001one here that i have to read at the beginning of every public meeting um welcome to the july 23rd 2020 electronic meeting of the environmental commission this meeting is in accordance with executive orders from the governor to affect social distancing and mitigate the spread of the cobit 19 virus we intend to conduct this meeting similarly to an in-person meeting however please be patient if there are technical issues public comment will be via telephone only to speak during any of the public comment opportunities of which there are two please call 1 so i'll repeat that 1-888-788-0099 and enter meeting id number nine two four five seven nine six nine eight two three so i'll repeat that um meeting id number nine two four five seven six this information is all also available on the published agenda
002in the public notices section of the city website and on the broadcast of this meeting on ctn channel 6 at t channel 99 and online at www.a2gov.org watch ctn so um so the first item on the agenda is galen would you uh do the roll call i sure will um commissioner graham okay absent uh commissioner skinner commissioner needham here commissioner smith uh commissioner slavic here commissioner appel here commissioner kylie ward yeah did i pronounce that correct that's right okay uh commission president brown president huh presidential commissioner overpack commissioner overpack commissioner mursky commissioner mursky commissioner mitchell here okay that's roll call all right thank you kalyn um the next item on the agenda is let's see let me add these out we have one two three four five we have seven voting members present i believe
003but we're not this is a working session i'll remind everybody so we will not be voting on any resolutions or other issues of this meeting so um first of all let's welcome youth commissioner gabby buendia to the environmental commission um we're so happy to see you here and uh do you want to um say a few things about yourself thank you commissioner brown um my name is gabby wandia i am a um do a couple of different things i'm an environmental educator at the ecology center i also am an organizer for the michigan chapter of the sierra club and i just moved to ann arbor full time back in last august after living here during the summers and i'm glad to be joining you all well thank you very much um so um let's see
004the next item is the approval of the agenda did everybody have a chance to see the agenda okay so um is there a motion to approve it second and second i'll we are in favor of approving the agenda as written say aye aye aye or raise your hand um any dissents it passes unanimously um steve yes sorry i i'm sorry to interrupt but i i just uh checked my email on my phone and it looks like commissioner gibb randall is waiting to be admitted to the meeting oh okay thank you and excuse me i believe that ann bannister commissioner bannister is also having difficulty getting in thank you thank you i was trying to figure out why i wasn't here can you hear me thank you bob hi shannon hi so we're at the part
005of the meeting now for the approval of the minutes so did everybody have a chance to look at the minutes and i i should apologize that um i i made i added some tentative action points to this meeting because i discussed that at our last meeting but we didn't really finalize them you know before the german so um i'm just putting them up there to remind everybody and that i would like to from now on do some action points you know to follow up for the next meeting um you know and we would cover those action points uh at the beginning of each meeting just to track progress on various issues or at the more or at the appropriate time in the agenda um so um let's see so are there any is there any
006discussion over the minutes as written okay do you have a motion to approve the minutes uh shannon do i have a second bob needham seconds um all who approve the minutes uh for the june 25th meeting say aye all right hi any dissent okay the minutes are passed um unanimously done so we're reaching the first public commentary period so i'm going to read another uh script here and um so galen i think um you may see somebody who's trying to get into who's called into the meeting and what you should do is um in order in the order in which they appear you should write that down and then you should um [Music] and then and then you can select them using the last three digits of their phone number okay and give them access
007so a public commentary this is an opportunity for persons to speak up for up to three minutes please call 1-888-788-0099 and enter meeting id number 924-5796-9823 this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video feed city staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star 9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments be patient there is a delay of up to 30 seconds
008before the connection is established so galen do you see any um anybody requesting to make public comment i see no one at this time oh bank i just gotta well no one at this time that's in here yeah and they will just to remind you they'll all be phoning them so okay so um let's just wait about another 15 seconds okay well let's move on to new business um the first item on the agenda for new business is a review of tentative action points from the last meeting um the first one i wrote down was engage with ordinance review committee of the planning commission to identify ordinance changes required to advance the a20 goals um this was a great idea of shannon's um i don't know if you had a chance to connect up with
009uh missy at city staff about that or how figured out how to initiate that so we have not met with um city staff but we um uh john and i have talked about it and talked about kind of who we might be able to pull into this obviously missy would be important or somebody somebody from the office of sustainability um and then we also um talked about bringing in some fellow architects and some fellow engineers that may not be a permanent part of it but that we could at least draw on in terms of where people have experienced frustrations you know with being able to get this kind of work done and where city code gets in the way and you know looking for opportunities where there may be some wiggle room where we're still
010not sacrificing health safety welfare but looking for ways that we can make the 2030 goals happen more easily um for instance you know we have an anti-idling ordinance and we could be reading that in our pre-construction meetings with contractors and we don't you know have the idol outside of my my house right now for 15 minutes and if that were made clear at the beginning then then i think that people would have a sense of these things and i think we have a lot of good things in the books we're just not um figuring out how to how to make them happen that's just one example let alone other things too but um i feel like there's a lot of ways that we could take the things that we have and make them more effective
011and then also thinking about tweaking ordinances so that encode so that we can be able to meet our goals more quickly so um john is out of town right now but we connect we've connected and we have kind of a beginnings of who we might think about um coming in to the to the group and interviewing for the process and uh we are both excited to take it on it feels like a fruitful area of being able to make some good change happen okay yeah yeah i'm looking forward to that and by john you must mean john mursky yes sorry yes correct okay um so the second item was uh seized capstone proposals i got to recruit a working group um my is there uh any anything any progress on that so far oh you're
012muted no we're i mean we're not we're well uh yeah i mean we're way out of cycle for that right now um so the time to start thinking about that's in the fall starting you know a month two months from now maybe in september okay so we shouldn't even think about that until september 15th or so well i would love to you know but right now and the other thing that i didn't anticipate is that our all our planning for fall is still going on and as long as that's going on it's all the covid stuff how to make it safe um there's no there's no head room in faculty uh thinking uh or anyone's thinking for that far ahead from ford showing and i apologize for that no no no apologies necessary um so
013um it's all very understandable okay so we'll move that down to revisiting that on september september at the september meeting okay is that okay yeah that'd be great all right so the third action point would be suggest metrics for ecological improvement related to integrated pest management and actual features improvements so this is a long-term trend that needs to be consistently measured over time so chris and rita and kerry were going to discuss this does anybody um have anything to relate to that at this point well we talked recently but we um we really just got to the point and carrie jump in if you want um got to the point of saying that that the the work for pollinators would be kind of folded into whatever what else is working on um what else we're
014working on for the natural features group and so gonna be some kind of coordination with that okay that's the the start that i have carrie would you like to add yeah we also uh considered the answer we got from jen lawson about what we can do next and what we can do to help and she said there's nothing at this point so we kind of got stuck a little there but um i think we're still going to move forward one of the ideas that we had before was doing a certification program to reduce turf grass and that was one of our ideas um but we haven't we haven't talked to jen about that lately but we also have to consolidate all of our goals and come up with a priority list of priorities with the
