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June 21, 2001
Minutes
The mission
of the Watershed Council is to protect, conserve, manage and/or restore the land
and water resources of the Caloosahatchee and Big Cypress Watersheds through
participation and cooperation of all stakeholders in consensus building,
planning, and decision making to meet the economic, natural and cultural needs
for this and succeeding generations.
The
June 21, 2001 meeting of the Watershed Council was held at the Lee County Public
Works Building in Fort Myers, Florida from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m..
Present:
Karen Andress, Noel Andress, Andrew Barienbrock, Mike
Bauer, Matt Bixler, Ellie Boyd, Gene Boyd, Steve Brookman, Susan Brookman, Ralf
Brooks, John Cassani, Mike Clevenger, Ed Flaherty, Pat Fricano, David Graham,
Brian Griffin, Mark Hampton, Pam Hayford, Ellen Lindblad, Steve Luta, Kathy
Malone, Tony Pellicer, Henry Spang, Fran Stallings, Janet Strutzel, Howard Wegis,
Rae Ann Wessel, Linda Young Editorial
Note: Approximately eight other
individuals attended the meeting, but did not sign in and are not identified in
these minutes.
Agenda/Discussion Items:
1. Welcome/Introductions: Tony
Pellicer welcomed the Watershed Council members on behalf of Lee County.
The Council thanked the Lee County representatives for hosting the
meeting. Susan Brookman then gave a
brief overview of Watershed Council activities and committees so that newcomers
could become familiar with the work of the Watershed Council to date.
2.
Administration Committee Report (Susan
Brookman)
A.
Articles of Incorporation: The proposed Articles have been reviewed by two
attorneys, and are now ready for filing. Garey
Butler, of Humphrey & Knott, P.A., will serve as our Registered Agent and
handle our filing activities. Initial incoportaors signed the Artilces during the meeting,
and they will be filed with the State of Florida promptly.
B.
Board of Directors: The Proposed Bylaws outline the Board of Directors as
consisting of 7 board members with the responsibility of implementing policies
of this Council, as opposed to establishing policies.
Ten individuals had expressed an interest in and willingness to serve on
the Board. Their names and
affilliations were posted on the website of the Watershed Council for
approximately two weeks prior to our meeting.
The Administrative Committee recommended that seven people be selected
during the June Watershed Council meeting to serve through December 31, 2001.
Further, the Committee recommended that another election be held in
November of this year to select seven Board members for full terms (four people
serving two-year terms and three people serving three-year terms).
After a discussion regarding the departure from the earlier agreed upon
method of decision making, candidates were given an opportunity to introduce
themselves and share their thoughts regarding the Watershed Council and their
interest in serving as Board members. Watershed
Council members present then cast their votes for up to seven of the people
identified on a ballot. Twenty
three ballots were counted by Tony Pellicer and John Cassani and the seven
people who received the most votes were elected as Board members.
Selected were Noel Andress, Mike Bauer, Susan Brookman, David Graham,
Henry Spang, Fran Stallings and Janet Strutzel.
The Board of Directors will select Officers at its first meeting.
The Adminsitration Committee will turn its records over to the Board and
cease to exist.
2. Education Committee Report
(Gene
Boyd)
A.
Survey: Gene
referred Watershed Council members to the minutes of the last Education
Committee meeting, which have been posted on the web site, for details about the
work of the committee. He asked
Watershed Council members to respond to the survey he had distributed at the
beginning of the meeting, noting that the responses would be used to set
priorities for future committee work.
B.
Watershed Conference: John Cassani reported on plans for a joint
SWFWC/American Water Resources Associaiton conference being planned for
November, and received endorsement from members present to proceed with
planning.
C.
Next Committee Meeting: The next committee meeting will be held on Thursday,
July 12th at 3:00 p.m. in Room 3A of the Lee County Public Works
Building, 1500 Monroe Street in Fort Myers.
The committee invites all interested Council members to attend.
3. Natural Resources
Committee Report (Janet
Strutzel)
A.
TMDL’s: Linda
Young of the Clean Water Network was recruited by the Natural Resources
Committee to speak at the June Watershed Council meeting.
