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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/08/2025 Town of Southold Water Advisory Committee— Meeting Minutes May 8, 2025 Attendees: Al Krupski, Vinnie Orlando, Anne Smith, Caroline Yates (virtual), Anne Murray, Maggie Merrill, Kate Daly, John Stype, Kariane Chew, guest Ben Johnson April 3, 2025 meeting minutes approved. 1. LIGWSP Steering Committee with USGS (AI) a. Al attended. Contacted Orient Fire Dept and Oysterpond School. Using as an instructional manual. Still working on the report. We're phase two. 2. Irrigation Code discussion with Ben Johnson (John) a. May 201" 10am Code Committee on the Water Code. Irrigation professionals were invited. Maggie and Anne M will circulate to the Civics. Vinnie, Al and Anne can represent Water Committee. b. Legislative intent: save water. Water Code provisions: Residential parcels: what equipment. If new commercial subdivision, how does that work. What should irrigation requirements be. E.g. new shopping center would need to use drought- tolerant plants (only commercial not residential). For residential regulates when you can irrigate. Evapotranspiration provision. In-ground device connected to phone to tell you when plants need water. Can connect to hose function (if you don't have in-ground system). Will water until saturation. Term: could be moisture control, smart controller, industry can advise on term. i. Will have Compliance provision e.g. after 3 years no one is grandfathered (ask industry recommendations on timeframe) ii. Override on smart sensor allows owner to water outside water sensor guidelines iii. WAC Proposal for change: Planning Board requires review during regulatory process of install of irrigation process for all new construction, additions etc., part of review process underway anyway, one more permit iv. Vendor(irrigation professional) could be pre-approved and licensed, permit says I am pre-approved person and installed this. Suffolk County qualification exists. v. Like the Trustees, can we ask for an approved list of contractors for Southold Town. What is then required for Town to manage and do?Just an affidavit of this is what I installed? vi. QUESTION: Do professionals recommend the override function isn't standard or needed and it would be easy to exclude from installs vii. QUESTION: How do we measure the impact of this provision? How do we get that data? viii. Recommendation: have irrigation provisions (detailed, nuanced) and homeowner/hose provisions (simple, easy to understand) in separate sections to avoid confusion ix. Recommendation: Over two years, after phase-in complete, have irrigation professionals responsible for upgrading the older systems every spring during turn-on, in order to be compliant Code. Homeowner doesn't need to apply for a permit themselves. c. Shelter Island 82-5 irrigation permit might be helpful reference for future d. Al asks re schools, watering front lawns that aren't used for any purpose. Suggest we let the ornamental lawns brown. Ballfields only for maintenance. Over time plant drought tolerant grasses. Town doesn't have jurisdiction over the schools. Would need to be students, School Board interested/educated. 3. Salt water intrusion study for Southold (memo documenting conversation with Fred Stumm) (Caroline) Al referenced 1992 study that shows there is a layer of clay TO BE DISCUSSED IN JUNE MEETING S. Feedback on water conservation ad and press release (copy attached) (Kate) a. North Fork Environmental Council (Mark) b. Anne sent draft press release to all the civics to see who wants to join. Will also send to the non-profits. For June agenda. 6. DWSP2 Update: Potential WAC role as Project Management Team (Caroline and Al) a. No time to discuss but Anne will go back to DWSP2 with the recommendation that WAC does not currently have the resources to serve as PMT 7. Update on Committee membership--nominations for new members (Anne) Advertised but did not receive applications for new Committee members. Continuing to solicit new members. We should add a liaison from Fishers Island, as a separate member. What is the DWSP2 PMT? An important component of the DWSP2 plan is the identification of a project management team (PMT). The role of the PMT is to prioritize and coordinate tasks for the town to undertake to protect the groundwater supply such as coordinating meetings with other branches of government and working through agreements on such things as modifications to road salt usage and land acquisitions for preservation. The PMT typically consists of employees of the town planning, engineering, highway and law departments and the SCDHS (Jason Hime), the water suppliers (SCWA-Joe Pokorny) and Chad Mrowka (Fishers Island Water Company), a representative from the agricultural community and finally the county and state departments of transportation. The NYSDEC will not be a member of the PMT as they must oversee all the participating communities but that they are working on dedicating staff to the support of DWSP2 around the state and should be available on an as needed basis.