Waterways Advisory Committee

City of Marco Island Florida 51 Bald Eagle Drive Marco Island, Florida cityofmarcoisland.com Meeting Minutes - Final Thursday, December 16, 2021 9:00 AM Community Meeting Room Waterways Advisory Committee Chair: David Crain Vice-Chair: William Trotter Committee Members: Steve Sokol, Philip Thompson, Michael Welty, Martin Winter, Eugene Wordehoff City Staff: Jason Tomassetti, P.E., Tracey Barnett Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final December 16, 2021 (1) CALL TO ORDER Chair Crain called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M. (2) ROLL CALL Present: 6- Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Welty, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain Absent: 1- Member Sokol Also Present CITY COUNCIL: Mr. Joe Rola, Councilor CLEAN MARCO WATERS LLC: Mr. Robert Roth (Barbarosa Ct.) Mr. Douglas 'Rick' Woodward (N. Barfield Rd.) Mr. David Rasmussen (Caxambas Ct.) CITY STAFF: Jason Tomassetti, Stormwater Engineer Martin Luna, Video/Broadcast Technician Jim Kornas, Recording Specialist (3) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Chair Crain. (4) APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA Member Wordehoff requested that an Agenda item entitled 'FDEP Field Performance Targets' be added to the Agenda. Chair Crain proposed adding this as Item 8b under 'Presentations'. MOTION by Vice-Chair Trotter, seconded by Member Thompson, that the Agenda be Approved as Amended. MOTION CARRIED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. Yes: 6- Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Welty, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain (5) APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES ID 21-2008 Approval of the WAC Meeting Minutes Held on 9/16/21 Chair Crain explained his rationale for delaying the review and approval of the September 16th Meeting Minutes and requested a Motion to approve them as written. MOTION by Member Thompson, seconded by Member Welty, that the Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes of September 16, 2021 be Approved. MOTION CARRIED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. City of Marco Island Florida Page 1 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final December 16, 2021 Yes: 6- Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Welty, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain ID 21-2007 Approval of the minutes from WAC meeting held on 11/18/21 Chair Crain requested that the last line of the description of Item 10a (Phosphorous Removal) be corrected to more accurately describe the Committee's direction. Member Wordehoff proposed that this line be corrected to read: "The Committee discussed getting a qualified engineering company to look into the technologies available". MOTION by Member Wordehoff, seconded by Member Thompson, that the Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes of November 18, 2021 be Approved as Amended. MOTION CARRIED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. Yes: 6- Member Thompson, Vice-Chair Trotter, Member Welty, Member Winter, Member Wordehof and Chair Crain (6) STAFF COMMUNICATIONS a. Water Quality Monitoring Stormwater Engineer Jason Tomassetti reported that the water quality testing report from Advanced Environmental Laboratories for November, 2021 was posted onto the Committee's web page. b. RFP Mr. Tomassetti reported that the selection of a water quality sampling and reporting provider for the upcoming year has been completed and will go into effect in January, 2022. Advanced Environmental Laboratories, Inc. has been selected to continue in this role. Members of the Committee expressed their support of the decision. Chair Crain asked that consideration be given to increasing the number of testing sites in the Gulf and the Marco River to better assess the quality of the water around the Island and the degree to which those bodies of water affect the measurements within the Island's bays and canals. c. City Council Mr. Tomassetti also reported that the Committee can bring forward its recommendations to the City Council as soon as the Council's February, 2022 meeting, if it (the Committee) is prepared to do so. Chair Crain indicated his desire to have 100% unanimous endorsement and support from the membership of the Committee on the recommendations to be brought forward to the City Council. Therefore, given Member Sokol's absence, he proposed postponing the review and finalization of the Committee's recommendations until its January meeting. (Editorial Note: Later, in the course of discussion during the Clean Marco Waters LLC presentation, the Committee agreed to add a second January meeting onto the Committee's monthly meeting calendar on Thursday, January 13th beginning at 9:00 A.M.). Chair Crain asked that all members of the Committee take the time between the December and January meetings to view and digest the video of former City Councilor Howard Reed's presentation of 20 years of water quality