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01/16/2002ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY BOARD CITY OF CLEARWATER January 16, 2002 Present: Sandra Jamieson Chairperson Alan Smith Vice Chair Allan Stowell Board Member Clorinda Gilreath Board Member David Rhame Board Member Also Present: Tom Miller Assistant Director of Engineering/E&SM Leslie Dougall-Sides Assistant City Attorney Richard Kephart Planning Services Dave Sickler Public Utilities Norma Skinner Board Reporter To provide continuity for research, items are in agenda order although not necessarily discussed in that order. Unless otherwise noted, no action was taken regarding items. Administration The Chair called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. ITEM #1 Approval of Minutes – January 16, 2002 Ms. Gilreath moved to approve the minutes of November 21, 2001 as submitted. Allan Stowell duly seconded the motion. ACTION: Approved. Carried unanimously. ITEM #2 Citizens to be Heard None. Action Items ITEM #3 – Action Items None. Reports ITEM #4 – Commission Liaison None. ITEM #5 – Stevenson Creek Liaison None ITEM #6 – City Comprehensive Plan Chair recognized Richard Kephart to go over a few of the issues listed on the Annual Review of Community Development Plan, particularly the code issues affecting the environment such as marina dock requirements, landscaping and protection of trees. Mr. Stowell suggested installing wheel stops so that when vehicles pull up to a parking space they do not damage the trees and a law to require removal of pepper trees. Mr. Smith agreed that there should be an ordinance requiring the removal of all pepper trees on new developments. Chair asked for a motion to recommend the Planning Department and City Manager revise the current code, to strongly suggest to the Commission that they look into revising the zoning to include removal of noxious trees as part of the landscaping. The motion died for lack of second. Gina Clayton from Planning announced a Public Workshop at the Harborview on February 11th from 4 to 7 p.m. It will be a workshop type atmosphere for discussion of different Community Development code topics. ITEM #7 – Potable/Reclaimed Water Andy Neff presented an update on reclaimed water and potable water. The most recent activity is that we have received grant funding from SWFWMD for Harbor Oaks, our subdivision project, in the amount of 1.3 million. Funding has also been requested for the next project, the Seville area, which will also include a small segment that will serve the old Clearwater Harbor area. Andy Neff mentioned that they would be speaking at the next homeowners association meeting on February 25th to introduce the project to the community and inform them of what will be happening in the future. He added that perhaps it would be a good idea to give an update as to the Master Plan for reclaimed water. The potable water plant project is progressing; it is about 50% designed. The concept is that we can increase the local production from our wells up to about 2 additional million gallons a day and to produce it cheaper than what we are buying it for. We currently produce about 3 million gallons a day. The Commission has approved everything up to date on the project. Within the next few weeks bids from the equipment vendors will be reviewed .A selection will be made and it will be presented to the Commission around March 10th. The construction portion will follow in May. Mr. David Rhame inquired if any of the four vendors considered have supplied equipment to Dunedin, and are some of the designs similar to what they have there? Mr. Neff said that we will check into it. Mr. Stowell expressed concern about the amount of reclaimed water that is being put into Tampa Bay and Stevenson Creek. He asked if we will ever reach a point where there won’t be any reclaimed water going into our waters. He feels that if we put more areas on line it would decrease the amount of water going into the bay. Mr. Neff stated that we are approaching reclaimed water in three different phases. Right now we are in the disposal stage. The concept is we want people to use it. We will get to a point where people we will be using it and we are going to run out during dry weather. Then we will need to look at some form of restriction; next we will have to go into seasonal storage. There are other methods to control use other than metering, such as designating days to use it and installing valves that can be turned on and off. Discussion Items ITEM #8 - Arsenic Chair inquired about the Arsenic issue. Mr. Tom Miller advised that in spring of this year a study will be coming out. Chair suggested to table this issue until we have more information. ITEM #9 - Wastewater Collection System Improvements Chair recognized Mr. Neff to discuss the Wastewater Collection System Improvements. Mr. Neff introduced Dave Sickler from the Wastewater Collection Division in Public Utilities. Mr. Sickler provided a slide presentation on the wastewater collection system. The United States Environmental Protection agency has developed a program to maintain the system that is called Capacity Maintenance Operation and Management, better know as CMOM, as a tool for best management practices of permitting collection systems. In 1998 the United States Environmental Protection Agency invited the City of Clearwater and other municipalities to perform the voluntary self-audit of it’s collection system. The results of this self-audit have been used to develop the elements of a road map in this presentation. Several methods are used to examine the system; manhole inspections, line inspections, smoke testing inspections, and pump station inspections. The results of the self-audit have been used to identify annual program needs such as cleaning and inspection of sewer lines on a regular basis, smoke testing again on a regular basis, manhole rehabilitation, gravity line repairs, sanitary lateral problem repairs, pump station force main inspections and telemetry and electronic sensor replacements. The annual program recommendations are being implemented through in-house and