015new natural features committee which is now the pollinators committee with the water group not committee the pollinators working group and the water working group is now in the natural features okay okay yeah fair enough you know um we um um as i said before i think it's good to select some specific goals that we can meet with the resources we have available you know to try to help the city and the council as much as we can um according to our bylaws so um you know metrics are going to be part of that but they're kind of up in the air as well because i had a discussion with john about this and uh you know it's not clear that the sustainability dashboard that was set up in 2012 is um really gonna is really
016working moving forward and um so there needs to be some discussions with the city administrator about this and um you know and how performance metrics are actually going to be managed within the city and um and how to go forward with the um you know the uh the dashboard that we inherited from 2012 from the work that was done in 2011-2012 um you know which is a bit worrisome but i think it's important that we um are able to demonstrate um you know tangible tangible work products and having goals and metrics are very important to that end all right so the next so my understanding is that you um there's going to be a meeting later on sometime before the august meeting and um you all are going to sort through all this and so
017we'll put this on the agenda then for the august meeting okay so um steve yep i just want to add one other thing that the natural features group is working on an ordinance update for um trees so um just consider that something to be in the pipeline oh yeah yeah we'll discuss that more um later in the meeting about the revised goals in response to a20 okay so um all right so um and then the next the fourth item here was going forward osi staff will submit asks to the working groups for discussion and refinement and then proceed to the full commission for discussion so i think this would be a more effective process than giving all giving all of us um ideas at one mission at one commission meeting so i think it'd be
018good to just process it a bit in the working group level and then see what happens so um i'm hoping to get um i have not talked to missy about that yet um so i'm going to make that uh i'll see how that goes and report at the august meeting about how what kind of process we're going to have for processing some of these more general tasks that missy had because we all want to support the a20 plan but we did not register many specific asks when missy talked to us at the last meeting on june 25th so i think this would be a good process is there any um anybody that wants to say anything about this topic right now okay so the next item is um to consolidate the working group smart goals
019and uh and so uh that i think everybody's um everybody's done that on the different working groups of course uh some things are still in flux uh but that was we proceed to the next item on the agenda here which is the revised goals in response to a20 so i expect we'll have quite a lot of um discussion about this um what i've done is i got i got these documents from the solid waste working group um the natural features working group you know the pollinators and the um um and the water quality group and um i consolidated them into a google document um i sent out an email sharing it with everybody i'm not sure if everybody's had the time to look at it but people had a chance to look at it okay
020well um i will be consolidated of all the working groups finally installed the solid waste form yeah oh um oh no yes yeah later on they they uh yeah so this is part of that document was mentioned about how you know how the these three other working groups decided they were going to consolidate but in um in my mind i think it's very important that for each of our specific goals at least that we ought to have one commissioner to take responsibility for it for advancing that goal i mean for example in the solid waste working group i'm taking personal responsibility for their construction and demolition coordinates and metrics so um by the end of the year i would like to be able to present um you know uh uh i'm not not ready to
021go to council so but a um that's something ready for um a more refined review by the city staff um and i'm hoping to get that done by september so that would give enough time you know for city staff and council to think about it and look over it a little bit more and um and then see where it goes from there and we can um and then we can all discuss it you know at the october or the early december meeting and decide whether to uh file a resolution and vote on a resolution or vote on a counter draft uh ordinance to pass on the council so uh that's just one example um so i can go down through the list here does anybody wish to say anything at this point um shannon i
022think um our review of coding ordinances is going to take longer than a month so i think it would be more realistic for us to for for our group to do it in october rather than september because there's there's there's a big old book to go through so sure now of course so let's see first of all did everybody find this uh a helpful process um you know using google docs and sharing it this yeah this is what we've been doing within the um you know within the sideways working group so yeah bob oh you're beauty yeah sorry um i just i don't know if this is possible but i wonder if it might be a good idea for you to share your screen and and show the document uh you know in case anyone
023is watching at home that's a good question so let's do an experiment um [Music] i will try to share my screen so the host is disabled attendee screen sharing so the host is ctn i believe so um i'm not able to do that um so that's a great idea i think i'll write down that down as an action point to see how that can be done you know used in this uh yes scaling made you the host me yeah if you want to share it oh okay here i go so can everybody see this now okay so i've included the um working group minutes from our um last meeting which we always hold the solid waste working group meets on the first thursday of the month now and um and so the action points are
024here as i mentioned i'm organizing the information and i'm going to be i'm going to be responsible for the success of construction and demolition ordinance and metrics by the end of the year so just to review what smart goals are you know they're specific meaningful actionable relevant and timely so as i mentioned i would like to have a really pretty well-polished draft document um consistent with michigan law hopefully and available for discussion by the um by the september meeting okay um john mursky is going to lead a smart goal to measure and institute community-wide refrigerant recycling uh john's not here right now but um i'll just say in his behalf that uh you know this was one of the asks the specific asks of of missy during her talk last june um i would remind
025everybody that these refrigerant gases have over a thousand times the greenhouse gas potential as carbon dioxide they're a whole order of magnitude higher than anything else and they're not just used for refrigerants they're also used as uh blowing as uh for blowing um injector for molding of plastic foam and they're also used in um you know for spray cans for hairspray and things like that so this came out as the number one um kind of uh kind of goal and project drawdown so john mursky is working with staff and other people in the solid race working group and we're going to try to see what can be done about at least tracking and trying to get a tighter control and public awareness about this um threat to the the going to the planet um other
026than that um i need to talk to um city staff molly majeski and eileen about longer term goals of consumption consumption-based greenhouse gold gas metrics and a possible capstone project proposal and processes for optimizing the end-use value of recyclables and organics it looks like the um since we met last uh the murph contract has been approved by city council in principle which was a a major milestone and so um already it looks like recycling on ann arbor will be the contractor who will be helping uh provide data for their end use and uh and helping us optimize diversion but again that's the city staff that are really responsible for this i'm not the contractor so we'll figure out a process to um to get that working as smoothly as possible and i've just listed the
027discussion highlights um for people's information so now for the water natural features of pollinators working groups the um the major action in the last month was that they've all agreed to combine their respective working groups so i'll let the leaders of those groups talk about these later on about how they see this working so um are there any questions first of all about um the solid waste working group actions or goals by john steve yeah just a question just looking back in an email you sent to the working group on tuesday and you had also mentioned um citywide but i think he meant year-round composting oh yeah that's another item i don't know if you want to bring that in now yeah i could do that um it's city-wide but also um by that i
