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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCFE agenda 03142022 AGENDA Orange County Commission for the Environment March 14th1 2022 7:30 p.m. Virtual Meeting (Zoom Link...) Time Item Title 7:30 I. Call to Order 7:32 II. Additions or Changes to Agenda 7:34 III. Approval of DRAFT Meeting Summary — Jan. 10th, & Feb 14th, 2022 The CFE will consider approval of summary from the last two meetings.Action needed (Attachment 1&2) 7:35 IV. New Member and New Sustainability Project Manager Introductions Staff/Chair will introduce two new members,and the new Sustainability Project Manager may introduce themselves. 7:45 V. CFE Officer Nominations and Elections- Action Item The CFE will nominate members to serve as Vice Chair for the following year. Once nominees are decided,the CFE will vote.Action needed 7:55 VI. OWASA Long-Range Water Supply Planning Update OWASA staff Ruth Rouse and/or Mary Tiger will present materials regarding the Long-Range Water Supply Planning efforts,and critical decisions that are being made.Time allotted for questions following presentation. (Attachment 3) 8:30 VII. Committee Breakouts The CFE will break out into committee assignments and discuss goals/projects for the year. 8:50 VIII. Updates and Information Items Staff and/or CFE members will provide updates on the following items: • Earth Day • In-person meetings? Any other new information from CFE members and staff 9:00 IX. Adjournment • *Next Meeting Date: April 11 th, 2022;if requested by CFE (Virtual) Attachment 1 Orange County Commission for the Environment DRAFT Meeting Summary January 10, 2022; 7:30 pm virtual Zoom Meeting Present: Kim Piracci, Kim Livingston, Frank Binkowski, Bill Ward, Eric Scheier, Jaya Nair, Kristie Mather, Carrie Fletcher, James Eichel, Veronica Penn Beattie, Jessie Birckhead, Jane Harris Absent: Jeremy Marzuola (excused), Alan Parry (absent), Elizabeth McWhorter(absent) I. Call to Order Kim Piracci called the meeting to order at 7:31 pm. II. Additions or Changes to Agenda Kim Piracci requested to conduct CFE Officer Nominations and Elections prior to Approval of DRAFT Meeting Summary from the December 13th, 2021 meeting. III. CFE Officer Nominations and Elections—Action Item Kim Piracci stated that she would be happy to turn over the role of Chair. Carrie Fletcher nominated Kim Piracci to continue to serve as Chair and Kim Piracci accepted but only if some of the new members would be open to the position next year. Kim Livingston stated that she was going to step down from Vice Chair. Frank Binkowski nominated Jaya Nair to serve as Vice Chair, but Jaya Nair declined, so Kim Piracci nominated Eric Scheier and he accepted. Vote for Kim Piracci as Chair; all in favor; none opposed; Kim Piracci shall serve as Chair of CFE for 2022. Vote for Eric Scheier; all in favor; none opposed; Eric Scheier shall serve as Vice Chair of CFE for 2022. IV. Approval of DRAFT Meeting Summary—December 1311, 2021 Motion by Frank Binkowski; seconded by Carrie Fletcher; all in favor; none opposed; motion passed. V. Community Climate Action Grant Proposal Review Asset Management Director, Steven Arndt,presented a FY 2021-22 Community Climate Action Grant proposal from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) titled Creating a Solar Future at CHCCS. The proposal calls for the installation of a 100kW rooftop photovoltaic array at three campuses (Chapel Hill High School, East Chapel Hill High School and Carrboro High School) to offset energy consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and incorporate sustainability-related educational content for students at CHCCS. Of the $268,000 currently available for the public school system, CHCCS are requesting $250,000 for their project. After a lengthy discussion, the CFE agreed to recommend approval of the grant application to the BOCC with two recommendations. Page 1 of 2 Orange County Commission for the Environment DRAFT Meeting Summary January 10, 2022; 7:30 pm virtual Zoom Meeting One, CHCCS hire an appropriate consultant to manage the design and negotiations with the utilities to ensure that the schools receive the maximum environmental benefit from this project. Kim Piracci asked Veronica Penn Beattie to summarize her additional recommendation thoughts. She then asked Eric Scheier to summarize his recommendation ideas on Renewable Energy Credits in two sentences. First, the environmental benefits go with the Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). Second,the schools should therefore build the system so that they keep the RECs. Since there was no agreement about how the second recommendation should be worded, David suggested that we come to agreement via email. Motion to approve with recommendations by Bill Ward; seconded by Frank Binkowski; all in favor; none opposed; motion passed. VI. Updates and Information Items None. VII. Adjournment Frank Binkowski motioned to adjourn the meeting at 9:09 pm; seconded by Jane Harris; none opposed; motion passed. Page 2 of 2 Attachment 2 Orange County Commission for the Environment DRAFT Meeting Summary February 14, 2022; 7:30 pm virtual Zoom Meeting Present: Kim Piracci, Kim Livingston, Frank Binkowski, Bill Ward, Jaya Nair, Kristie Mather, Carrie Fletcher,Veronica Penn Beattie, Jessie Birckhead, Jane Harris, Elizabeth McWhorter