A special MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

august 17, 2015

The Lake County Board of County Commissioners met in a special South Lake Regional Water Initiative policy meeting on Monday, August 17, 2015 at 1:00 p.m., at the Clermont Community Center, Room B, 620 West Montrose Street, Clermont, Florida.  Commissioners present at the meeting were:  Sean Parks, Vice Chairman, and Welton G. Cadwell.  Others present were:  David Heath, County Manager; Brian Sheahan, Community Safety and Compliance Director, and Susan Boyajan, Deputy Clerk.

welcome and introductions

Commr. Parks reported that the lake levels were currently high in the county; the Cities of Groveland and Clermont were just awarded several million dollars of water supply projects; and the state just awarded the South Lake Regional Water Initiative $300,000 to catalogue and document the condition of culverts, water conveyance structures, and ditches in the Clermont Chain of Lakes.  He commented, however, that even with these positive events, their efforts are just getting started, and he reminded everyone that the mission of the South Lake Regional Water Initiative was to protect the water resources of South Lake County.  He emphasized that they must plan now rather than put it off to some later date so that residents and businesses will have safe, reliable, reasonably-priced water available to them through the year 2035, and their mission was to do all of this working together instead of apart, for they know that the potential consequences for doing it alone are at best very expensive to their city and County budgets or at worst contribute to the collapse of their local economy, quality of life, and water resources.  He cautioned that there were people in the much larger surrounding counties who do not want them to work together and did not want the South Lake Regional Water Initiative to succeed and get as far as it has gotten, because they know it is easier dealing with cities and counties individually rather than with a large group which is working together.  He pointed out that Florida just became the third most populous state, with further growth predicted to occur, and he opined that what the South Lake Regional Water Initiative is doing is the right and responsible thing to do for future generations.  He explained that the Water Initiative’s technical group has been meeting monthly, and this is a policy meeting to start making some major decisions.  He introduced some elected officials that were present, including Commr. Cadwell, Councilwoman Evelyn Wilson from the City of Groveland, Councilman Joe Saunders from the City of Minneola, Mr. Sam Opelar from the Lake County Water Authority, and several city managers who will be included in the conversation.  He also mentioned that this meeting has been duly advertised.

pledge of allegiance

Commr. Parks led the Pledge of Allegiance.

update on the central florida water initiative

Mr. Alan Oyler, consulting engineer for the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), commented that he believes that the information presented during the meeting will be a good introduction to the future of water resources in South Lake and where they would get those water resources for the next 20 years.  He mentioned that there was a broader water initiative that was taking place in the five-county area of Central Florida called the Central Florida Water Initiative, which was evaluating a project for South Lake looking into tapping into the lower Floridan Aquifer as a potential source of water for the South Lake area as opposed to going to the St. Johns River as their next alternative for the water demands that will be needed in the future.  He specified that one of the projects modeled by the Central Florida Water Initiative (CFWI) involved placing a very large well field down in the Four Corners area and transmitting that water into the Clermont area to be distributed to the members of the South Lake Regional Water Initiative, and the other project that was evaluated was a distributed well field where each of the communities would place a smaller well in an existing well field area into the lower Floridan aquifer rather than a large well field in one area.  He noted that the impacts of both projects are about the same to some of their lakes and springs as a result of withdrawals from either location, and after evaluating the options, some mitigation will have to take place.  He explained, however, that the largest difference between the two will be in the cost, since they assume that the water quality in the centralized well field was not going to be drinkable, but the distributed well field in the lower Floridan in the area north of Hwy 50 tends to be drinkable right out of the ground, which will result in a fraction of the cost for the centralized option.  He added that they were promoting the concept of the distributed well field project (Option 2B) as their solution for obtaining water resources for the next 20 years and have provided to their Water Management District representatives some additions to the CFWI solutions report that is out for public review, evaluation, and comment.

South Lake Regional Water Initiative water projections update

Mr. Oyler explained that WRA (Water Resource Associates) was hired by the South Lake Regional Water Initiative through a state grant to evaluate options for providing water in parallel with the Central Florida Water Initiative effort.