028meant uh commercial as well as residential because right now uh commercial none of the commercial recycling or organics collections is um really track the city staff are working on that right now but it'd be good to get something set in place so here i'll so this is a shared document that means that people should feel free to comment on it and edit it so um i would uh in the future i'll probably give everybody editing privileges or at least commenting privileges um before the meeting so that we have a summary of the working groups um available before we uh before each meeting so um anything else about solid waste working group i can't see everybody's hand because um when i'm sharing my screen i can only see four people so you'll have to speak up
029okay so bob do you want to comment on the on the water working group sure sorry did you have something else to say no i don't know um yeah so these were uh the main things that we talked about uh earlier in the year um the the floodplain ordinance um in the form of a zoning overlay district is you know moving forward sort of independent of of the water working group but um i did uh exchange some emails with jerry hancock and um he is happy to present where that's at uh to us at our august meeting um and then we can uh discuss it and potentially uh vote on you know supporting that um as it stands so uh that would be an item for the argus agenda if everyone is amenable to it
030jerry is available on that date so um so that's one that's moving forward uh quite well um the potential updates to the city green streets ordinance i'm not sure what we were talking about exactly there uh quite frankly but we can um take that up at the first uh joint meeting of of the the larger natural features working group and see what people's thoughts are and hopefully get someone to run with that one the third item is just a pretty simple thing that was talked about um getting some educational signs uh installed out at the argo canoe and kayak livery and um i tried to find this before the meeting i could have sworn that there was some recent city action or at least proposed about um making other improvements at argo you know expanding
031the parking area and things so if that is in fact the case um you know i think it would be you know pretty easy to just try to jump on that and yeah shannon has some information yeah we just reviewed it um on tuesday night uh for argo improvements and so yes there will be like new sidewalk and a new parking lot and things like that so it is a good time if there's going to be some sort of coordination that goes on yeah so we could just kind of send an email from the commission um to i guess it would be the parks department right shannon correct and um hillary i'm forgetting her last name is the uh the staff person that presented and i think he's been in charge of the design um
032so we could just kind of uh send an email uh you know suggesting that and if they're willing to do it then we could get into some more specifics um the micro plastics you know this is uh we've heard and i don't have the specific um study or metrics in front of me but we've heard that the huron river is in particularly bad shape in regards to microplastics so i think that would be a really great thing to tackle and you know i'd be willing to to uh take the lead on that if if no one else wants to hopefully by the end of the year maybe come up with just you know some sort of recommendations yeah shane sorry keep jumping in here please i was just part of that committee and we when
033we talked about it one of the things that we had spoken about with that was um that there were some interesting um products on the market that you could put in your in your um washer and that that actually kind of uh attract microplastics yeah and we talked about perhaps actually having those be sold down at argo right um because people are much more in touch with the river down there so that was one thing that kind of came out as an idea but it hasn't you know gone any further than that so um with all this discussion of argo yeah that might be another kind of interesting thing to add into that list there just as a way of letting that kind of evolve further absolutely so like you know hopefully we can talk
034about that at the working group level and get some recommendations together for the full commission to consider uh later in the year then the fifth one is really i think more of a communication issue that we can also talk about further i'm not you know i think the other items are more more important frankly um but we can talk about that one as well if at the at the next full working group meeting okay um let's see any any comments again i can't see everybody so you'll have to speak up so um i only have one comment bob and that is that uh i've gathered some papers on microplastics that i'll share with you okay in the meantime great thank you yeah i mean there's some some basic facts are that first of all a
035major source is fleece you know synthetic fabric and fleece also uh people have measured microplastics that come off of car tires and brake pads in the arctic because if you look at uh the deposition of microplastics about how roughly half comes from the air it's airborne and the other half comes through river runoff into the oceans so this is a this has become a big problem also because these mic uh pollutants on major pollutants like um some um like pfas compounds as well as some some anachronic disrupting compounds will concentrate they will bind to these microplastic particles and of course they they many of them are small enough that they're easily inhaled they're easily ingested and they're absorbed um they're actually small enough that they'll be absorbed by within the cells of your body so
036it's a potential exposure problem in the long term no reason to be alarmist at this point but it's a good time to check check try to check it and see see what can be done to reasonably control it as a potential safety threat okay so there um if there's no comments about the water working group agenda let's pass on to the pollinator working group montcary well these are actually the two things that i mentioned earlier um the assisting the city staff with the um imp educational implementation and strategy and they don't they don't need our help at the moment and then um drafting and a certification program for oh wait no yeah test pesticide use as well as turf grass area reduction and we haven't um worked on that yet okay and that's all we
037that do i have any am i missing anything rita you're muted all right sorry yes you covered it thank you okay oh i do want to say though i think that um just considering um the first item that even though jen is addressing it i i think it would be great if we could talk about um developing communications in a way that that has some kind of overall effectiveness and i'm i'm just thinking that we have the the city's communication staff would be great if we could work with them in some ways to get some of these ideas across to the community yeah um um yeah are there any comments on the pollinator working group agenda i have one more thing to add just um piggybacking on what rita said we are we are ready
038to help in any way and there are a lot of things that we can do we think we could do to help out with getting the word out um so you know we're we're willing and able and um we're just gonna wait for further direction okay yeah that's all good all good but um is there any way you can turn that into a smart goal like to you know finish off something uh by you know by a certain date um as a specific thing i know that it's um it's a continuing process but i think it would be good to try to think about you know what's the tangible goal um so steve i just want to say that i think that we should reach out to um jen lawrence and ask her where we
039can assist since um she had kind of a direction on that and i think it would be a good thing to do actually because we didn't get much of a chance to talk with her about options last time and i i would like to do is she the uh i mean is she the contact person with city staff or um yeah she is for the um the imp work and educational outreach okay that was that was her presentation last time right yeah okay is there uh i mean is there something the parks commission can help out with here i think the smart goal sounds good um to put that on there because we have asked well what three three or four times um this the working group to help and they didn't need our help
040but i liked stephen your idea of having a put a a goal and a deadline on there and so that gives us a little more oomph to our requests to have a meeting with them to see how we could implement some of our d our ideas which was to help spread the word and all as carrie mentioned okay thanks dan yeah i mean it's just in my experience you know you things can become unfocused if you don't have a specific you know if you don't have a specific deadline or a goal i mean not like then there are no penalties for going beyond it but just having something is a very useful expectation for everybody to have could i just uh mention that this seems like it is a potential opportunity for seas projects maybe
041uh in terms of uh educational opportunity here something that could be tested out and then uh fed back through to be able to see what works well in terms of getting this information out about lawn reduction and you know sort of turf area reduction native plants pollinator habitat it seems like there's a lot of overlap with things that students could potentially be interested in um well that sounds like a good idea what do you think uh carrie and rita i think that's a great idea we i think so far from our new natural features committee uh working group we're going to have a lot of projects for the c students when when they do their call for proposals yeah i agree i think it's a great idea and um if we can get with them