measurements as presented at the April 8, 2021 Water Quality & Information Workshop hosted by Councilor Rich Blonna. (7) PUBLIC COMMENT City of Marco Island Florida Page 2 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final December 16, 2021 Mr. Jack Williams (Colonial Ct.) came forward to express his belief that residential lawns and lawn maintenance activities are a major cause of the deteriorating water quality conditions in the Island's canals. He expressed his frustration with the City's lack of urgency in undertaking actions to reverse the conditions in the Island's waterways, and he addressed several questions on this issue to City Councilor Joe Rola who was also attending the meeting. Mr. Robert Roth (Barbarosa Ct.) reiterated his belief (as stated during the Clean Marco Waters LLC presentation which occurred before Public Comment) that the creation and staffing of a City Stormwater Management Department would bring significant focus and action in addressing Mr. Williams' concerns. (8) PRESENTATIONS a. Clean Marco Waters, LLC ID 21-2022 Clean Marco Waters LLC Mr. Robert Roth of Clean Marco Water LLC presented and discussed five of the recommendations found in the Environmental Research & Design, Inc. report from ERD's year-long study of the sources of Marco Island's high water nutrient levels that he and his organization's members determined were most salient and practical in improving the quality of the waters surrounding Marco Island. The five recommendations were: 1) Creating, staffing and funding a municipal stormwater utility taxing district for all of Marco Island; 2) Taking steps to better clean reuse water during its treatment process and reducing its use on Marco Island; 3) Significantly restricting and more aggressively enforcing when fertilizers and herbicides may be applied; 4) Encouraging neighboring communities to complete connections to Marco's sewer system (thereby eliminating septic systems) for more universal treatment of waste water, and; 5) Significantly increasing public education and expanding the number of water quality monitoring points in and around Marco Island. Messrs. Douglas 'Rick' Woodward and David Rasmussen, also of Clean Marco Water LLC, came forward to support and expand upon the recommendations presented by Mr. Roth. b. FDEP Field Performance Targets (Member Wordehoff) Committee Member Wordehoff presented two proposed Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorous water quality achievement targets that he recommended that the Committee consider in conjunction with a proposed engineering study on alternative methods and costs to reduce the level of both nutrients in the Island's reuse and potable water supplies. Following Committee discussion on Member Wordehoff's proposal, Chair Crain asked Member Wordehoff to expand his target alternatives from two to three, and to bring his revised proposal to the Committee's January 13th meeting for further review and discussion. (9) OLD BUSINESS a. Public Education/ Social Media- Update (Member Sokol) City of Marco Island Florida Page 3 Waterways Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - Final December 16, 2021 ID 21-2023 Public Education/ Social Media Due to Member Sokol's absence, this topic was not discussed at this meeting. b. Recommendations to City Council (All Members) ID 21-2024 Recommendations to City Council As noted under Item 6c, Chair Crain elected to defer this discussion until all Committee members could be present to endorse the Committee's recommendations. (10) NEW BUSINESS a. 2022 Meeting Schedule ID 21-2006 2022 Meeting Schedule The Committee decided to add a second January meeting on the calendar (Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 9:00 A.M.) specifically to: 1) prepare the Committee's February report and recommendations to the Marco Island City Council, and; 2) review and finalize Member Wordehoff's three Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorous target achievement targets as discussed under Item 8b (FDEP Field Performance Targets). The Committee's regular January 20, 2022 meeting remains in place on the 2022 Committee Calendar. (11) COMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS a. Member Availability for Next Meeting January 20, 2022 @ 9:00 A.M. The Committee members were not queried on their availability for the Committee's January 20th meeting. b. Sharing of Thoughts on Topics of Committee Interest (All) Chair Crain briefly updated the Committee on: 1) his investigation on the wide variation in water quality measures taken within minutes of each other at the Landmark testing location and; 2) his understandings regarding the earliest when Marco Island could possibly be removed from the list of governing districts with impaired waterways. (12) ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Committee, Chair Crain adjourned the meeting at 10:59 A.M. _____________________________________________ Jim Kornas, Recording Specialist City of Marco Island Florida Page 4