contract activities. The overall goal is to allow nothing but in-house cleaning regiment. Pump station # 40 is 100% complete. The reduction in miles of reactive pipeline cleaning and increase in miles of proactive pipeline cleaning supports the dramatic reductions in blockages, overflows, claims and reimbursements that we are now experiencing. ITEM #10 - Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex Environmental Mr. Tom Miller stated that at the last meeting the EAB members asked for an update on the Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex. Concerns raised were basically about the initial discussion regarding the Philliies’ location at the site off Drew Street. There was concern about the environmental conditions at the site, and now that moving the Phillies to a different site is being considered the question was raised as to what would become of the Joe DiMaggio issues that had been identified. Mr. Tom Miller introduced Mr. Kevin Dunbar, Director of Parks and Recreation to address the Board’s questions. Mr. Smith asked about the report, which didn’t show any conclusion or summary, and he wanted to know if the Phillies have decided to move. The Phillies notified the City that their desire would not be to continue to move forward based upon information that was provided in the report and instead to look at alternative locations. Our next phase would have been determining the hot areas. We determined not to go forward and spend money on a site that we probably were starting to move away from. Mr. Miller stated that the overall issue with the site off Drew Street is that it was formerly a landfill in the City of Clearwater. The tests performed at that site basically did not indicate that there was any hazardous material in the landfill. It is strictly a solid waste issue. It is protected and contained on that site. We are addressing a number of the drainage issues and we are in the process of finishing the design. We will be getting back with the community for them to review the design. We have the project fully funded and are ready to start construction for draining improvement. Some of the last analyses were done to determine if there will be any sinkhole activity that would be aggravated by the construction. Mr. Dunbar stated that after deciding not to construct at this location, we had been engaged with the Department of Environmental Protection and they still had two concerns. The first, had to deal with ground water runoff and we will be installing several perimeter-monitoring wells to check that. Their second concern had to deal with methane gas and how it would affect a building. It seems when St. Petersburg erected the field house they did not get the required approvals, so there is no history. We don’t have validation that landfill was removed, therefore, DEP would like to see methane monitoring of the field house. That is the responsibility of the college because we are only renting from the college. We have a four-year lease with the college to operate the field house as a recreation center that commenced in October of 2000. We are going forward with having some monitoring done because our concern is for our employee safety as well as any citizens that participate. Mr. Stowell stated he heard at a meeting that SPJC was giving this land to the City at no cost, because it required cleaning. He wanted to know if DEP is going to require us to clean it. Mr. Dunbar stated all DEP is requiring us to do are the wells and expressed that there was no concern because the college had been looking at getting out of the athletic field, and the City had taken over the maintenance of that area about 5 years prior. Mr. Stowell commented that while walking through the Friendly Village of Kapok, he ran into Mr. Dunbar who showed him some of the outstanding work that was done in tree protection at Eddie C. Moore Complex. Mr. Dunbar explained that he worked with Alan Mayberry to do some extensive tree protection in order to save shade trees. Mr. Stowell feels they did an outstanding job and should be commended. The park would not be the same if it did not have the shade trees. Mr. Dunbar explained the new technology that Alan used which consists of a grid system that goes underneath the sidewalks and allows oxygen and water to reach the roots. Mr. Tom Miller addressed the Chair and thanked Alan Stowell for bringing to our attention the Historic Bayview project which received funding from the state through the efforts of the Bayview Association. He would like to suggest that the Board consider giving an environmental award to the Historic Bayview Association for their contribution in preserving this site. Mr. Stowell suggested that Alan Mayberry should also be recognized, along with Mr. Dunbar, for their work in tree protection. A group knows as the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) are really the one who helped to orchestrate the completion of this project, to bring it forward and get a contract on the site and provided technical assistance to help us apply for the grant. ITEM #11 – The City Guideway Project Chair recognized Mr. Ken Sides to present an overview on a guideway to connect downtown Clearwater and Clearwater Beach. Ken discussed the benefits a guideway would provide to the environment, tourism and business on both the beach and downtown. He presented a slide show on guideways in different parts of the country, many of which are publicly funded. The roadway could be shared with Memorial Causeway Bridge and money saved if used as a shared facility. He also suggested that it could be built as a demo project since it is only two miles in length. Downtown would be the embarkation point to the beach allowing the City to justify support of downtown garages and the need for large parking lots on the beach would be eliminated. Ken said that if there were interest in pursuing this project, the City would like to go on to Phase II. Two board members left during this presentation, Mr. Alan Smith and Mr. David Rhome, however, the exact time was not recorded. The meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m.