042to develop measurable types of things for these kind of communications that would be super okay so who uh so there's one of your benchmarks for september yeah who wants to make that happen is there a volunteer to propose that to the to seize students uh to have something available yeah they have something kind of fleshed out by september so i think uh sorry if i talk yeah of course i think the ideal thing would be um just on top of my head uh is that if uh people had some general you know everyone on the commission and anyone else that we're connected with uh brainstorm general ideas um for that time and then uh we would also present uh somehow i either i would do it or i'd get someone else to do it um
043whoever would do it best let's put that away uh to present sort of what the process is and a way to craft what is considered to be a a really good master's project idea one that would of course attract students i don't know why that did that um someone turned off my video i've been hey i'll leave my video off since someone turned it off um and uh yeah so unless uh you guys have a desire to do it a different way um well uh well peck um i mean i think you have to tell us what you know how fleshed out you'd like things to be and by when because i think everybody has a vague idea about what you know what would constitute like a real you know uh um a body of
044information that would be you know adequate to whatever decision or judgments have to be made to bring it forward but there are going to be several different components that have to go into the project to make it meaningful for the students and to meet their requirements so i think maybe that's what you're talking about in terms of um getting someone to tell us what components have to be part of the project yeah because if it isn't an attractive project to the students and to faculty members then it won't really fly and we're trying to change it so that the client meaning someone in you know related to us and ann arbor would be able to be a client quote-unquote but then we'd want to get a faculty member to help with the client to craft
045the proposal and then those proposals get put in front of the students later in the fall so the hope is that by the end of the fall students have pretty much picked which project they want to do there are always a good number more projects than there are students um so part of this is making it an interesting project and this you know part of what we would present in um september would be what makes an interesting project because one thing i've been really saddened by as i you know i'm trying hard to push the system get more get more students but also uh i don't know just make the whole process work better is that we've had some really good clients uh who have proposed projects who haven't gotten students and in some cases
046it's kind of almost embarrassing you know like state legislators you know who get all fired up and then they don't get no and the students don't want to work with them and it's more because the the pitch isn't necessarily good you know it's as much that as the projects are saying not ideal okay so how so pack how would you suggest we um what's how would you what would be a fruitful process well what i love is what i'm hearing here today is we continue this process of coming up with kind of proto ideas uh or just call them ideas and then uh what makes them good for students you know i think the idea we just heard about you know figuring out the best way to communicate environmentally sound practices to citizens and then
047tracking how well different approaches work uh that would be good and certainly there's a lot of literature on that and the big question is what works in ann arbor i suppose i mean that's that's that level of idea and so it doesn't have to be really detailed at this stage um and then we have to somehow i have to somehow find the right folks um and i don't know if the best way to do it is in a meeting like we're having now but it might be we create what some kind of uh working group on this right or whatever mechanism that exists for those who have those ideas to sit with a couple of our staff one or more of our staff and c's to talk about what makes a good master's projects and
048then there can be some iteration and then that means by the end of september we could actually have a bunch of ideas that are being implemented or at least put in front of the students you know but then it would have to of course we have to build the link with the faculty member and do all that kind of stuff too in the meantime you know in other words is it a good thing for this commission to be doing it or is it a better thing for the commissioners who are interested in this uh plus the folks on their working groups are interested in this uh plus some seized folks to do this separately and it would be a zoom call just like this but it would be just focused on that topic well um
049i mean as the chair i have according to our bylaws i have the power to um you know to schedule a special meeting there would be a public meeting but otherwise the only idea that comes immediately in my mind is that we can funnel ideas up through the working groups and then consolidate them into a document and then um and then um and then and then you can make a comment on it back as part of that group well yeah but i think what's uh that's missing a really vital part of this which is to have interaction between those who are thinking of the idea for a project and those in the school who really understand how to make good projects in other words it's that iteration that turns a idea into a cool project
050and that is the only way you're going to get students interested and so the question is is a special meeting idea might work just fine as long as i can invite some other you know colleagues to come in you know because as a dean i know quite a bit about the master's projects but i'm not the guy who runs them and you want to have some you want some people really experienced and you know making them happen okay well no this is good so um i think i feel like a pin was put into the bubble of like having another meeting which i i would agree with but uh it may be better for just to have an action point now where commissioners forward their ideas to you okay and then you can deal with
051them as you you know as appropriate just tell us what level of detail we need to get into at this point okay um so before i tell you what detail level of detail when you say deal with them as appropriate do you mean i could then have an offline meeting with them yeah oh cool uh yes so i don't think uh you know i think uh you know just a few sentences would i mean to a paragraph would be great um and once i see what the ideas look like at any level i will sort of ask some additional questions perhaps you don't get a better articulation of what's going on but i think the key thing will be not so much to spend time really working on the details of the proposed project but
052just to have a you know like a 10 000 foot view of the project and then in a meeting when we talk about it with knowledgeable people in seas we'll be able to calibrate our ideas to the right level of detail and people could then go away and refine their ideas and fill in the missing detail and then i would have some folks at seas who would be able to interact with each person to make sure the proposal is well thought out and then we would chop them around i i suppose i you know i think the next step would be shopping around the faculty members and and uh and then once the faculty member you have a faculty member and you have a client then in a good idea that's articulated then you're ready
053to go to the students okay now i have a better idea of the process myself um anybody else have any questions or comments yeah i do um it seems like a we're going to have a few ideas coming out of the natural features working group so um we can with all of this information now that we have in the background that we have we can develop some ideas in our elevator pitch so to speak to the students and um and um pack you can put us in touch with any of your staff members from from there i think that our group can can take it from here that would be fine and it sounds like you've been through it carrie i mean okay so you've been to one of our fairs well i've been i've
054worked with students i've worked with the masters students yeah from season okay great because we have and every year we have a client fair too where the students and all the clients come and they actually set up tables it's really kind of fun the thing that i think stinks about it you know it's just it's not ideal um and but we're trying every year to make it better um i'm really great that you're doing that thank you um but i'm i'm happy to do that yep okay so just send me your ideas yeah and i that sounds like the most efficient way to do it she's she knows what she's doing so send me your ideas and i will put you each at person who generates an idea in touch with someone and sees and
055you'll be able to iterate and make a pitch do you want to set a deadline for that again you know i don't think anything's going to happen until september but if you want to start sending them to me i can start collating them what i already started doing while we were talking and sending an email to try and figure out when people would be receptive i just have this funny feeling that right now there's no bandwidth for it but i think there will be uh you know by the time the semester starts okay i mean we're figuring out amazingly arcane details you know like how do you root students through a building after before and after class safely you know i mean that's kind of stuff we're working on now yeah um yeah okay and
