Minutes: April 24th, 2002

Attendees:

Deb Grantham, Town of Dryden

Sylvia Hurlbut, Town of Ledyard

Barbara B. Stewart, Town of Interlaken

Daniel M. Winch, Tompkins County

John M. Sipos, Town of Varick and Covert

Chuck Howell, Town of Scipio

Lynn Leopold, Village of Lansing

George Kennedy, Town of Ulysses

Jose Lozano, City of Ithaca (visitor)

Karin Harjes, EPPOC

The meeting was called to order at 7:07 PM at the Town of Interlaken Baptist Church.

Last month's minutes and current IO financial statement was reviewed. Motion by Sylvia Hurlbut, seconded by Lynn Leopold to approve March meeting minutes. Sylvia sent out vouchers to towns.

Funding Opportunities:

1. Cornell faculty and students want to get more involved with the community. Max Pfeiffer is interested in having students become involved with an IO project. Possible projects for students could be identification of erosion along streams and potential areas for wetland restoration.

2. Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act:

The IO could buy a wetland and build a boardwalk for guided tours on the importance of wetlands. Deb attended a "Coping With Your Stream" workshop in Caroline where she talked to Jim Curatola. Jim works on erosion control and wetland reconstruction in the Upper Susquehanna River and is willing to lead guided tours. Lynn Leopold suggested the Hog Hole area as people have expressed the need for a low impact interpretive walk along the edge of Cass Park. The Land Trust could also be know of other wetland areas we can look into.

3. Jose Lozano reported on several grant possibilities for the IO and the Network:

(a) Jose recently wrote a grant proposal to the EPA, Region 2, requesting $50,000 for one year to determine Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for sediments and phosphorous in the Northern end of Cayuga Lake (including Yawger Creek and up). Depending on the target use of the area, the optimum level of TMDLs based on a NSF guideline on TMDLs, which the EPS is supposed to follow. This would be a joint Network and IO project.

(b) Discussion on the draft 303(d) listing of the southern end of Cayuga Lake: IO members were divided on whether a 303(d) listing was a positive action for the sake of the watershed (will it bring in more funding and generate data?) or a top-down action that will nullify local action. Deb Grantham was asked to review the various positions submitted to her and to submit comments to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on behalf of the IO.

(c) Jose also mentioned the RACNE - competitive edge Watershed Indicators Proposal (due in a month). RACNE would help with imagery to estimate chlorophyll concentrations. Syracuse is doing something similar. This would be another joint Network and IO project.

(d) Jose suggested the Surdna Foundation ( www.surdna.com)) as a possible funding organization. The average award through this organization is $100,000. The IO could emphasize the IO's partnership with the Network, implementation of the RPP, and IO's grassroots status.

4. Possible grant writers for the IO:

(a) Liz Moran would be interested in helping write the grant proposals. The IO voted unanimously on contracting with Liz for this job.

(b) Chris Nill- North East Rural Community Assistance Program (NE RCAA), based in Manchester, will write grants for free.

Committee Reports:

1. Education Committee (EPPOC):

Karin Harjes gave an update of what EPPOC is currently working on.

(a) Water Week Display: on Friday, May 10th in the Ithaca Commons and on Saturday, May 11th at the Ithaca Farmer's Market, the IO will have a poster presentation describing the IO, its partners and the RPP.

(b) Jerry Codner invited Lora Hine, Education and Outreach Coordinator of his Physics Lab at Cornell, to attend the last EPPOC meeting on April 16th, 2002. She is very interested in help with the project and said she would look out for funding opportunities. She also contacted the Education Coordinator of the Lake George Association who sent her very useful information (such as operating costs and class curricula) about their outreach programs including the floating classroom. Karin will contact the Lake George Association to organize a visit.

(c) The first Public Service Announcements (PSAs) that we will record will cover proper handling of household chemicals, such as waste disposal and motor oil change, written by Lynn Leopold. PSAs will be recorded as MP3 files at Eagle Broadcasting and then emailed to other stations around the watershed.

