Environmental Sustainability Council

Meeting of the Falls Church Environmental Services Council Thursday, June 21, 2012, 7:30 - 9:30 pm Magnolia Room (G Level), City Hall Minutes (Taken by Ray Arnaudo) Members present: Bill Schellstede (Chair), Raymond Arnaudo, Suzanne Updike, Tim Stevens, and Allison Lohrenz (staff liaison). The ESC welcomed Suzanne to her first meeting as a Council member, since being sworn in last month. Absent: Peter Adriance, Sarah Bayldon, Peter Oppenheimer 1. Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 7:30PM 2. Public Comments - None 3. Approval of Minutes (April) – Approved as corrected 4. New Business  ESC Sponsored Home/Garden Tour - Planning Tim Stevens described his ongoing efforts to organize a tour of houses and gardens in the City that take advantage of the best methods of water runoff management and conservation, as well as sustainable-use or “green” building planning, such as LEED compliance. He hopes to report on progress next meeting.  Habitat Restoration and Public Outreach Melissa Teates on the Planning Commission described the City’s efforts on habitat restoration at various sites in Falls Church, including Crossland Park, Howard Herman Park, and branches of Pearson and Tripps Runs. The difficulties of ‘daylighting' currently covered streams was discussed, as were the costs incurred for removal of non-indigenous plants. Ms Teates urged more public outreach and volunteer efforts by the ESC.  Status of FCC MSSS Permit Submission Jason Widstrom, City Engineer , described the City’s ongoing efforts to comply with the EPA’s requirements for run-off and storm water management in the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Program Plan. Falls Church, as a small city, avoids some of the more onerous requirements for monitoring and remediation which are placed on Title #1 , with populations over 200,000, but he warned that this could change. Costs include water sampling for nitrogen and phosphorous levels, replacements of old water and sewer pipes and monitoring of water collection facilities to lessen run-off. Municipalities must come into compliance with these new requirements by 2025. 5. Old Business, Discussion items  LEED Silver Resolution – Update The chairman explained that current efforts of the Council are focusing on government requirements, with efforts to standardize commercial requirements to be looked at later. Private home construction is not being considered at this time.  Storm Water Management Plan – Update Jason Widstrom went through the entire Management Plan, highlighting the responsibilities of the ESC and the increasing financial costs incurred by compliance with the plan.  Note to City Council on ESC's waste disposal facilities Tim Stevens has circulated a summary of the ESC’s recent visits to area waste disposal and recycling facilities. He will finalize the Report, which the ESC urged him to present to the Council, at an appropriate meeting. 6. Legislative agenda at Richmond Tim Stevens has been consulting with the ESC’s counterpart organizations in Arlington and Alexandria on the possibility of coordinating our efforts to recommend legislative priorities to our delegates in Richmond regarding those areas under the authority of the ESC. There was a general sense that last year’s efforts were not focused adequately, and could have been better coordinated with neighboring jurisdictions, in areas such as environment protection, energy savings or recycling. 7. Informational items The City Council will hold a work session on the LEED requirements for construction of buildings on July 9. ESC members were urged to attend. 8. Set Next Meeting -19 July 9. Adjournment- 9:35