Sustainability Advisory Commission Meeting

CITY OF URBANA, ILLINOIS SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMISSION City Council Chambers Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Commissioners Present: Chairperson Marya Ryan, Vice Chair Stephen Wald, John Marlin, Todd Rusk, Rachel Vellenga Commissioners Absent: Amelia Neptune Staff Present: Scott Tess Call to Order, Roll Call, and Declaration of Quorum The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. Scott Tess called the roll and a quorum was present. Changes to the Agenda There were no changes to the agenda submitted. Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting A motion was made by Ms. Vellenga, second by Mr. Wald, to approve the minutes from the June 4, 2013 meeting. Motion carried. Public Input There was no public input. Communications Staff Report Scott Tess gave the June Staff Report that included updates on various Goals and Actions from the Climate Action Plan and the scheduling of SAC to discuss the enduring role of this Commission at the July 8 Committee of the Whole meeting. He noted that the August SAC meeting is scheduled for August 6, 2013. After discussion of Commission member schedules, it was determined that the meeting will need to be move to a different date. Presentation by Rick Manner, Executive Director, Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) Rick Manner, Executive Director, Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District gave a presentation on the potential sale of 6.3 million gallons per day of UCSD’s effluent to Cronus Chemicals, LLC. Continuing Business Preparations for SAC presenting at Committee of the Whole Meeting Scott Tess distributed an updated handout outlining the accomplishments and the potential continuing role of SAC to be presented at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, July 8. Tess, Ms. Ryan and Mr. Rusk will attend the meeting. Tess will look into whether or not this gathering of SAC members would need to be noticed as an SAC meeting under the Open Meetings Act if additional members attend. Mr. Marlin suggested changing the wording in the roles section of the handout to make the statement concerning building collaborative relations more general instead of specific. Mr. Rusk proposed adding to the original wording, indicating that items listed were examples. Members concurred. Discussion of Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) Effluent Sale A collaborative email between Scott Tess and Mr. Wald concerning questions raised about the UCSD effluent sale at the previous meeting was distributed. Commissioners and Rick Manner then discussed several items and Ms. Ryan began to craft a position statement to forward to Mayor Prussing and the Urbana City Council with SAC recommendations. SAC agreed on the following draft wording: We acknowledge that the District has shown real good faith in minimizing impacts. We would be in a better position if we knew what the biological consequences of the sale would be to life in the streams, but the information is not available. There is residual uncertainty about the consequences, and the potential consequences are not trivial. We encourage the district to conduct a temperature and flow study, at minimum, and to monitor the flows and biological responses to those flows on an ongoing basis. Sustainable Water Management Plan Scott Tess highlighted a few changes in the Sustainable Water Management Plan based on public input, including clarification of terms and ideas and appendices. Mr. Marlin recommended that the pie chart on page be expanded upon by including the number of respondents for each answer. A motion was made by Ms. Vellenga, second by Mr. Wald, to forward the Sustainable Water Management Plan with these discussed changes, to Council. Motion carried. New Business There was no new business to address. Announcements Ms. Vallenga announced a Sierra Club kayaking trip scheduled for July 21. Additional information is available on the Sierra Club Prairie Groups website. Adjournment There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:58 p.m. This meeting was recorded.