March 2003 Minutes

ENRAC
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MINUTES OF THE
ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
March 17, 2003

CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL

Dr. Anne Hallum, Chairwoman, called the Environmental and Natural Resources Advisory Committee to order at 7:05 p.m. Roll was called and the following members were in attendance:
       Craig Murray
       Robin Bryant
       Anne Hallum
       Joe Young
       Shailesh K. Patel

Attending were representatives from the agricultural community, and from the irrigation and landscaping community. Also present were members of staff, Tom Carey, Steve Kintner and Martha Shaw.

A motion was made and seconded to take Barbara Davis’s name off the committee list as she has only attended one meeting since her appointment last year. Motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of February 10, 2003, as written. Motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS

Anne Hallum asked if anyone on the committee had any suggestions that had not been e-mailed to Mr. Kintner. There were comments and a few minutes were taken to allow them to be read. Dr. Hallum asked for a report on the workshop that was held March 12, 2003 with Mike Holsinger from Sarasota County. Two committee members, Joe Young and Robin Bryant, were able to attend and commented on what they had gotten from the workshop.

The committee requested comments from the ag and landscape representatives in attendance and after a lengthy discussion the general feeling of public participants was not to create another ordinance but to enforce the ones already in existence like: rain sensor installation, wired and working; enforcement of the watering days and hours; spray zones; and to monetarily punish the offenders with hefty fines. It was also stressed to do more educating of homeowners on how to both run their systems and on how much water it actually takes to grow grass and plants. There was also the feeling that we were rushing things as there are too many questions still left unanswered like:

If you put native plants on a lot that you’ve had to add 2’ to 3’ of fill, will they survive?

Could you issue a meter at the time a well permit is pulled?

Could the county require all new homes to be double metered?

Can we use meters that are programmed to shut off when a certain number of gallons have been used and would require someone to come reset?

Does the water savings outweigh the savings that sod provides? i.e.. infiltration, oxygen production.

Steve Kintner asked the committee if they wanted him to put a report together on what progress has been made and take it back to the County Council, as we have a different seated council now than when this task was brought to ENRAC, to see what direction if any they would like us to take. It was decided that Mr. Kintner would proceed and once his report was complete he would e-mail it to committee members so they could read and prepare a response for when it goes before the County Council.

Dr Hallum thanked all public participants for their comments and advised them of the website where the agenda and minutes can be found and asked they keep up with what would transpire and if they felt they needed to give more comments they could e-mail Steve Kintner. Mr. Kintner passed out business cards.

NEW BUSINESS

After a brief discussion the committee decided on the following goals for this year:
1. Education on Water conservation
2. Enforcement of existing ordinances

STAFF LIAISON REPORT

Tom Carey passed out the Groundwater Report and the “Best Management Practices For Protection of Water Resources in Florida” manual distributed by Laurie Trentham at the March 12^th workshop. Tom also asked the committee to schedule their next meeting, which they did for April 14, 2003.

Mr. Carey scanned through the resolution and advised the committee he felt they did not have the authority to remove Ms. Davis from the committee, but would check with the county legal staff and get back with them.

CORRESPONDENCE

No correspondence

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Under old business

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to come before the Committee the meeting adjourned at 9:06 p.m.