Fall Creek Watershed Committee Minutes
July 20, 2000
4-H Acres

Present: Sharon Anderson, Phil Koons, Betty Wien, Roxy Johnston, Stephen Penningroth, Yvette de Boer, and Joyce Gerbasi

Note: some people had not received a copy of the June minutes and enclosures. If you did not receive, please notify Sharon.

An updated Water Resources Council 2000 membership was passed out to everyone. Roxy Johnston, a member of the council, will represent citizen groups at council meetings and will also attend some Fall Creek Watershed Committee meetings.

Funding

Sharon brought up that funding for the group ran out at the end of April. A new request needs to be submitted to the Water Resources Council for funding. The previous budget provided funds for staff support and monitoring supplies. The draft proposal is more focused on staff support with approximately $1000 available for supplies, some of which could go towards monitoring supplies. Please get any feedback and suggested changes to Roxy ASAP. She will take the request to the Council.

Key role of Marshall that needs filling: leadership. Sharon explained how she see her role as staff support. Yvette de Boer, a middle school teacher who attended the first few meetings, is doing an MS at ESF on volunteer monitoring. She attended a conference on how to get volunteer data used more. Yvette may be willing to provide some leadership. Committee unanimously in favor of Sharon talking with Yvette further.

Steve and Kate Hackett have been working on a grant proposal (to WAG). The objective of the grant is to address water quality issues by building sustainable programs through partnerships. If this proposal is funded, the monies will support local watershed partnerships with Fall Creek as the focus. The partnerships will be built through volunteer monitoring. Maximum funds available are $30,000. Steve and Kate have written a first draft of the proposal, the deadline is August 15th. They want to emphasize local partnerships and are therefore planning to make the Fall Creek Watershed Committee (FCWC) a lead organization, and have the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network as the fiscal agent. Matching funds from the Water Resources Council would help increase the chances of getting funded.

Reactions to PA Volunteer Monitoring Guide

Concerns were raised about liability waivers and collecting permits outlined in the guide. Cooperative Extension has a waiver approved by their insurance provider. Sharon received for a DEC permit for benthic macroinvertebrates that includes active members of the FCWC. Other names can be added as needed.

We discussed whether the guide could be used as a model to help develop the program for Fall Creek. Although it seems like a lot of work up front before monitoring can actually begin, the consensus was that it would be a good idea. So far the development has been somewhat informal, following the steps outlined in the guide would help to formalize the process. Sharon will begin working on some of the parts outlined in Part 1 (Table 1B, Table 1C, and the mission statement.) She will prepare drafts that we will review at the next meeting. Table 1A needs to be worked on as a group so we will do this next meeting. Phil will glean information from the Toxic Targeting reports and also speak to Jim Finnigan and work on Table 1C. For Table 1D (what is the most pressing water quality issue), a survey was distributed for the Cayuga Lake Watershed plan. Roxy will look into getting results from the Tompkins County, or if possible by municipalities that are part of the Fall Creek Watershed, to help with this section. She will also check to see whether the FCWC is an affiliate of the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network.

Reports Back from Potential Users

We will report at next meeting (objective and list of users in last month's minutes). Yvette will additionally check with USGS (John Hornline, Bill Kappel, or Dave Eckhardt).

Creek Walk in Fall 2000

We discussed whether to do a creek walk. In order to do so, we would need to determine why we would do it, what we hope to accomplish, and where we would access the creek.

Some suggestions were:

• Do with just the FCWC first
• Choose spots: both pristine and impaired
• Maybe do some sampling

We decided to wait with further development until we had more information about impairments, then we could decide on where to go.

Next FCWC meeting

August 23rd, 2000, 7-9 PM at 4-H acres.

Proposed Agenda: Discussion of Table 1A, including mission statement (see below) Reports by Sharon, Phil and Roxy and discussion of Table 1B, 1C, and 1D Set meeting schedule for the Fall

Below are some notes that might help with our discussion at the next meeting.

The Fall Creek Watershed Committee has been formed by a concerned group of citizens who want to improve our understanding of how to maintain and improve the ecological health, economic vitality, and overall beauty of the watershed.
— quote from the Web page

Suggested Goals From Nov. 1, 1999 FCWC Minutes

• Improve our appreciation and understanding of the value of the Fall Creek Watershed and its streams and of Cayuga Lake into which those streams flow.
• Help our communities develop a common vision of what we want our streams to be like in 10, 20, and 50 years.
• Conduct our own assessments of watershed conditions including opportunities, problems, and potential solutions.
• Increase the public's knowledge, including that of our elected officials and public employees, as to how their actions impact our water resources and our long-term health and quality of life.
• Information Exchange;
• Understanding each others concerns and restrictions;
• Exploring our common interests.

Watershed Issues identified during Nov. 1, 1999 FCWC Minutes

The group was asked to describe additional issues and/or goals which they would like to see the committee address. Issues raised included:

• farm waste management, particularly livestock waste and CAFO;
• fencing of animals from streams and public support for additional costs imposed upon farmers;
• including small farming operations in outreach/education efforts to enhance clean water;
• solids (plastics) pollution in the local streams;
• sediment pollution from ditch maintenance, county and town highway dept. operations;
• coordination and involvement of other groups (e.g. Trout Unlimited, the Agricultural Committee forming under the Intermunicipal Organization (IO) working on the Cayuga Lake Watershed Plan).