Town of Rochester
Environmental Conservation Commission
May 14th, 2015
ECC Attendance: Barbara Fornel, Colin McDonugh, Stu Dorris, Angela Dorris, Laura Finestone, Ben Ganon.
Non Member Attendance: Melissa Orozzco-McDonugh, Jamie Deppen.
Recorder: Angela Dorris
Call to order: 6:04 PM.
Minutes from April Meeting: Approved.
Rail Trail – Stu Dorris
No new update.
Grant Reports – Laura
A team is assembling to apply for a 2015 DEC grant to develop an Open Space Plan. The proposal should be completed by mid June so a team will meet between now and then to discuss and write.
May Event debriefs – Laura and Angela
Earth Day Clean Up Statistics
2011 23 signups 2220lbs/70 tires
2012 2675/154
2013 56 in 3 groups? 3700/200
2014 7050 154 tires signups 2 groups 50 signups
2015 50 plus sign ups plus girl scouts tires 134 poundage 5980
Riverkeeper Sweep 2015
There were 12 volunteers at the project in Rochester. There were a total of 2,000 volunteers from NYC to Albany for the 4th Annual Riverkeeper Sweep:
· Over 40 tons of debris was removed from the Hudson River Watershed, in 100 locations.
· 1,150 trees and native grasses were planted.
· More than 500 trees and shrubs were maintained.
Omelette Update- Ben Ganon
Great data was presented on macroinvertebrate. They sample fish occasionally.
Discussion on bioindicators. Ecoli and entero are not necessarily impactful on the macroinvertebrate.
Bacteria are not necessarily harmful to macroinvertebrate. Ben will continue to share the invitation to future Omelette with everyone.
Ulster County RRA – Barbara Fornel
Barbara shared a recently published article written by William Kendell – there was a special meeting this past tuesday with representatives from 18 transfer stations. Deadline to decide closure is May 27th RRA meeting.
UC Legislatures are visiting landfills and will consider siting a landfill locally, though it may not be in the town of Rochester.
Barbara on Nestle’s water bottling plant on Forest Lands
Nestle has been illegally pulling water from Forest land for over 27 land. Shared link for petition and activism opportunity. (insert link here).
Stream Walk – Ben , Laura, and Jamie
Regarding the Creek Walk, Wawarsing developed their own protocol.
Ben and John from the Town of Rochester worked on a different set up protocol for the intermunicipal creek walk. . Wawarsing and Rochester will collaborate with Rosendale ECC so it can be an intermunicipal project.
John Michelson is working on getting Rochester a grant for the watershe
Update on Rondout Creek Watershed Alliance. This is a new and unofficial organization, formerly known as Save the Rondout, that needs to become official and organized to retrieve grant money and develop a large scale plan.
Ben (in collaboration with John Michelson)- Creek Week creek walk they would like a week of time slots where people can sign up for different time slots and each person (a couple) would go and assess a section of the stream (around 400 ft) and do a quick assessment. Note outfalls and discharge pipes. Volunteers would use a ranking system to rate 7-10 different characteristics of the stream. Such as insect habitat. Go through each variable for your segment and rate it so you can quantify each section of stream, noting sources of pollution, outfalls, eroding banks. The goal to using this pre designed data sheet would make it comparable to other programs and may also make us eligible for funding. There is also an issue of liability. The NRCS has a program where they could cover liability and workers comp for volunteers.
The entire process would be 1-3 hour training for volunteers then going out on their designated day.
We would need landowner permission for certain areas.
This would take place during Creek Week in September. It should take 1-2 hours per segment.
Each segment will be a separate GIS layer.
Jamie – In their version the education became separate from the data. They focused on sewage contaminated. Some things that are holding the Wawarsing back is lack of volunteers and budget. They feel maxed out with what they are doing now without additional resources.
Need to work out overall goals, capabilities and capacities, then match that up with protocal for what works.
Laura – The next meeting will be held in June between the Rochester, Wawarsing, and Rosendale ECC. We could possibility get volunteers to come from other areas to help in Wawarsing.
Ben and Jamie will present what they came up with for protocols.
Plan for publicising and recruiting volunteers will be a part of the next meetings agenda.
Next meeting will be hosted by Dan Shapley of Riverkeeper.
Action Steps – Ben and Jamie will get together to collaborate before the June intermunicipal meeting.
A small gathering will happen at the closing of the event to show appreciation of volunteers.
Proposal for John Boat -Laura
A barge for collecting tires for our creek clean ups.
Cost is $400.
Hanging Education Posters in Town Hall – Laura
Carl gave permission to showcase ECC educational posters in Town Hall. We will collaborate with Carl to decide where to hang them.
Colin – Is looking into recycling plastic bags locally.
4 Youth from Rochester High School and Meg (Earth Sciences teacher) joined us for the end of the meeting.
Youth:
Devon Baselock (interested in volunteering, Danielle Doubourd (interested in volunteering), Taylor Dee (interested in volunteering), Matt Gokee (interested in volunteer work), Elija Clearwater (yes to volunteer).
Meeting Adjourned at 7:00 PM