Mr. Mark Farrell from WRA explained that the first of two components for putting together a long-term water supply plan was to look at the demand and need of all of the users for a 20-year horizon, a majority of which will be from the public supply sector, so they looked at each of the current permits for the members of the South Lake Regional Water Initiative and did projections of what their demand would be for the next 20 years.  He related that demand is broken into two components, the per capita rate of water and the population currently and in five-year increments for the next 20 years.  He specified that they had a goal of 150 gallons of per capita per day and indicated that estimates of future population are very subjective and problematic.  He presented a bar graph indicating that Clermont was currently permitted approximately 8 million gallons per day through 2031, which he noted is causing some degree of harm to the wetlands and lakes in the area, and showing the projected demand in five-year increments through 2035 by the CFWI, WRA, and the community.  He pointed out that the community projections for Clermont, Minneola, and Groveland were much higher than other projections for the years starting in 2025 due to the fact that those three cities felt that they had information which showed that their per capita rate is higher than what was used historically and that the projections for increases in population as estimated by BEBR (Bureau of Economic and Business Research) from the University of Florida were not accurate, and he noted that Clermont is expected to be out of water to some degree by 2025 using any of the different projection levels.  He related that Groveland is also a community that believes that their growth will greatly exceed what was projected by BEBR, and they have approximately 2.14 million gallons per day permitted and were projected to be out of water between 2025 and 2030, although they believe they will run out of water closer to 2020.

Mr. Farrell commented that higher levels of conservation and alternative sources will need to be used, such as lower Floridan and river water, and he emphasized that alternative water is much more expensive than local water.  He mentioned that the demand for water for the Wellness Way Sector Plan is not expected to affect the amount of water consumption until 2035, and he specified that Wellness Way is projected to consume 100 gallons per capita per day, which he opined was very conservative and efficient.  He noted that there was very little variation for Mascotte between the WRA and the community numbers, and they have about 1 million gallons per day permitted through 2035, were currently using about 60 percent of that, and do not seem to have a water need at this point for that community.  He commented that this illustrates the point that although some communities need a lot of water, there are others that do not have that need.  He reported that Minneola was another city that believed that the BEBR numbers did not accurately reflect their future water needs resulting from an expected surge in the demand, and they have 2.82 million gallons per day permitted.  He summarized that the South Lake communities as a whole had approximately 19.47 million gallons per day of upper Floridan groundwater permitted, which he commented was not sustainable and was causing impacts that would need to be mitigated, and that number might need to be decreased to 15 or 16 million gallons in order to sustain that quantity.  He related that according to the numbers projected by the WRA, they would probably need another 11 to 12 million gallons per day to meet the future demand, and there was hope that the lower Floridan would yield that kind of water, although that assumption was risky and problematic.  He pointed out, however, that there was a large amount of growth expected that was associated with the Turnpike and other areas which would result in an increased demand for more water.  He emphasized that the previously-mentioned numbers apply only to public supply, but agriculture, recreational facilities such as golf courses, commercial growth, and the surrounding counties will be competing for the same quantity of water.  He stated that alliances are necessary to pull resources together to create a force to deal with the District as well as the other parties as they compete for the water supply.

Mr. Oyler presented a spread sheet with projections to 2035 for the South Lake communities mentioned by Mr. Farrell, noting that the community projections predict that the water initiative group will need 52 million gallons by the year 2035, and the existing permits will not cover the amount of growth being predicted in this area.  He reported that the option proposed by the CFWI  of putting additional wells in the lower Floridan will likely have less of an impact on their water resources than the upper Floridan wells and will likely result in an additional 11 to 15 million gallons more per day or a total of between 30 and 34 ˝ million gallons per day, although the communities will still have to mitigate the expected impacts associated with doing that.  He commented that the positive news is that a lot of the future demand is not for personal consumption and potable water for cooking, cleaning, and drinking, which requires a very high-quality source, but almost 50 percent of their future demand is for irrigation needs.  He opined that the 30 to 34 million gallons that would be available would probably be sufficient to handle all of their potable water needs, but it will not satisfy their future irrigation needs.  He stated that one of their options is to find another 11 to 12 million gallons of water from another source such as Conserv II or the Yankee Lake project from Seminole County, which would be a costly alternative source, in order to support the typical landscape development that they currently see in their communities if those communities are willing to pay that cost to continue with that kind of landscaping.  He related that the second choice is to reevaluate their current development pattern to look for more Florida-friendly and water-friendly landscaping which can survive through highs and lows in the rainfall periods in order to reduce their demand for irrigation water, which will reduce their need to find alternative sources as well as reduce the cost to their communities.

draft landscape irrigation ordinance

Mr. Brian Sheahan, Community Safety and Compliance Director and liaison to the South Lake Regional Water Initiative, related that the Board directed them to bring forth water conservation regulations that could be adopted by the South Lake cities and utilities with their support, and he commented that the technical committee early on identified that the issue of finding ways of conserving water in their landscapes is going to be a key concern in reigning in their water needs.  He reported that Mr. Tim McClendon from the Economic Growth Department has been working with his staff, the staff from the St. Johns River Water Management District, and others in the industry to come up with ways to reasonably implement standards that could be used by all of their members throughout Lake County, starting with the South Lake municipalities and groups.