056a lot of these i have one more thing on that i'm sorry for interrupting but um and a lot of these projects are going to be they don't have to be in person so they might be more well suited for the remote learning atmosphere also music to my ears i propose you just put kerry in charge of this whole thing no i mean you're i mean you're right on target and i really appreciate it i'm not i'm just being stupid um but she's right we really need projects this year probably that are not going to require uh in-person interactions one of the nice things though is we have approval to do human subjects you know that got taken away uh in the governor's earliest you know the more shut down stages of the pandemic now
057we have it back and that means that students can actually work remotely um with or socially distance with people so doing survey work and things like that are possible doing field work is possible too but it has to be done under certain circumstances precautions so all that stuff i mean makes this year even more interesting than most and more reason to start early working with the staff so we'll just start setting your ideas i will find out uh who is the best person to interact with and i'll i'll set that all up okay i'll put september one that'd be better i think or you know whatever labor day is sure sir we just want to make sure that um you know there's enough time to process it yeah you know part of my job is
058to keep my team from exploding right they're pretty close right now okay so um any more discussion about the uh pollinator working group agenda okay so um let's go on to the natural features working group agenda uh chris is not here but uh carrier rita can speak up about this yeah commissioner bannister also is a member um so we um just heard from uh chris that he's unable to make a meeting tomorrow um i proposed that we do some uh kind of subgroup work on the ordinance for heritage trees that we've been working on uh in the meantime between now and and our august meeting so i'm hoping to get that organized um but that is yet to be done um so we are also working on a google doc revision of um the the
059ordinance on its natural features specifically it has is some large trees here it is trees rita could you um remind me what's the definition of a heritage tree and a leg and the landmark tree um i don't think i can do it off the top of my head but landmark is is a a large tree a heritage tree is exceptionally large and old for its species and we have a species list and we have um sizes uh based on diameter at breast height for each of the species for each of the categories for a landmark tree and heritage so that's an a star point but we're looking at at other kinds of things to support their protection have you all been discussing um some kind of a date when um this might be ready for
060the full commission we have not said it okay um you know just a gentle encouragement i hear it yeah i hear it um so um i know that chris intends to uh join us and meet uh in august so and as i said i offered to try and get a subgroup of us together to uh critique the work that's been done so there has been some initial review and um we'll see if we can make it move further and okay um well um yeah why don't you just update us at the next commission meeting sure hey stephen i know you can't see everybody so this is shannon raising her hand okay i would just add i would just add one thing to to read his description and that is that landmark trees are currently part
061of the regulatory process and um i go that's something that that any developer will um encounter as they put aside plan uh forward through the city the heritage tree is a new category and so that's kind of what's different about it is that um you know any tree is a landmark tree i think for an oak it's like 18 inches at diameter breast height but it's it's regular you know so so is one that's six feet across you know so and they have like the same kind of um uh kind of penalty if you will you know it's it's 50 of whatever the diameter is but um so the heritage tree is a whole different category that they would be adding on and so that's i think one of the big changes that the group
062would be uh working on so landmarks exist heritage doesn't okay [Music] i just might add this is in on number 11. um i believe that was in christopher's last email that that is part of the um c's project list number 11 where we get the two neighborhoods rather than do a whole new woodland map for the whole city we would have these two neighborhoods and uh he uh christopher graham was going to talk to jason talent about that further okay so thanks ann yeah that uh it does look like a very attractive potential seize capstone project i'd work on it myself but um you got to start paying tuition i know so um [Music] let's see so in terms of number 10 help seek amendments to flood plain provisions um in chapter 55 um bob
063do you have any input on that or well i i i think that's the same thing that i mentioned earlier i i think that's uh the floodplain overlay district that um jerry hancock is spearheading can i ask a quick logistics question here with the sort of combination of these three groups these three working groups under one um what does that mean sort of day day-to-day for uh how we might be meeting the reason why i ask is because the natural features working group has been meeting and talking and having really good discussions for a very long time and i think that some new people in there uh could do a great job of trying to figure out how we extract policy out of the things that were like i say having very fruitful discussions about
064um so i put that out there sort of sort of a larger question about how uh these three groups work and if uh natural features can get a little uh sort of boost from some other folks listening in sometimes yeah no that's that's a great point mike i mean the way i've been thinking about this is um you know in my experience nothing really happens until there's a champion for it so i think in my sense of this um of the commission and you know the people in it and its bylaws and everything i would hope that what we can do is have um like each and you know a working group the first kind of tier of working groups should be around the smart goals you know where a commissioner is going to lead
065a group there only needs to be one but they could recruit whoever else they want from either the commission or um and or anybody from the community general community broader community to work on that goal but i think that that would be a tier one effort that uh to to do a tangible to to do a tangible product to put a stake in the ground and to get it done i think it's it's good to have one person responsible for that not a whole group not a committee that's just from my experience personal experience and then below that the working groups can work to develop smart goals out of the more broader goals and concerns that we all have so they can be discussion within the broader working groups and i'm just not i would
066like um i would be ha i would like to have a discussion about this in this meeting you know i talk about how this would really facilitate a process on moving forward so um i'm throwing that out there so i'm wondering um so people speak up if they want to comment again i can't see everybody um i'll pick that up again uh i guess part of this question also relates to this idea of a of a seas project and also the sort of sustainable landscape stuff that natural features is talking about with the sort of lawn reduction things that pollinators are talking about um and the obvious water quality improvements that we get so i i feel like there's um i'm terrible at these things or i'd step up and volunteer but i feel like
067there's this opportunity to while we're all here together to sort of figure out how um uh there might be something uh out of uh legislation that's already been passed for this uh um uh lawn reduction effort uh to to turn into something that's that john murski is going to be able to say hey there's progress on anybody else well um so again i mean i just think that uh it's it's more difficult to get something done unless somebody um chooses to be a champion for it so you know it's up to them to decide how much they're going to get done and how much time but they should feel free that they can recruit as many people and resources as they can to get to to bring their vision to fruition and meanwhile we this
068would be this is the forum for discussing um [Music] for each of these for for anything in the cities that pertains to the city's environment this is a forum for discussing what some of these um [Music] you know broader concerns are but without some articulation and some specificity um it's hard to make progress on anything so um i i agree about that uh so this is rita speaking right now um i would be willing to to um step forward at least on the pollinator side of things um but also i as a member of the natural features working group there is a fairly large group as you know that's been meeting to talk about this and those people are not represent not here in this meeting tonight and i feel like it's worthwhile to have
