| Doc. # 2008-02
Issue/Agenda Committee
Cayuga Lake Watershed Network
December 20, 2007 Minutes
Village Hall, Interlaken NY
Present: Brian Boerman, Roxy Johnston, Sharon
Anderson, Chuck Kroll
1. Items from the Floor - All
Ruth – Engineers for a sustainable world is looking for an
indication that their class work should continue in 2008. Discussion
was that their work in tracking DNA in fecal samples and bacterial
analysis is valuable and should continue. To date the committee
has seen little as far as findings from the work and a further recommendation
was made that the group present their findings to the issues committee
after their spring sampling. Ruth is willing to do some student
recruiting to continue the project. Possibility of encouraging students
to write an article for the newsletter, give a poster at a national
conference such as Soil and Water Society or National Lake Management
Society. In addition, such professional groups often have peer-reviewed
journals that publish case studies and applied science.
How do we track the in-kind funds from partners such as the Cornell
funds that go into the ESW projects?
2. Report Card for the Lake
Sharon - Rick Stedman and Ed Mills are the advisors for roughly
5-10 Cornell Students and one Ithaca College undergrad who will
be working to develop criteria for a semi- annual lake evaluation
tool. Sharon estimates her time spent on the project at 40 hours
for $65/hour or a CLWN budget item of $2600 in 2008. All - Possible
tools suggested by this committee include Student Bacteria analysis,
Macro invertebrate study, Monitoring data, Todd Walters model of
Phosphorus risk sites and the Rapid Watershed Profile. It should
be noted that Todd Walter’s model and the RWP are currently
not available for public use. The model looks at topography and
concentrated flows in order to identify risk areas. It does not
look at subsurface drainage such as tile drainage.
3. Salmon Creek -
Funding was secured by the Community Dispute Resolution Center to
interview the public and find out the concerns and make evaluate
if sides are willing to work together. Sharon noted trust and communication
issues seem to be critical sticking points rather than lack of information.
More funding will be needed to develop the project.
4. Farm Visit-
Brian offered to peruse a committee site visit to a large CAFO facility
(>700 cows) in the watershed in the spring to become familiar
with modern farm sediment, nutrient management systems and other
Best Management Practices. The class working on the Report Card
is very interested in joining the farm tour.
Brian will be attending Jan 15 conference on agricultural drain
tiles that will consider both the economic benefits and risks. Conventional
wisdom if that 20% of the tiles create 80% of the problems. How
can biofilters or monitoring be used to find and work with the problem
areas?
Next meeting: 1/30/2008 – 4:30 pm Chemung Trust –
Ithaca, NY
Suggested agenda items:
Doug Haith Model assumptions, Christian Shoemaker’s use of
the model?
Other…
Submitted by,
Brian Boerman, Chair
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