The Committee had also hoped to have a representative of the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) make a presentation on the same
issue at the meeting, but DEP schedule conflicts did not permit this, so the
DEP representative will speak to the Watershed Council in August.
B.
July Program: Agnes
Ramsey of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) will speak to
the Watershed Council about Aquifer Storage and Recovery projects and Janet
Starnes, also of SFWMD, will speak to us about the Southwest Florida
Feasibility Study.
C.
Next Committee Meeting:
The next meeting of the committee will
be held on Friday, July 13th at 2:00 p.m. in the third floor large
conference room of the Lee County Public Works Building, 1500 Monroe Street in
Fort Myers. The committee invites
all interested Council members to attend.
4. Water Wisdom Presentation
Linda Young, Southeastern Coordinator of the Clean
Water Network (CWN), was our guest speaker.
She presented information about the background of the organization,
describing it as an alliance of more
than 1,000 organizations that endorse its platform paper, the National
Agenda for Clean Water, which outlines the need for strong clean water safeguards to protect
human health and the environment. She
stated that the CWN includes a variety of organizations representing
environmentalists, family farmers, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen,
surfers, boaters, faith communities, environmental justice advocates, labor
unions, and civic associations. She
and CWN attorney Ralf Brooks then presented the CWN’s perspective on the
history of the Clean Water Act and on problems the CWN sees with the
establishment of TMDL’s in Florida. Editorial Note: Rather than
try to capture all of the points touched on during Linda’s presentation, I
shall simply refer readers to the CWN web site (www.cwn.org) for a synopsis of CWN views.
There was not a consensus
among Watershed Council members that the CWN perspective is accurate, and the
issue of TMDL’s will be discussed further at meetings of the Natural Resources
Committee and the Watershed Council. Members
were urged to read the Impaired Waters Rule prior to these upcoming meetings
(this document can be found at www8.myflorida.com/environment/learn/waterprograms/tmdl/docs/AmendedIWR.doc).
5. New Business/Emerging Issues:
A.
Lee County Comprehensive Plan Amendment Proposals:
Noel
Andress distributed copies of proposals related to water resource management
which will be discussed by the Lee County Local Planning Agency (LPA) at its
meeting on Monday, June 25th. He
encouraged Watershed Council members to review the proposals and attend the
meeting to provide the LPA with input. The
LPA meeting will be held in the Lee County Commission Chambers and will begin at
8:30 a.m.
B.
Briarcliff Canal: Mike
Bauer announced that he had prepared an overview regarding the proposed
Briarcliff Canal project and placed it on the Watershed Council’s web site.
He encouraged members to read the overview and learn more about the
project so that it can be discussed at the July meeting of the Watershed
Council.
C.
Minimum Flows and Levels: Fran Stallings urged members of the Watershed Council
to review the latest version of the Minimum Flows and Levels proposed rule.
This document has been posted on the web site of the Watershed Council.
Fran expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed rule, although he stated
that he felt it has been improved from earlier versions.
This rule is a matter which should be of interest to the watershed
council, and may be a topic of discussion at our July meeting.
D.
Smart Growth: Rae
Ann Wessel stated that she believes there is a great deal of misunderstanding
regarding water resource issues amongst the members of the Lee County Smart
Growth Water Supply Working Group. She
encouraged Watershed Council members to be aware of this, and to consider our
role in presenting accurate information to the community.
E.
South Florida Water Management District Changes:
Several
Watershed Council members suggested that we ask new Board Chairman Trudi
Williams and the new Executive Director (once on board) to speak with us at an
upcoming meeting. This idea was
endorsed enthusiastically by Watershed Council members present.
G.
Watershed Gold Tournament: Andy Barienbrock volunteered to work on a fund
raising golf tournament if the Bonita Bay Group would agree to host such an
event for us. He and David Graham
agreed to discuss the idea further.
6. Next Meetings: Meeting
dates August and September were identified.
Locations will be announced prior to the meetings.
July 19th, Collier County
(Mike Bauer and David Graham will secure a location)
August 16th, Lee County
September, Hendry or Glades County
The
meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Minutes
respectfully submitted by Susan Brookman.
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