Only a half hour.
GETTING STARTED
Roll Call: Stausser is absent.
The suspend the rules so they can take things out of order and introduce things at the end of the meeting.
HONORING RESOLUTION
Sue Ellingson reads the resolution honoring Stuart Levitan for his work at the CDA. He is leaving as chair. Mayor says that Stuart and make some brief remarks. He thanks them for the resolution, but it pales in significance with the opportunity to serve the City of Madison. He loves the history of the City of Madison and given he opportunity as a citizen to help shape the future history of the City and he hopes he has done it appropriately and he cherishes it. He thanks the staff, commissioners only set the policy and there is exemplary staff there in Natlie Erdman, recently retired Percy Brown, Augie Olvera and Tom Conrad – the CDA is doing great work there. Thanks to current and former mayors for giving him the opportunity. Mayor Paul Soglin says he met Stuart in mid 1970s when he was a Washington correspondent and little did he know he would end up in Madison as an elected official and appointed official and he has done so with dedication and commitment to the people of this community.
CONSENT AGENDA
No petitions or communication, no early public comment.
2 – 9 are public hearings.
Item 10 is reconsideration so it has to separated.
Item 33 is an extramajority item for a 2/3 vote and they will record unanimous consent unless someone objects.
Item 21 is placed on file on request of the applicant.
Item 61 is referred to the next council meeting on July 16
Exclusion list is item 10 and 55.
Lauren Cnare asks for item 32 to be excluded.
Lisa Subeck added as sponsor on 59.
Mark Clear votes no on item 66.
Ledell Zellers abstains on 59.
Paul Skidmore abstains on 66.
David Ahrens votes no on 66.
Subeck votes no on 66.
For those wondering, item 66 was referred to the meeting, it is “by title only” meaning there is no text and there still is no text in legistar. The item is a resolution “Expressing Concern Regarding the Project at Holy Redeemer Parish.”
Item 59 is Divestment of Fossil Fuels by the City of Madison.
EXCLUDED ITEMS
Brayton Lot Repairs – Item 10
This item has to be reconsidered due to a clerical error. They reconsider and then adopt.
Extend the sunset date of the Downtown License Density Plan – Item 32
This item was separated for Alder Cnare to make a comment. She thanks them for offering to extend the sunset date. They have been talking with the health department about the importance of the health impact assessment of ALDO that will become a part of this later on. She encourages people to look at that carefully. This is the first time that they will be doing one of these assessments to help in the decision making process.
Well 31 – Item 55
Cnare says that they have been trying to site a well for years. Asks staff to talk about the fact that the well has low productivity and concerns about it being located where there is contamination. Al Larson form the Water Utility says that the well is in pressure zone 4 by McFarland and it was identified as being inefficient for reliability, redundancy and fire protection so they need another well. They started the search in 2008 or 2009. It is difficult to site a well in a developed areas. They found 6 sites, had a citizen advisory panel, they had several public meetings and they worked with (former) Alder Compton and they picked the Trade Winds site that they are considering today. They drilled a test well and it produced reasonable water with no VOCs but they had a production problem, they only got 1000 gallons a minute, and they normally get 2000 gallons a minute. They tried another site on Barry (?) Drive and they got the same results, good water, not a lot of it. They decided it was best to put the well on the south side of the beltline, they bought the land and are going to drill the well and then they will test for VOCs more and if it doesn’t work out they can abandon the site and try elsewhere. The GE site does have an onsite treatment system, there has been contaminate but there is little change of the contaminate reaching us.
Cnare asks about us generally adding more filtration and treatment options on the wells and she wants to know if that is an option if a contaminant is detected. She also says there have been many years of ruining the groundwater that we drink, but the good news is there is technology to fix that, its just expensive and she says as we drill more wells we are just going to have to accept that the days of getting our groundwater and using it “as is” with only chlorine treatment is probably over and we will need to do more filtration. Al Larson says Manganese has already been detected in the well. So they will be building a filter to remove the Iron Manganese, they are leaving space for a VOC air stripper if necessary. He says that the public expectation for good clean water has gotten higher and they no longer accept “nuisance chemicals” as they are called by the EPA, of iron, manganese and other things. And the technology to detection has gotten better and once detected the public expects it to be removed. He says that the public is willing to pay to get high quality drinking water.
Subeck asks about the productivity levels. Al Larson says that it is correct that it is not ideal but the best we can do. They will be working with the well drillers to get the production up. It is not ideal, they looked at a second site, it costs $120,000 to look at a site and the farther north they go the more pipe they have to build to get the water back south.
Subeck asks if moving the site would reduce the risk of contaminants from GE? Larson says that its like looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They could move it to farmland, but then they will probably have problems with nitrates instead of VOCs. Whether or not a totally clean site exists, but they know they are finding iron and manganese so they have to build a filter anyways.
Marsha Rummel asked about conservation and public dialog with the East Side Group. Larson says there is a Citizen Advisory Panel but it hasn’t met in a long time, they deal with the public and business people as much as possible and they intend to continue to do so. They spend a lot of time and effort on mailings and with monthly billing they will have more opportunity to get the word out. Conservation is very important to the water utility, they feel like they have made great strides, they have the toilet rebate program that has been in place for several years, you all know about the smart meters and they routinely id people with leaks they do not know about, they have a goal for residential consumption to be down to 59 gallons per person per day, down from 80. In the fall when school is back in session staff will be visiting every elementary school in the City of Madison with information, they have a Water Wagon which is a device they tow to event and provide free drinking water and information – gives staff an opportunity to talk about water quality and conservation. They are working hard at it but have a ways to go, they want 20% reduction by 2020. With the monthly billing they could use conservation rates and the higher users would pay more. Water conservation is part of their every day life as well as public input.
Rummel says that if the East Side group is still in place can you meet again. Also, are the conservation rates for just residential or commercial users too. Larson says they need to come up with a proposal for the PFC with a rate design and they would negotiate with them. He’s not sure how it will look the first time around but it will likely evolve to include everyone.
Ahrens asks about the likelihood of the GE contaminants reaching this well. Larson says GE is fully aware and taking responsibility, they have developed a treatment system to keep the contaminate plume where it is now. It has left their site and has been detected on the west side of the freeway, but the intent is no further contamination and that the contamination is mitigated and the plume stays as small as possible. We are 3 – 4,000 feet away from that and ground water moves very very very slowly through the soil so the idea is if we stop the source it will never get to the water utility site. There is no guarantee.
Ahrens asks if the risk is minimal. Larson says yes.
Ahrens asks if this is a matter of not if, but when as stated by a citizen? Larson says he is not an expert, he has to rely on the consultants and they say it is minimal, but the risk is there and there is no guarantee.
Motion passes on a voice vote, seemingly unanimously.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
Item 2 (Stalzys) – Open public hearing, no registrations, close public hearing. Vote unanimously on recommendation of ALRC.
Item 3- Brat and Brau, Item 4- La Taguara, Item 5- Harmony Bar, Item 6 – Crandalls, Item 7 – Flat Top Grill – public hearings opened, no registrations, voice vote unanimously to accept recommendations of the ALRC.
Item 8 – East Johnson Street Reconstruction – public hearing open, no registrations, pass under suspension of the rules.
Item 9 – Greater Density in TR-U2 District – no registrations, passes.
INTRODUCTIONS FROM THE FLOOR/END
No introductions.
Move adjournment.
Mayor says that was a great summer Council meeting.