Mr. McClendon stated that he would discuss the Water Conservation Land Development Regulations (LDR’s) that are being proposed and recapped that Lake County is currently underway in amending a landscaping code within the LDR’s.  He reported that the draft ordinance has been prepared and is currently under review with several entities, including the SJRWMD.  He elaborated that the County is looking to adopt Florida Water Star standards, which is a water conservation certification program developed by the SJRWMD that includes indoor fixtures and appliances, landscape design for water efficiency, and the design of irrigation systems.  He related that the Planning Division is looking to adopt those standards in order to help meet their conservation needs of the future that were previously mentioned, with the main focus of the initial effort on landscape irrigation system design, and he noted that most jurisdictions have already implemented some sort of Florida-friendly landscaping.  He commented that the criteria developed by the SJRWMD for the Florida Water Star program looks to use minimal irrigation to supplement natural rainfall.  He stated that the proposed ordinance looks to add 19 specific criteria to accommodate the Florida Water Star standards using irrigation design standards, including a limit on high volume irrigation; a requirement for separate irrigation zones for turf grass and landscape beds; and a limit on sprinkler head spray onto walkways, buildings, driveways, and other structures.  He explained that currently Lake County’s design standards only contain a requirement to meet the building code, and the proposed standards would expand that to include those water conservation elements.  He pointed out that these standards, however, are only a starting point for water conservation efforts, since some homeowners are capable of running up over 70 inches of water a year, but these proposed criteria will save residents approximately $80 for a typical quarter-acre lot.  He reported that they sent the draft to the SJRWMD a week or two ago, have received their feedback, and will make the amendments suggested.  He concluded that they will then get the feedback from the other jurisdictions so that they could all adopt it at the same time and then will bring the draft regulations back to the Board in the fall of 2015 for adoption.

Mr. Sheahan elaborated that this is just a start, and later in the meeting they will talk about the formation of a Blue Ribbon panel which would recommend other water conservation efforts, although all of those things will not be a panacea.  He related that they will be in touch with each individual city to form a technical group to go over the draft ordinance.

Commr. Parks recapped that one of the issues that came up at a meeting held about four months ago was a request by the SLRWI for the County to put this ordinance together.  He asked the members in attendance to take it back to their councils and utilities for comment and to start getting it implemented, and he assured everyone that the County will also follow up with that.  He opined that they need to also address at some point instituting regulations for new subdivisions such as those in the Sector Plan which will prohibit the use of potable water sources for irrigation in addition to the regulations in the proposed ordinance.

clermont chain of lakes basin study grant

Mr. Sheahan commented that the funding for Phase III of the Clermont Chain of Lakes Basin Study was made available by the great work of their legislative delegation, especially Representative Larry Metz, which resulted in a grant in the amount of $300,000.  He explained that the Basin Study is intended to evaluate why the level of the Clermont Chain of Lakes drops so significantly during drought conditions, which effects both the recreation and habitat value of the Chain; inventory the stormwater infrastructure within the basin; update a lot of their data; identify and evaluate the pollutant sources; and develop a hydrological model to allow the SLRWI members to make informed management decisions in response to changing rainfall.  He related that they saw a demonstration of a similar model that was developed in the Withlacoochee that would assist them in predicting those flows.  He specified that the first task would be basin delineation and data assembly; the second task will be a condition survey and comprehensive assessment of the existing conditions; and the third task will be the actual basin model.  He mentioned that they were currently in discussions right now with DEP (Department of Environmental Protection), and the County would take the lead on this effort through their Stormwater Management Division of the Public Works Department to hire a consultant to perform that work.