069a chance to talk with them um as contributors i'd like to get input from them as opposed to just taking this and and running um that's my feeling right now no i i think that's a good idea is uh would could natural features still go on tomorrow without chris i have proposed that and um i unfortunately i didn't even see his message until late today so i don't know um just because i put it out there because it's on many people's schedule already and uh it could be a good opportunity to be able to hash some of this out um and maybe you know we uh we keep chris's spirit in mind in terms of the bigger trees but then see how um this ordinance could really potentially be shaped on the ground to get
070people to try and change their behavior um you know it's really the passage of the the fact that council has adapted it is what makes this such an exciting opportunity to be able to make a quantifiable opportunity towards sustainability with people's land use choices so yeah i would be more than happy to zoom in to uh this meeting tomorrow if that would sort of help keep the ball rolling right okay well um i will see if i can reach out to people tonight um and um let you all know okay and if not tomorrow then it possibly is something that could be done relatively soon i don't know okay so the other thing that i want to say is that um what you're suggesting mike is is something that um that we need to keep
071in the context of whatever gen um lawson is doing as well so it's like somehow there's got to be some kind of coordination there that would be worthwhile i think so i'll reach out to her too okay so our uh so i'm a little confused i mean are all these um or all these topics and you know natural features pollinator and in the water feature working group are they all like as jen lawson the focal point on city staff for all of these concerns no these are just the goals from when we were separate working groups i think many of these are what we presented in our meeting as our goals i can't remember when we did that but um earlier in the in the winter earlier in the year so anything having to do
072with water is going to be with jen lawson i i suspect but um in terms of the meeting that's gonna that could potentially happen soon with natural features i think it'll probably involve all of us not all of us but everybody in in the pollinator and the water working groups along with the natural features so this is something that we can discuss when we meet okay um i mean at this point i mean the question comes to my mind about um what's the um what's the perceived advantage of consolidating all these working groups rita were you going to say something oh now you're on mute oh you're muted rita i think that this was a suggestion from the last meeting of the environmental commission to consolidate these groups and so we did wow that's my
073understanding of it yeah yeah missy suggested that any kind of rationale around it or a broad discussion about it that i recall i mean i think that's up to us it's not up to missy on the osi it's like i think it's up to us collectively to figure out how we're going to be most productive so uh so um maybe you all can just have a if it's it's um it's it's you know it's it's too bad that i mean i'm sorry that chris could participate tomorrow but maybe you could just continue a discussion at that point and then inform and inform him what what the discussion points were i don't know if he has any questions the meeting that's set up tomorrow was really focused on trees and that's what chris has been working
074on so maybe you can make some more progress on them figuring out what other goals you might specify besides the ongoing which is at a pretty late stage my understanding is you know the tree amendments the heritage trees you know all these other things are are not quite as far along in our process and the commission's processes these three amendments to chapter 55. yeah am i wrong um well i mean on the other side hand we have the pollinator program i'm sorry the ipm program that has been passed by council and so that's kind of active as well so you know so i don't know so yeah okay okay it really feels like it's two different things to me as we're talking even though we said we would consolidate them it just it just does
075to me i don't know carrie any thought yeah i think that we can um as a as a new group as a new working group figure out what the priorities are and that that's certainly one major component i would imagine so and there are some overlaps i see in the goals okay so so maybe you all can make some progress on that tomorrow you're gonna well it might not be tomorrow but we we are planning to meet with august 4th sorry yeah we'll we'll we'll get together and and consolidate and prioritize come up with some goals okay i mean are people comfortable with this as a basic organizational principle i mean because i mean what i say that i in my experience nothing's happened without a champion and somebody should really declare that they're going
076to do something by a certain time and then um we should resource those as our first priority so um here's the thing steve chris is our champion on the trees yeah you know and he's not in this meeting oh no and so i feel like not exactly comfortable jumping in and saying i'm the champion on the trees because he's done the one well no i wouldn't but of course that's uh but there are all these other things that are listed as well right and those have not been talked over with the rest of the group yeah we've been doing trees okay so why don't you all discuss ipm and lawns um i'm not going to promise that for tomorrow um because the group isn't exactly ready for that but yes okay all right so um
077so does anybody um before we move on to the next agenda item is there any uh does anybody feel the need to discuss these topics any further okay so let's move on to the uh to the next item on the agenda which are by reports from committees other commissions um council and chair john's not here so the energy commission will wait till the next meeting um shannon how about planning um i would say that the um the carbon neutrality plan has really emboldened the planning commission to um make asks of developers for projects that are not staying within their existing zoning and one that just passed the other night which might be of interest to all of you in terms of its process was one called valhalla which is right across from pioneer and is
078surrounded by the u of m golf course right now it's a collection of um of single-family homes and the developers there wanted to upzone it a whole lot like a whole lot more density and basically the leverage that we felt like we had to be able to even consider that ask was to make it very green which it really wasn't um coming in it was it was a little bit but not much so as we work through this process there they've come before us three different times and they are now the first all-electric building to go uh through the planning process they have solar over um most of the buildings and i think have like a 500 000 you know kilowatt system and um and have ev charging stations and also um have uh affordable
079housing as a component of this as well so i think that this this whole 2030 plan has really given us some direction and frankly some teeth for um asks when people are not doing a buy right development so it's a it's a big change from what is currently there and it will definitely be a shift from what people would see as they're driving down that portion of of main street but it also is on transit it's next to a grocery store you can still walk to town from there you're part of a bikeable areas and for a lot of reasons it fits the city's master plan in in other ways even though the zoning was not part of that it was actually a it was a township parcel um so um kind of one of
080the funny little islands so uh i think that you know because of the um you know the the work that that that came out of some of the things that we've been supporting that planning commission feels much more emboldened to be able to make those kinds of asks and has i think also some some specific things to ask for and some tools to think about with with that whole process so uh it feels it it um feels good to be able to you know think about how we can push developers to make things far more green than what they were coming into it so um it has yet to go to city council i'm sure that there'll be changes there or whether it will pass we don't know but um to have uh you know
081a multi-family complex be all electric and have a sizable portion of it on solar is a is a big shift from the business that's been done so far so that's what i would say is my report okay that sounds very encouraging is this the parcel that's uh protected by that large netting from the golf course um it is kind of it's surrounded is on the main street side and it's surrounded by the u of m golf course so it's kind of a funny little parcel um that is tucked in um so there are homes that are near it but not next to it because the golf course kind of encompasses it go goes on all sides except for the main street side so the nearest homes are several hundred feet away um [Music] but uh
082yeah so it's a it's a it was a funny little township island um that was zoned to be single-family um but uh it's up being up zoned a lot to be able to accommodate this development and we felt like this was our chance to be able to um you know think about making it a whole lot more green than it was so well that's good to hear um anybody else hey um um mike how about the parks commission i'm sorry you're muted uh no meeting again this month we're bumped in next week okay okay um how about council yeah um well i think steven you already mentioned the um good news that staff and everyone reached an agreement with uh recycle ann arbor to reopen the murph and um and how uh potentially huge that
