February 19th, 2002 Minutes

Present: Lynn Leopold, Jerry Codner, Monica Hargraves, Jim Skaley, Sharon Anderson, Karin Harjes

• Dick Coogan with Jacksonville Community Organization is willing to talk about groundwater contamination.

• Sharon suggested Cheryl Horney as new contact person for Lake Source Cooling project.

• Karin will have committee members view list for other possible speakers and topics. We need to narrow down the focus of topics since they are rather general.

• Reference material: Jerry Codner suggested we can anticipate what kinds of questions the audience would typically ask and prepare reference material to answer these questions. One topic that is often asked about is why sediment was chosen as the top priority water quality issue in the RPP. We will develop a fact sheet based on what the Technical Committee is now working on and will develop facts sheets on a need basis.

• Additional material for presenters: Sharon thought we could write up guidelines of items that should be covered. We chose slides Sharon had from past EPPOC/IO meetings which we thought contained good background information about the RPP and the water quality issues. EPPOC provide this information to presenters for them to use as handouts, transparencies, slides or left in Powerpoint format.

• Karin will write a short press release explaining who, what when and where and will send it by email to EPPOC members for their review.

• Monica Hargraves recommended to also contact individual organizations (such as churches, schools etc.) through flyers and a targeted mailing.

• Jim Skaley thought that specific projects of the IO would have a larger draw. We can ask other IO members for ideas on whom else to contact.

• Lynn Leopold added that several speakers of the Speakers Bureau will present in the March membership meeting for the TC League of Women Voters, to be held Monday, March 25 in the Beverly Livesay Conference Room in the Tompkins County Human Services Building, 320 W. State Street. The panel presentation, called "Our Beautiful Lake," will feature Deb Grantham, Sharon Anderson, John Andersson, Tompkins County Health Department, Kate Hackett, Water Resources Council, Sherry Forgash, TC Soil and Water Conservation District.

• Sharon read a background piece for home septic system maintenance to be used as PSA material. Monica Hargraves suggested that Sharon had enough material for several PSAs and that we could divide the information based on the different actions that homeowners need to take to assure a well functioning septic system. Jim and Sharon will work on wells/drinking water PSAs with a focus on water quality, well testing and protection. Jim has some information for LEAPE (Locally-led Education & Action for Protecting the Environment) on aquifers and watershed which may be helpful.

• Lynn read several PSAs on proper handling of household chemicals and how improper handling of chemicals can contaminate soils and water.

• We need to decide how many PSAs per topic we want to make. Variety is good! We will continue working on the next PSA topics in our next meeting.

• Sharon asked a Network member who formerly worked in radio & who is willing to help with PSAs.

• PSAs need to be generic enough to work in any of the 6 counties in the Cayuga Lake Waterhsed. We may suggest listeners calling their local Cooperative Extension as a local resource for further information.

Karin has contacted B.J. Bliss, president of Cayuga Lake Cruise MV Manhattan, he is a school teacher and was very interested in coordinating a “floating classroom” for watershed education on Cayuga Lake. Karin will be meeting with him at 2:00pm on Thursday, February 21st at Q Bistro. We need to know what his costs and availability are.

Notes taken by Lynn Leopold