water governance

Commr. Parks commented that the SLRWI members have done well working together as a group, resulting in projects that were being funded for the Cities of Groveland and Clermont.  He opined that the status quo will not continue to work, and they need to be making sure that their progress is not halted at some point.  He mentioned that they needed an extra 12 million gallons a day to meet their 20 to 30-year timeframe planning, and they might need to allocate $20 or $30 million to find alternative water supply systems.  He related that he has heard that a project would more likely get funding through an agency that was more formalized than the SLRWI currently was, and he asked what the next steps would be.  He added that the strength in working together to deal with the District, the legislature, and competing users as a more formalized agency would result in more clout for funding assistance than individual entities would have; and it will spread the cost if they were working together on a regional source, would be equitable in the sharing of resources, and would avoid litigation among competing communities.  He emphasized that fresh groundwater is exhausted, and they need more water to grow economically.  He added that competition is growing from all of the users, and they will be subjected to someone else’s water supply if they do not continue to work together.  He commented that this group gets a lot of attention on a statewide level as a sub-regional model for cooperation, and all of the data they have collected has kept them far ahead of what other groups are doing in terms of projections and modeling, although their achievements have now been passed in a sense of formal organization by Polk County which has formed their own alliance.  He asked for consensus from all of the members to schedule a meeting in a month to six weeks from now to start deciding what models of governance would interest them and then to bring that information back to the city councils and the County Commission.

Mr. John Wilcox, part of the team for the SLRWI to examine the management component of the alternatives as they move forward, mentioned that he had about 20 to 25 years of experience in water supply following the drought and flood cycles in west Central Florida and have represented the City of Cocoa in the acrimonious competition with the City of Orlando and Orange County for supplies out of the St. Johns River and the Taylor Creek Reservoir.  He commented that it was easier and cheaper to form themselves into some sort of relationship that is more formal, which would result in more clout and success, rather than the issue turning into acrimonious controversy among entities competing for the same resources of dollars or water supply, which almost always happens absent cooperation.  He explained that his job is to listen to what the SLRWI thinks they need, and he would then be back to brief them on some of those alternatives, how they may link together, and what sort of management components were necessary.  He added that they would examine that and determine how they would like to go forward, including funding, membership and all of the various components that they have to consider to put themselves together in a formal alignment under Florida law.

public involvement and outreach

Water Conservation Blue Ribbon Panel

Mr. Sheahan explained that one of the other things they were doing under the SLRWI is public involvement and outreach with several different initiatives, one of which is formation of a Blue Ribbon panel that will be created as a result of a memorandum of understanding between the South Lake cities, the County, and LUSI to analyze what the CFWI is suggesting for water conservation, other ideas, and what is right for their community.  He elaborated that some of those ideas might link into the irrigation standards previously mentioned in this presentation, and some might be new ideas; also, they would discuss how to incentivize water conservation efforts, particularly for businesses and existing development.  He commented that although they do not want to take away something someone already has, they do want to save as much water as possible.  He related that he would be sending an email to the membership asking everyone to let him know if they are aware of someone else in their various organizations who would be interested in serving on that panel.  He added that they would be having a meeting that would be open to the public and would be publishing the results of that meeting, such as the changes made to landscape irrigation.

Groundwater Guardian Program

Mr. James Burks, President of Senninger Irrigation, a manufacturer of agricultural irrigation components and equipment in Clermont, spoke regarding the Groundwater Guardian Program, which he opined was a strong program that was a catalyst for incentivizing and bringing awareness for conserving water, and he mentioned that Senninger was a research and development company as well as a manufacturing company with the goal of finding ways to drive technology forward to save water and energy for the purpose of agricultural irrigation.  He stated that there was a global population of about 6 billion people with the expectation of 9 billion in 20 to 25 years, and the amount of food that the world will consume with that growth due to burgeoning economies and improved diets will result in about an 80 to 90 percent increase in the demand for the food and the water to grow that food.  He commented that he sees Senninger’s role as a partner to help find technologies that will make the water available or save water for the incremental food that they grow and the energy to do that so that they can meet those demands, since agricultural uses about 70 percent of the globe’s fresh water availability.  He opined that they will not meet that demand without irrigation inputs in most areas of the world and that they had to find a way for everyone to have both food and water.