083can be for southeastern michigan um if we can be a regional headquarters again for recycling and recycling education and so i know um i'm excited to do more on that and and um and then see we'll be saving estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars um a month from shipping it to ohio and i'm hoping there'll be lots more exciting things we can do with the materials you know even if there isn't a market someplace else there might be some innovative markets for our recycled goods and then all the education for reducing in the beginning so i'm sure there'll be a lot of exciting things for all of us to do helping all that all of that unfold no that's really good news anne um and it uh it will involve a lot more regional cooperation
084so this just brings up the whole topic of werma again you know the regionalization proposal so i don't know i don't know if that's um about where that is now and uh and what can be done to if there's any any actions that could be done to help help make regional discussions and planning easier you know between city staff and [Music] uh county and other other entities yes and i spoke to recycle ann arbor earlier this week and um i think the general idea was that we could still uh recycle for other communities without needing a werma agreement and a worm agreement would be nice but as these two stumbling blocks um were the weighted voting where ann arbor would be on an equal footing with much smaller communities and that didn't sound uh like
085in our best interests or prudent and to put ourselves at that kind of a disadvantage and then um the responsible contractor language so i think the warmer itself is is still in the background but nonetheless we can still partner with other communities to accept their recycled materials okay yeah well thanks a lot for that update um is there anything else you'd like to mention no i think that was the main okay yep thank you um so that's the time for the chair report i only have two things to mention and one is um one is um well i can't read my notes so one is um the attendance um our bylaws indicate that um um commissioners need to attend um need to attend a majority of the meetings annual meetings that uh that uh you
086know once you've missed three meetings uh you're kind of on notice so i'm thinking that um i'm thinking that this is something that uh i'm going to pay more attention to and that uh you know if people are absent uh um their third time for their third meeting in a year i'm going to try to talk to them about uh about um you know about that and um and uh so i just wanted to mention that that it's in our bylaws and that we should be um uh we should be paying attention to this we've had a lot of applicants to the commission um we have a lot of work to do and i think it's important we have if people don't feel like they have the time or the real commitment to fulfill this
087role that we should probably um try to consider you know finding another candidate to come join the commission and and put there in the water so um and the other thing i've noticed is that we have not susan hutton was our vice chair and so she's been gone since may so that the next item on the agenda would be um electing a vice chair there would be part of our august meeting agenda so i'm looking for any volunteers or nominations um and so that will be part of the agenda so i'd like people to think about that um uh that's all i have to say right now um so the next item on the agenda is is there any discussion anybody like to discuss anything about that just noticed chris graham is over in the
088attendees section i don't know if he can be let in or if they if he's just permanently in the attendees today i just moved him over yeah he's a panelist now he can speak he was in purgatory hey chris hi steve hi how long have you been there a while ah sorry i was trying to get in but i couldn't figure out how to do it i guess you have to do it you know i think galen has to do that um so we'll do better next time why are my fishes showing instead of meat there we go thank you very much so um zoom agenda where it's reporting from staff um i can give you a call and update you about uh i'll get the minutes drafted soon and send it to you and
089we'll we can have a discussion sometime at your discretion basically so i'm going to stop sharing my screen at this point and uh so the next item on the agenda is the report from staff um galen you're on the floor yes um good evening everybody uh we have a few items um that i would love to update the commission on uh right now uh last month we had a week-long youth 820 youth sustainability week which was in partnership with the uh and our public schools uh youth councils uh we have an excellent group of youth that uh we've been working with also uh we're working on a partnership with the freeman center and uh we're doing uh two psas right now we're doing a psa uh the first one would be like an introduction to
090a20 and the next one will be a multitude of psas um actually over the uh seven uh strategies so uh there'll be a psa for each strategy that's going to be all action oriented uh informing residents on what they could do or can do so that's my update right now and also uh we're looking forward to definitely a good uh year with ann arbor public schools um we see our youth sustainability week as an annual event that's going to culminate all the activities that the youth councils from the high schools have been doing so we'll bring those in and periodically we'll uh you know bring them in uh for training opportunities or whatnot it might be virtual and then also uh we're working on our uh ambassadors program which is called the uh sustainability ambassador
091program and we're convening uh about 10 11 folks next week um to begin uh those discussions right now we have a skeleton of a nine week sustainability course that's going to teach residents uh you know different elements of sustainability many of them will be taught by city staff uh some other community members with expertise um also we're working on a circularity paper with the solid waste department that circularity paper will be up uh put into uh i can't remember the magazine offhand but we put an abstract together so far and we got some interns doing some research and myself jenny patoski eileen naples whenever she returns we'll be working on that paper and the due date for that i believe is december of this year that's our update oh great thank you i'm not i'm
092not understanding what a circularity paper is well uh it's dealing with the uh circular economy you know like solid waste uh materials management you know solid waste production and we're actually writing an abstract on what we're doing here in the city so we're looking at some of those uh at best practices across the country and we'll be putting those things into a paper you know later on this year and we would definitely you know come on and share with you you know that time okay um we're about two weeks into it right now okay so gail and if people want more information is this information all being posted on the a20 website uh not the circularity paper because that was solid waste originated um but i can uh have a meeting with any guys you
093know myself jenny patoski just to update or just do a official update on where we are you know periodically as we go through these months and you know also you know it'll be good if we can get some input too as well okay so um okay so the next schedule meeting is on august 27th to the zoom meeting again um the next item on the agenda is public commentary so i'm going to read my script again and uh gail and we'll see if anybody's phoned in okay i could comment i was expecting somebody might call in um [Music] so public comment this is an opportunity for persons to speak up for up to three minutes please call one eight eight seven two eight zero zero nine and enter meeting id number nine two nine five
094seven nine six nine eight two three this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video feed city staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star 9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments and please be patient there is a delay of up to 30 seconds before the connection is established commission president brown uh we have a question and a question and answer
095from one of the attendees or ron um i've allowed him to speak if he would like to speak his comment or i can read it yeah um is he only gets he connected by phone oh no no he's uh one of the attendees he's in the uh room with us okay well why don't you uh know why don't you have him well so what are the alternatives you want to talk you want well um uh he uh he posted a comment in the question and answer box but he's also in here so he can speak it if he would like to or i can read it oh great everybody can hear me yeah can you see me also i haven't been able to this is my first zoom meeting like this usually when i've done
096zooms it's everybody's picture is up there but anyway yeah i just uh said something i've been i've been chatting a little bit with ann about uh my experience in marquette um just to make it quick uh lived in ann arbor in the 80s an 88 moved to seattle lived there for 30 years moved to marquette uh lived there for two years now i'm back in ann arbor and when i was up there last year i had the idea of pursuing a lot more alternatives to polystyrene in restaurants coffee shops bakeries and all that i didn't see a whole lot of uh businesses um using alternatives to polystyrene but there were a few in contrast to coming down here have enjoyed lots of takeout as i said in the uh in the question and answer box
