie Lake. Goal 4: Provide and Protect other Beneficial Uses . Riparian lands are a big focus. Apply scenery management principles. Maintenance is conducted differently in riparian area in order to manage then under the principles of multiple-use. A place with great beneficial uses like the Coon Rapids Region Park is a great place to go birding and see many species. CCWD gives preference to riparian dependent resources. Activities protecting beneficial uses involve planning groundwater/surface water, use restrictions imposed on municipal water supply, encourage use of renewable water supplies, decrease waste of groundwater through sensor-based drip or trickle irrigation.Groundwater and surface water plans will need to consider things like water harvesting, water sensors and micro-drip irrigation instead of broadcast heads in systems, among the many techniques for capture of the resource. MINUTES Environmental Quality and Energy Commission Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Goal 5: Preserve and Enhance Wildlife Activities protecting wildlife. CCWD cooperates with local, State and Federal agencies and private groups to plan and accomplish habitat management. When they trim trees, for instance, they consider fish habitat objectives in all resource project proposals. Most of the rare species they seek to protect are located in Blaine and Northern Ham Lake area. However, the island has an unusual stand of Silver Maples. Not all wildlife gets protected, sometimes beavers must be killed. They don’t relocate very well. CCWD is seeing more coyotes and the occasional bear which comes out of the Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge area. Protection from invasive species is a goal, like aquatics: Asian waterfoil, Phragmites and other aggressive reed grasses, buckthorn, Lythrum and emerging pests are on their radar. CCWD created a habitat map for those locations most likely to be invaded by target species and they concentrate their first response eradication efforts there. CCWD does not want to get into a position like Lake Minnetonka finds itself in regard to zebra mussels. They are pursuing a Rapid Response and Eradication program. Other goals relate to climate change, declining regional groundwater. Management Considerations 1. Establish buffer zones to exclude ground water extraction 2. Establish maximum limits for draw down 3. Establish a minimum distance from which wells may be located 4. Protecting ground water quality in recharge areas. Maintenance and Technical Opportunities CCWD is operationally active with projects that improve water quality. Contracting with urban foresters to remove trees that have fallen into streams and impeding water flow. Removal of sand bars, restoring channels, methods used depends on the location of the problem. There is quite a difference between a project located in a regional park vs. an agricultural field in the Ham Lake portion of the District. Non-routine maintenance includes removal of beavers and beaver dams. Damming of bodies of water that need to flow freely is problematic and sometimes requires trappers or foresters depending on the size of the beaver dam. Even backhoes are used for more densely constructed dams. Dawn Doering from Coon Creek Watershed District was introduced to the group. Her role as information and education coordinator is the hardest job in the District because she is charged with initiating change in stormwater practices, etc. Water Quality CCWD is looking for new information garnered about bacteria in TMDL. Currently there is a hole where Coon Creek Watershed District would be located on the map on (?) because a project MINUTES Environmental Quality and Energy Commission Tuesday, March 12, 2013 is being worked on now which will provide detailed information. Retro-fitting The first priority for retro-fits is to focus on “low-hanging fruit”, the projects that can, with little cost, affect positive change. Examples of this would be tweaking of existing ponds. Raising the levels of an existing pond can convert it into a pond that will take longer to drain. They also look for properties that are suitable for new ponds. In general, as a new entity for the City of Fridley, CCWD is looking at getting Fridley caught up in terms of the rest of the District. This catch up plan dovetails nicely with CCWD priorities also. Shoreline Plantings Commissioner Westby asked, “Does Coon Creek Watershed District give counsel about shoreline plants?” Mr. Kelly, “Yes. Banks get rip rap stone up the level of a ten year event. Then the remainder of the way up the bank is planted with native plants. In that situation it would be also ok to landscape with non-native plants, as long as it is not invasive species that are used.” Quantity and Flow This is an extremely important topic, big. Water levels have been steadily dropping, continuing to drop all in just twenty years. Commissioner Svanda asked, “What is your role in District groundwater?” District Administrator Kelly replied that the effects on surface water can be felt by what happens to groundwater. It can also change wells. Other organizations like the Minnesota Department of Health and the MPCA get involved here. Wells in some parts of the northern area of Anoka County are only about seven feet deep. Informally speaking, that would be like drinking what you put on your backyard last week, water quality that may not be as good as desired. The MPCA priorities are for beneficial uses like drinking water, boating and fishing. Commissioner Svanda asked if the groundwater is declining. Mr. Kelly replied in the affirmative stating that the differences in groundwater between when he started in the 1990’s and now are dramatic and that in the foreseeable future, Anoka County could be in a serious water deficit situation, without intervention. Cities and the County will face some tough policy and development choices in the next few years. Mr. Kelly went on to discuss the recovery potential for groundwater resources. The discussion centered on the current drought, touched briefly on climate change and also discussed re-charge potential and how much that could affect groundwater recovery. He also mentioned that the Minnesota League of Women Voters is studying ground water all this year. He asked that all of us think of groundwater as multi- dimensional, not just Groundwater with a capital G, but:  Surficial Groundwater  Prairie du Chien aquifer and groundwater  Jordan aquifer and groundwater MINUTES Environmental Quality and Energy Commission Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Questions and Other Discussion Following the main presentation, Commissioner Westby asked about Operations and how it was structured. Mr. Kelly replied that 50% of his budget was used operationally for things like tree removal and stormwater pond construction or repair. EQEC Commissioners were informed that the CAC would welcome them or other Fridley nd representatives and that the advisory committee meets on March 13 and again on the 2 Wednesday in April. New Business Continued: Anoka County and Fridley Recycling Agreement and Goals for 2013. Ms. Qualley reviewed the 2013 program as presented to the Fridley City Council on March 11, 2013. The bulk of the grant is based on $10,000.00 plus $5.00 per household (11,187 HH in Fridley) for a total of $65,935.00. New this year, based on input from Anoka County Recycling Coordinators (including Ms. Qualley) is additional grant opportunities for Parks, Community Events and another grant category called Recycling Enhancement. The City of Fridley’s recycling goal is going up to 2506 tons, an increase of 386 tons over the recycling tonnage obtained in 2012. The City of Fridley has approved participation in $12,000 of these new grant opportunities in addition to the main grant. Parks Department will receive additional funding for labor and bags. Special events like 49er Days and Softball Tournaments will receive bags, containers and some help with labor for recycling activities. The savings from switching providers for the twice annual Recycling Drop-off events will be applied toward new programming aimed at improving the tonnage from apartment buildings. Old Business-None Other-None ADJOURNMENT Chair Velin asked if there was any further business. He stated that, hearing of no further business he would like to entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. MOTION by Commissioner Boyles, seconded by Commissioner Svanda, to adjourn the meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON VELIN DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE MARCH 12, 2013, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY & ENERGY COMMISSION MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:40 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Kay Qualley Staff Liaison for the EQEC Environmental Planner City of Fridley