Mr. Burks related that Senninger became part of the Groundwater Foundation many years ago, which started as a grassroots initiative out of Lincoln, Nebraska, to protect the groundwater quality initially, but it has grown to an educational foundation to inform people about how groundwater is used and protected by developing educational tools and foundational elements that can be used in their schools and communities.  He opined that they needed to create an element of awareness and a passion before they could start moving individuals to bond together as a community, and one of the tools used to do that is a Groundwater Guardian Green Site, which is one of the flagship programs that the Groundwater Guardian community uses to motivate others to start embracing the concept of water conservation and protection.  He added that Senninger Irrigation became a Groundwater Guardian Green Site this year, partially out of concern that their employees lose focus of what their purpose is as their company drives forth technologies to conserve and protect water for humanity by getting mired down with what they do functionally in designing, manufacturing, selling, and distributing their product, and he explained that as a green site, they bring a committee together inside of their organization and talk about what they are doing in their own company to conserve water in addition to the development of projects and driving the technology forward, which has gotten their employees much more connected with their culture, philosophy, and purpose as a company.  He noted that currently Senninger is the only Green Site in Central Florida, but he is hoping that will change very quickly, especially since Florida had the largest, healthiest aquifers in the country, and he mentioned that there were green sites throughout the country.  He commented that getting the community as a whole involved, including all of the corporations and organizations that use water, will take it a lot further than the SLRWI could carry it all by themselves.  He related that he initially got involved in the Groundwater organization in order to have a voice in the utilization and policy making of the resource that their industry depends on, but he later realized that people wanted to volunteer their time so they would know that their grandchildren would not have to worry about where their water would come from and whether it was safe to drink.  He emphasized that communities that bound together succeed, and the availability of water is extremely important to a community.  He encouraged everyone to continue to think about green sites in this area, which will be the building blocks to the Groundwater Guardian communities.  He thanked the Board for approving the support of a Groundwater Guardian community in Lake County two years ago, and he offered to make the contacts and connect the people necessary to drive this initiative forward.

High School Ideas Contest

Commr. Parks commented that he and Mayor Tim Loucks from the City of Groveland had begun talking about the High School Ideas Contest about a year ago, and he hoped that the members will support it, since he believed this was the best venue for it.  He opined that because their initiative realizes the importance of education and outreach to address water conservation, they see a wonderful opportunity with their teenagers and young adults to offer a unique perspective on how to connect with people on water conservation in South Lake, in particular the millennial and baby boomer generations.  He explained that the contest would be open to any student of any high school in South Lake, particularly juniors and seniors, to come up with a media campaign, such as sample advertisements, video clips, or print production aimed at reaching those two generations.  He elaborated that they envision it as a fact-based, multi-disciplinary approach that will take into consider the data that has been collected; be a creative and artistic way to convey those facts; and would be called the “WATER” contest, which will be an acronym for “Working together As a Team to promote Environmental and water Resource planning.”  He added that they would be offering a $500 prize that will be administered to the winning team, and some media and technical people would to be on the review team, noting that Senninger Irrigation will be part of that effort as well.

Mayor Loucks recapped that the District and the cities have attempted to institute water conservation for many years, although they have seen only a 2 to 5 percent reduction of water usage over the past 15 years, since many people’s habits of using a lot of water have not changed.  He expressed hope that they can raise the reduction of water by an additional 15 to 20 percent by 2035, which would result in the 19 million gallons of water needed in 2035 reduced to 10 or 15 million gallons, by educating the youth now.  He commented that many of the older programs such as Cash for your Grass and Water Hogs were unsuccessful due to resentment and rebellion against the limitations that were placed on water usage.  He noted that regarding the high projections of water usage for the Cities of Groveland and Minneola, the densities in many of the South Lake areas are very different than Orange County, which has a lot of apartments and high-rise buildings, whereas South Lake County consists primarily of single-family residences, which affects the amount of reclaimed water that could be generated, with higher density areas taking a much smaller footprint and irrigation need.  He pointed out that the District only looks at the amount of water that they have and the amount they would release to them rather than at the densities of homes and population.

Commr. Parks thanked the City of Clermont for hosting this meeting, the Chamber members that were present, and everyone else for attending this summit.  He mentioned that they have envisioned Ms. Juanita Popenoe, County Extension Director from the University of Florida, being part of the Blue Ribbon panel.

questions and comments

Jim Gleason, City Manager for the City of Mascotte, commented that the responsibilities of the new governance and who it would be responsible to should be clearly vetted, and he opined that the cities rather than the County should be the driving force, since the County is not in the utility business, and the cities are the ones that provide the infrastructure and water.  He stated that he does not mind sharing the cost as long as they are not paying for someone else’s problem.  He stated that the community has failed to institute conservation rates and strict guidelines involving landscaping, and he believed that they should be charging people who are using more water than they should be using, which would incentivize water conservation more.  He expressed concern about creating another layer of government which would create more bureaucracy and regulation.