097but virtually every uh restaurant uses styrofoam or plastic i found that to be very odd because when i lived here in the 80s you know i canvas for greenpeace and public interest research group and uh it seemed to be a very you know environmentally conscious city so i was a bit taken aback by the uh by the um prevalent use of styrofoam it's every place so everybody knows about styrofoam the fact that it's can be you know trash that you see on the ground it can be minuscule particles that are in the water that gets into the food chain harms wildlife and the objective up there was to use lake superior as a unifying issue because it's a you know it's something that everyone prizes uh environmentalists and not so environmental alike so it worked
098um it got a lot of media coverage across the u.p uh in all the newspapers up there and we had the tv stations and all that i had a you know an array of speakers representing business restaurants nmu city commissioner all of that it was an awareness campaign it was to incentivize and educate and for people to just participate as i mentioned in the uh question and answer thing there was uh senate bill 853 a few years ago where there was a permanent ban on bands of this sort meaning you know there's no way if you bring your big box here that uh you're gonna be pushed into you know buying more expensive materials to send folks away with so understanding that i've been talking to ann a little bit about what's another angle maybe
099on a local level purely local level an ordinance an agreement a resolution from the mayor's office that says you know here's some businesses who are doing this yay go ann arbor we can do this um without having to pass a law so um i'm just at this point wondering how to uh maybe intersect with uh an existing um an existing uh you know subtopic of the environmental commission very interested in natural features uh working group uh the heritage landmark tree thing sounds good if this is something that can be inserted into an already functioning uh category of uh things that uh you folks approach i could work with ann on how to go forward from there um and uh yeah i'm just uh floating that out there what what does everybody think of the possibility
100of getting uh restaurants bakeries coffee shops uh who kind of come together and say yeah we can do this uh in many cases cheaply or more or more uh cost effective than even styrofoam or plastic i have a lot of data on that that came from a business owner up in marquette frankly marquette way up in the u.p you know much smaller town than ann arbor but they're very very much more conscious of this now and i would like to kind of uh put that out there uh as once again incentivize and participate kind of thing not a boom ban or law that's going to you know um turn away restaurants and make them think that they're you know doing something that they have to do rather than doing something that they think is right
101and want to do the question is um how do i help how do i get involved uh and then there's the uh the heritage landmark tree thing i'm very interested in also um taking a closer look at that in ways that i can volunteer to uh to to keep that to keep that going or improve it or sustain it okay um ron yes could you just mention your name and address yes it's uh ron carnell 2300 arrowwood trail ann arbor 48105. okay um thank you for your comment sure i think the commissioners that are on the solid waste working group um we should uh i'll i'll personally contact you in sometime tomorrow probably or over the weekend okay invest these in some more detail okay great i'll just i'll just say at this point that
102uh um that yeah that uh senate bill was actually provoked by a uh a law that was passed by washington county here to ban oh my the band plastic bag so it got an immediate response from the michigan chamber of commerce and the chemical manufacturers association and so that's how that happened um there are it depends on the state like you know it's going to depend on actions of the state legislature going forward but i can update you on other bills that are going on for example there's a building drafted to ban uh pfas you know polyfluoroalkenated sciences and food wrappers and things like that so i can talk to you about some of that and then we can see how um you know how we might integrate you into the work of the commission
103okay okay thank you uh real quick on the subject of pfas i recently got uh you know got aware of that um knew a little bit about it before like now i know more we have to live right by the huron river this is more of a kind of a personal thing fuller lake is and a friend told me no no don't swim in there a lot of people do don't do it it's pfas what's the deal with just swimming do you do you guys have any insight on that um yeah i think uh just swimming uh there are no recognized health dangers but it's the county health department that manages information okay in my awareness there's no ban on swimming there's no concern about that however there is concern about foam if you see
104any particularly whitish foam in the river you need to avoid that you need uh you need the um you know you need your pets and everything like that to avoid it as well because the peacocks will concentrate in the phone i see okay well uh thanks for the information on that and i look uh forward to um learning more about what i can do and how i can work with ann on this this uh struck her is a pretty good idea so um and uh and like i said i've got nothing but time i can i can put in some work okay well i'll give you a call tomorrow okay thank you very much you're welcome um any other comments caitlyn i don't uh see anybody else no okay so let's wait another 10 seconds
10515 seconds hi how do you raise your hand around here stephen so uh for a number of years after phosphates were banned in michigan i was regularly seeing foam below the barton dam in the river and i really didn't understand that and of course i presume that was fifa's contamination coming down the river it didn't last long it was usually done the foam was usually absorbed by the time he got around to argo pond i'm also curious and i haven't seen any um scientific studies that say what the sources of the microplastics in our waterways and in the ocean um are they plastic bags is that the source is it um um okay i mentioned this earlier i have some scientific papers that i can share with you as well as bob needham um it's
106basically uh major sources uh lent from fleece from synthetic fab fibers and fleece clothing um clothing that's getting washed and then emitting these fibers yeah that's possibly the major source in the river it's also airborne about half of it is airborne and it comes from many sources it can come from brake pads automobile brake pads automobile tires so we've traded asbestos for plastics in the air and brake pads yeah we'll we'll have a we'll have a discussion of that [Music] the next meeting um is going to be uh bob needham's organizing and it's around water quality issues and so we're we'll have time to talk more about this topic later maybe at the next maybe the august meeting thank you i'd like to learn this but i'm happy to share uh the information i have
107with you all okay yes sir and i'll just copy everybody on it um so um let me just summarize the action items i think we have the ones that we had from last time that uh we'll just update and then i'm going to add two more um one is the uh that uh commissioners um will send their ideas for capstone projects to uh peck um just a paragraph a rough paragraph outlining what the idea is by september 1st and uh so uh chris because you came in late the basic idea was that uh um you know to develop uh clients what are called clients for c students capstone projects um they'd like to have ideas and projects to collaborate on with the local community so every community think about sending their ideas to uh to
108pack for these projects needs to be a paragraph uh by september 1st and then we'll go through the process and you know see what floats to the top okay yes sir and then the uh the second action point i have is that i'm going to share the draft um my draft ordinance for construction and demolition recycling with people before the meeting and uh i don't think i'd like some input from other people but i don't think it will it we'll see if there'll be time on the agenda for the next meeting um the next meeting bob is gonna have the majority of the time and uh on what we're going to talk about water quality so um i think that's it um are there any other suggestions did i miss something we were gonna make
109up a smart goal for the ipm work with jen lawson [Music] that's sorry thank you ann okay um so um so um are there any more um action items last call okay well um i uh we're at the end of the agenda so i will uh i'd like to adjourn the meeting a motion to adjourn it um shannon seconded by chris okay so uh the meeting is adjourned at 8 p.m uh thanks everybody for your time thank you everyone it was really great to meet everyone i hope i hope we uh can see more of you really thank you thanks for coming in arbor and contributing yeah i'm and you know i've got i've um it's my thing you know uh seniors kids environmental stuff pets i'm all of that all right okay thank you
110everyone and we'll and uh mr brown we'll talk to you uh we'll talk to you soon is it steve is it steve brown yeah yeah okay all right yeah we'll we'll uh we'll catch up with you maybe tomorrow hey yeah for sure thank you sir take care everyone bye-bye everybody bye-bye everybody you