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The Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust (SWWT) Policy Advisory Committee Meeting Notes April 6, 2009 Milwaukee Metropolitan

Sewerage District Attendees: Peter McAvoy, Chair, Susan Greenfield, Henry Hamilton, Mike Hahn, Jill Hapner, Andy Holschbach, Steve Keith, Bruce Keyes, Pat Marchese, Scott Mathie, Ezra Meyer, Neil Palmer, Melissa Scanlan, Kevin Shafer; Ann Beier, excused. Bernadette Berdes, Karen Sands, Marilyn Goris, Committee support; Kate Morgan, guest. McAvoy indicated that he intends to present a slate of Policy Committee Members for approval to the SWWT Executive Steering Council at its meeting on Wednesday, April 8th. Goris will send around a complete list of Committee members and contact information. Other individuals not in attendance of the meeting but who have been invited to join the Committee and who will be presented to the Executive Steering Council: Sharon Adams, Walnut Way Will Allen, Growing Power Dan Collins, Mequon businessman Mike Murphy, City of Milwaukee Alderman Rick Norris, businessman, former Water Resources person at MMSD. Holschbach will continue to pursue a member of the Farm Bureau to join the Committee. 1. Organization of the Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust (SWWT) McAvoy summarized the formation of SWWT and reviewed its purpose. (See SWWT brochure and website www.swwtwater.org ). The structure of SWWT includes an Executive Steering Council (ESC), a Science Advisory Committee, a Policy Advisory Committee and Watershed Action Teams (WAT) for the Menomonee and Kinnickinnic River Watersheds. More WATs will be added as SWWT takes on additional watersheds. Each of the committees needs to take into account information from the other committees and all the committees take direction from the ESC. Pat Marchese, Council Chair, will convene a meeting of the Committees Chairs on a regular basis to share information. Information from all committees will be posted on the SWWT website. 2. How the Policy Committee would operate It is anticipated that the Committee will focus its efforts on major policy issues that will arise as part of implementing the SWWT Watershed Restoration Plans (WRP). It is likely that other policy matters will be referred to the Committee by the ESC as the work of SWWT unfolds.

Depending on the type of policy issues raised, the Committee is also likely to form work groups to analyze more complex issues. The work groups could include people, beyond the Policy Committee members, who would bring expertise to the issue. The work groups will report back to the full Committee for deliberation and development of recommendations to make to the ESC. The Committee will work by consensus when possible. The meeting notes, issues being addressed and any disagreements will be shared with the ESC. All Committee materials will be posted on the SWWT website. At appropriate times, the Policy Committee may offer informational and educational briefings to interested parties e.g. municipal engineers. 3. Policy issues that are likely to be addressed by the Committee The initial issues that the Committee will be addressing will be those arising from the development and implementation of the Watershed Restoration Plans (WRP). The Committee will begin working on issues that require immediate attention. A starting point is the Policy Options Memo developed by a group of the NGOs who are members of SWWT. The options outlined in that memo (and presented to the Committee) will be addressed in more detail at subsequent meetings. After some additional discussion, it was decided to establish two working groups to focus on trading and permitting. Two work groups were proposed: A) Water Quality Trading and B) Watershed Permitting. A) Water Quality Trading Work Group-Melissa Scanlan will chair this work group. Susan Greenfield, Bruce Keyes, Melissa Malott (Clean Wisconsin), Scott Mathie, Peter McAvoy, Ezra Meyer, Kevin Shafer, and a Midwest Environmental Advocates staff person will serve on the work group. The group should to have someone from the Science Committee. Should invite DNR person as an ex-officio member (suggestions: Marsha Burzynski, Pete Wood.) Contact Paul Kent to be on the work group. McAvoy will contact Val Klump for a representative from the Science Committee. EPA Region V and Washington are interested in pilot projects and SWWT could be a model for other municipalities in the state that are also interested in trading. Also, should share/get information on the trading issue from other municipalities, such as Green Bay, that are looking at trading. Scanlan will email information on a seminar Midwest Environmental Advocates is doing on trading, 8:00am April 28th in Madison. If there is interest, a similar seminar could be set up in Milwaukee. Also a day-long conference on trading to be held at Wingspread (SC Johnson Foundation) is being discussed. The work group could be involved in planning the conference. Scanlan will check if this conference can be done by August. B) Watershed Permitting Work GroupNeil Palmer will chair this work group. Bruce Keyes, Susan Greenfield, Mike Hahn, Melissa Malott, Pat Marchese, Scott Mathie, Ezra Meyer, Melissa Scanlan (or MEA staff) and Kevin Shafer (or MMSD staff) will serve on

this work group. Should invite DNR person to serve as ex-officio member (Marsha Burzynski, Pete Wood). Also need someone from statewide agriculture e.g. Farm Bureau and others from the top of the Watershed would be helpful. Scanlan developed a PowerPoint presentation on watershed permitting. Marilyn will email to the group. Kate Morgan has resource material on trading and watershed permitting and will email the links to Marilyn. Other related issues to be addressed: municipality facility management; chemical versus biological pollutants; NR151 and how municipalities can meet these regulations. Marchese reminded the Committee that the goal is to identify those policy tools that support cost effective techniques for advancing a set of programs or projects that lead to improved water quality. 4. Reporting to the SWWT Executive Steering Council McAvoy will provide a bimonthly report on the Policy Advisory Committee to the Executive Steering Council. 5. Meeting Schedule At this point, the Policy Advisory Committee plans to meet on the 2nd Monday of the Month at 2:30pm at the MMSD offices. The next meeting will be Monday, June 8th. If the Committee needs to meet more frequently, it will be decided at the June meeting.

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