Absent: James Eichel (excused) I. Call to Order Kim Piracci called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm. II. Additions or Changes to Agenda Dave Stancil requested to go ahead and inform the CFE that Brennan Bouma's vacant position had been renamed as Sustainability Project Manager and had been filled by Amy Eckberg. She will start on March 7ch and will be active within the CFE. III. FY 2022-23 Orange County Outside Agency Application The CFE was asked to review an application from Piedmont Wildlife Center for County funding and provide ranking via the provided Orange County Outside Agency Application Scorecard. David Stancil led the discussion and informed the CFE that they would need to collectively agree on the ranking numbers within the Scorecard. The Piedmont Wildlife Center is requesting $9,000 from Orange County to support their Earthkeepers Afterschool Program. After considerable discussion, the CFE agreed to recommend that the program receive support and ranked it with a score of 87/100. The Scorecard will be forwarded to the County Manager who will ultimately decide on program funding. IV. Working Group Review of CFE Bylaws and Policy Kim Piracci notified the CFE that there was a rules review in progress of the Orange County Commission for the Environment Policies and Procedures that was adopted by the BOCC on 11.8.12. This effort is being done to ensure the document is up to date with current Orange County Board of County Commissioners Advisory Board Policy and Rules of Procedure for the Board of County Commissioners. V. Opportunities for Earth Day Outreach David Stancil informed the CFE of the upcoming Earth Evening event to be held in Hillsborough on April 29, 2022. This event is typically in coordination with Hillsborough's Last Fridays event. Bill Ward expressed interest in having a booth set up for his nonprofit, Electrify Orange, at the event. Kim Piracci talked about having a CFE booth at the Carrboro Earth Day event to inspire people to apply to be on the CFE. CFE Page 1 of 2 Orange County Commission for the Environment DRAFT Meeting Summary February 14, 2022; 7:30 pm virtual Zoom Meeting members brainstormed ideas to draw interest to a CFE booth. More discussion to follow at next month's CFE meeting. Wesley Poole also mentioned Orange County's Creek Week coming up March 14-18, 2022, at which County employees are going to do their part and clean up trash from local streams in the area. VI. Updates and Information Items Kim Piracci discussed potential presentations that will be coming up for the CFE in the next few months. Staff will be reaching out to OWASA for a presentation on updates to their Long-Range Water Supply Plan and to Solid Waste for a presentation on updates to their recycling and composting programs. VII. Adjournment Veronica Penn Beattie motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:58 pm; seconded by Kristie Mather; none opposed; motion passed. Page 2 of 2 Attachment 3 Orange Water and Sewer Authority OWASAOWASA is Carrboro-Chapel Hill's not-for-profit public service agency delivering high quality water, wastewater, and reclaimed water services. To: Orange County Commission for the Environment From: Mary Tiger, Strategic Initiatives Manager Date: March 3, 2022 Subject: OWASA's Long-Range Water Supply Plan Update We look forward to presenting information about our Long-Range Water Supply Plan and receiving your feedback at your meeting on March 14, 2022. This memorandum provides some brief background information to include in your agenda package. If you have any questions about this information, please contact Ruth Rouse, Planning and Development Manager, at rrouse@owasa.org or at 919-537-4214. Ensuring our community has ample water supply for generations to come requires advanced planning. OWASA is committed to providing high quality drinking water to the community, and the planning, permitting, and partnerships required for new supply development can take decades to develop and secure. That is why we are planning for the water needs of our community two generations ahead. After completing a methodical, inclusive analysis of alternatives, the OWASA Board of Directors has determined that augmenting our local supplies (Cane Creek Reservoir, University Lake, and the Quarry Reservoir) with treated Jordan Lake water is the most viable alternative for providing resilient, high quality, and cost-effective drinking water for years to come. We considered other alternatives, but they did not perform as well against a multi-factor suite of guiding principles that considered drinking water quality, the ability to improve the resilience and reliability of our water supply, cost, environmental impacts, and social impacts. There is a Partnership of local water utilities which is moving forward to design and build a new intake and water treatment plant on the western side of Jordan Lake. OWASA faces a near-term decision on if and how we want to engage with them to access our allocation of water in Jordan Lake. We are currently engaging with the community before finalizing the Long-Range Water Supply Plan. More information on our planning efforts can be found on our website at https://www.owasa.org/plans/owasa-long-range-water-supply-plan/. 400 Janes Ferry Road,Carrboro,NC 275 10 a 919-968-4421 0 infc@owasa.org 0 @7a OWASAI www.owasa.org