Commr. Parks explained that he has asked for them to get more details about what has worked in other communities, such as in Withlacoochee, and he commented that funding will go to projects coming from groups or agencies that are more formalized.

Mr. Darren Gray, City Manager for the City of Clermont, commented that although the cities have been doing a good job with conservation, they really needed to explore governance, and he suggested that they have a joint meeting with all the cities as they move forward with this issue.

Commr. Parks clarified that he was not talking about adding more permits, but the minimum amount of cooperation they need to make sure of success in the future.  He assured everyone that he was not proposing for the cities to give up their utility departments or the Minnesota model, but he was just stating that they need to move to the next step.

Commr. Cadwell suggested that they look at what would happen if they had one governing body with all entities keeping their own wastewater just as a barometer or a starting point while they were going through that process, although he pointed out that he is not endorsing that approach.

Commr. Parks responded that they should not be afraid to discuss and examine a lot of different ideas, even though a lot of ideas do not happen, and that group has had some good conversations about different ideas on that subject.

Mr. Walt Martin suggested that they put in regulations and provisions for new homes coming into the South Lake area so that they have to have their own water catchment and storage capability.

Commr. Parks asked whether there was the political will to put regulations in place for newer subdivisions to require that no irrigation come from potable resources as well as the catchment of water, although he opined that those types of measures would help.  He commented that millennials are looking for those types of measures, and the baby boomers like to support those kinds of things, indicating that there was opportunity for them to do that.

Ms. Sarah Whitaker, consultant with SMW GeoSciences, Inc., opined that progress has been made by the utilities and the cities working together toward the goal of water conservation, but she expressed concern about private wells that are being constructed in Howey in the Hills where they cannot meet the CUP allocation.  She suggested that they can all work together with the state to eliminate the ability for developers to put in individual residential irrigation wells, which would tax the Floridan aquifer without adding to the revenue stream, since the use will not be counted or metered.

Commr. Parks clarified that Ms. Whitaker was suggesting that the County put that on a legislative agenda in order to request more regulation of self-supply.

Mr. Oyler commented that fortunately the first step in the process they had discussed that day is funded by a state grant; however, the next step will have to be funded by local jurisdictions, and they will have to figure out how they allocate that and who will participate.  He elaborated that the step after that would be to implement a project which will have two components, which are the actual water supply and mitigation of that supply, and they would have to figure out who would be responsible for that, whether it was a city, the Water Authority, or an association created for that purpose.  He commented that the goal of the elected officials and city managers is not to view this as a means to add another layer of government on top of what they are doing, but to find a way to fund and implement solutions that are necessary and to find the least painful and costly way to do that, with a particular entity taking a lead role in the project.  He opined that they need to start thinking about how they will bring those things forward, noting that some of the communities will need that water sooner rather than later, and they need to frame the shape that governments will take to meet their objectives of obtaining additional water sources.

Mayor Loucks added that they have approached some of the legislators in Tallahassee about the issue of self-supply, who indicated that residents will put in unregulated wells rather than paying exorbitant prices if the rates of obtaining water are too high, and he does not think the state will regulate what belongs to the people in the near future.  He pointed out that another problem with a self-supply well was the absence of city sewer charges for those residents, which was another reason to keep their municipal water affordable and readily available as the SLRWI is trying to do, and he opined that a shared supply will result in a lower price and a mechanism to bring it to the area.

Commr. Parks requested that everyone keep in mind the return on investment, the funding they have received, and what they have already achieved by working together; and he predicted that they might achieve even more in the future.

Ms. Popenoe mentioned that some of their research has shown that utilizing something as simple as a soil moisture probe to determine when irrigation should be used could save up to 70 percent of the water that is used for irrigation, and there is a certain amount of misinformation about a certain type of grass using less water.  She commented that she believes there is a lot of opportunity to educate the homeowners, builders, and homeowners’ associations which will result in a change in the demand for water.

Commr. Parks added that there was also misinformation which indicated that the evaporation of the water used for irrigation goes back into the aquifer as well as other types of inaccuracies.  He related that they will have a meeting specifically addressing governance within about a month to six weeks.

Mr. Sheahan elaborated that they will be contacting the city and technical team and will be announcing and advertising the meeting so that the public can attend as well.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to be brought to the attention of the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.

 

_________________________________

                     sean parks, vice chairman

 

 

ATTEST:

 

 

 

________________________________

NEIL KELLY, CLERK