(d) Another idea that the EPPOC is considering to do in the future is to run ads at Hoyts Cinemas, which costs roughly $3,000/year or $50/ad. Solid Waste has done this in the past with recycling ads, which helped them reach a larger audience.

2. Agriculture Committee:

Chuck Howell reported that the next meeting of the Agriculture Committee is on June 18th, 2002.

(a) Grant options were discussed with Sharon Anderson who has a grant proposal submitted for Lake Source Cooling education. Monika Roth from Cornell Cooperative Extension offered to get a work study student from Cornell to collect data from counties on what agriculture related research is currently going on.

(b) The Agriculture Committee is working on developing Emergency Action Plans such as containment of pond spillage and making maps of stored chemicals for firemen.

(c) Once a year the Committee will notify the public of chemicals that have gone off label.

(d) The Agriculture Committee will also focus on County conservation tillage surveys and on riparian buffers.

3. Technical Advisory Committee (TAC):

Jose Lozano reported for TAC, which will meet every other month and stay active in between meetings by email.

(a) Jet Skies: 90% of all boat and jet ski engines produced are 2 stroke which is an old and inefficient design but very popular because they are cheap. 75% of the fuel is burned while the remaining 25% is discharged directly into the water. It is estimated that 75,000 gallons of fuel are discharged every season (into Cayuga Lake or into Lakes nationwide?). It would be very difficult to ban 2 stroke engines from Cayuga Lake although this has been done in some lakes such as Lake Tahoe. However, TAC wants to massively publicize this information! Tompkins County Watershed Council will receive this information. It is estimated that in 2006-2008 a National Standard may be set where 2 stroke engines will need to be 90-95% more efficient than today, however until that is still in a few years. Lynn Leopold suggested to make "no enter" areas in the Lake for all boats and jet skies in sensitive breeding areas or make areas specific for Jet Ski use, like snow mobile trails in the winter.

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(b) TAC is finishing a short article explaining why sedimentation is the priority watershed issue in the Cayuga Lake Watershed.

(c) RACNE: TAC decided to participate even if Cayuga Lake is not the focus, if RACNE helps TAC in the Watershed Indicators Project.

Joint IO/Network Committee meeting

1. Deb talked with John Barney, an Ithaca lawyer, about joining the two organizations using the Bolton Point Commission as a model. He didn't advise this union for several legal reasons. The Network can't hire staff for the IO but can contract for services. Regarding the 501(c)(3) status for grant writing purposes, he said you can often apply as a municipality.

2. Bill Shaw met with Dave Watson, the lawyer Sue Seneca recommended, and he came to the same conclusion, it is more complicated than expected to join the two organizations. Dave didn't have examples of this type of an agreement and he had only done this once, with a small group of municipalities.

3. The Joint Committee decided the IO and the Network will remain as they currently are and the IO will continue to look for fund through the municipalities. The two organizations agreed to work together and share information in order to make cooperation more visible. Jose Lozano suggested he will work on a Special Issue publication citing both organization's missions and accomplishments.

Additional Comments

1. Deb will invite a representative of the Tompkins County Vital Community Initiative to the next IO Ithaca meeting. The mission of this organization is to develop a comprehensive goal for Tompkins County planning guidelines for each municipal plan. Each town would have different guidelines that could be coordinated by each county.

2. Deb will also invite Dan Coogan who works with storm water regulations for the City of Ithaca.

3. Jose Lozano distributed EPA's Phase II information.

4. John Sipos reported on an Ithaca Journal article published April 24th written by Toxics Targeting, Walter Hang on radioactive material leaking into the South end of Cayuga Lake. John advised we respond with letters to the editor without disagreeing but saying that the IO and the Network are doing something to protect the Lake as a way to promote our efforts.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

Next Meeting: May 12th, Seneca Town Hall

Submitted by Karin Harjes