Waterways Advisory Committee

City of Marco Island Florida 51 Bald Eagle Drive Marco Island, Florida cityofmarcoisland.com Meeting Minutes - Final Thursday, June 8, 2017 1:00 PM WORKSHOP MEETING Community Room Waterways Advisory Committee Chair: Phares Heindl Vice-Chair: Rodger Parcelles Ben Farnsworth, Monica Pierce, Robert Roth, Steve Sokol, Sam Young City Staff: Chadd Chustz, Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final June 8, 2017 Chair Heindl called the meeting to order at 1:00 P.M. (1) ROLL CALL Present: 5- Vice-Chair Rodger Parcelles, Chair Heindl, Steve Sokol, Monica Pierce and Sam Young Absent: 2- Ben Farnsworth and Robert Roth (2) WATER QUALITY MONITORING GOALS Discussion Chair Heindl welcomed the public to the second Waterways Advisory Committee workshop on water quality testing. The items to be discussed today are the goals for testing, what questions should the water test protocol answer, what should be the water quality monitoring regimen, budget, frequency, and locations and finally the budget for the enforcement of water quality goals. No votes will be taken today but the recommendations determined will be taken back to the regular Waterways Advisory Committee meeting for further discussions. Based upon the current various water testing that takes place on a quarterly basis, contracted through Collier County at random locations as required by Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Chair Heindl asked each Committee Member and the attendees to answer this question "What questions should be answered by a water quality testing program either formally or informally through Marco Island's waterways?". Committee Member Young replied, his first goal would be long term trends which is monthly testing and publish that information. The second goal would be accessing ambient water quality, monitoring storm water input, targeting specific pollutants, the restoration of flora and fauna, best management practices for fertilizer, and erosion and stormwater management. Vice-Chair Parcellas replied, his first goal would be public input which is the best resource and City mitigation. The second goal would be monitoring goals including adjacent waters that effect Marco Island and increasing the number of testing sites and frequency. Committee Member Pierce concurs with Board Member Young and Vice-Chair Parcellas. She would like to see a canal watch program implemented. (3) WATER QUALITY QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED Discussion Chair Heindl asked each Committee Member to answer this question "What questions should be answered with any testing program for Marco Island?" Vice-Chair Parcellas replied, " How are outside waterways effecting Marco Island's canal system?" "What do we do with the results once they are obtained as far as source mitigation?" and "Is it a worthwhile adventure to monitor areas that are outside the City limits of Marco Island, adjacent waterways?". Committee Member Pierce replied, "Are the monitoring sites sufficient, do we need to add or change them?" and "What do they need to monitor for?" City of Marco Island Florida Page 1 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final June 8, 2017 Committee Sokol replied, "How safe is the water, is it safe for human recreation?" and "How healthy is the waterways for propagation of flora and fauna?" Public Comment: Mr. Bob Olson, 900 Montego Court, thanked the Waterways Committee for their time in organizing another workshop. It is his opinion the community needs the red tide hotline phone number, community involvement is needed and staff's behavior to change. He believes a retention pond for the new firehouse. He suggested City Hall provide a water testing bottle, test the water, place a label on it with the pertinent information, drop it back off at City Hall to be sent out for testing and the results posted on a website Mr. Bill Trotter, 720 North Collier Boulevard, highlighted the following points, testing needs higher standards than the minimum, monthly frequency and wider range of testing, look at the individual readings and not the five year trend, involve the community, implement an official program and greater communication and transparency. Mr. David Crain,1076 Gayer Way, commented that testing is great but in order to be beneficial, outlining area data is needed as well. He asked what criteria is being used for changing the swales and if Public Works is in charge of that program. Chair Heindl replied there is coordinated plan of action that he is aware of and this issue will be addressed at a later date in time. Mr. Jim Timmerman, 831 Perrine Court, thanked the committee for their volunteering efforts. He noted they need to identify the source, look at the symptoms and then prevent that source, test for fecal coliform again and increase the scope of the test parameters. Mr. Howard Laskau, 1739 Hummingbird Court, remarked the size of the people in attendance is small compared to the seriousness of the problem and after the rain event over the last few days, the majority of the swales are not operating correctly island wide. Mr. Bruce Robertson, 672 Kendall Drive, is in favor of monthly testing and those test should include testing for anything that was not in the water twenty five (25) years ago and we should work with Rookery Bay to obtain data for the surrounding areas. Ms. Diane Hoover, 482 Clifton Court, supports the standards like the city of Cape Coral has implemented. She suggested obtaining water testing kits for individuals that are available and pickup at City Hall and interested citizens can test their own water. Input to Staff Chair Heindl summarized the reason for the testing is to ascertain what is wrong so it can be fixed. He commented we need a better understanding of the canal system. Marco Island doesn't have the expertise on staff for this issue and Rookery Bay has limited test sights. It was agreed by unanimous consensus (including the workshop participants in attendance) that testing needs to be implemented in order to find out what is wrong with our waterways so changes can be made. In order to achieve this, we would need to engage the community to participate in water testing. It was also suggested the Chairs of all the Committees get together on a quarterly basis to discuss their top issues. Member Young will ask a representative from Cape Coral to attend a future waterways meeting for discussion on their current procedures for water testing and collection protocol, chain of custody, methodology etc. City of Marco Island Florida Page 2 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final June 8, 2017 (4) WATER QUALITY MONITORING REGIMEM -BUDGET, FREQUENCY, LOCATIONS, ANALYTES Discussion Following discussion, the following recommendations were made unanimously by the Committee Members: *change to monthly testing instead of quarterly basis *add turbidity *add Landmark Bay for a testing site *community outreach program, such as "adopt a canal" Marco Island Environmentalist Chadd Chustz will provide the Committee Members an estimated cost for the next meeting. Mr. Chustz commented he does not want to discount maintaining the historical twelve (12) testing sites and recommending not deleting any of the current testing sites. (5) BUDGET FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF WATER QUALITY GOALS This item was deferred. ID 17-1705 EPA Documents (6) PUBLIC COMMENT - None There were eighteen (18) members of the community present. (7) ADJOURN There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:01 P.M. ____________________________________ Phares Heindl, Waterways Advisory Committee Chair ATTEST: PREPARED BY: ______________________________ Lisa Smith, Recording Specialist City of Marco Island Florida Page 3