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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 12/17/2008NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD MINUTES Regular Meeting December 17, 2008 DATE: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 LOCATION: 215 N. Mason - Conference Room 1-A TIME: 6:OOpm For Reference: Alan Apt, NRAB Chair 221-9875 Ben Manvel, Council Liaison 217-1932 John Armstrong, Staff Liaison 416-2230 Board Members Present: Alan Apt, Glen Colton, Liz Pruessner, Ethan Billingsly, Heather Manier, Clint Skutchan, Joe Piesman Board Members Absent: Linda Knowlton, Phil Friedman Staff Present: Natural Resources Department: Alexis Hmielak, John Armstrong Call meeting to order - Alan Apt called the meeting to order at 6:05 Introduction of Guests - Eric Sutherland and Neil Kaufman Agenda Review - none Review and Approval of Minutes: November 19, 2008 Liz Pruessner moved and Clint Skutchan seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the Natural Resources Advisory Board November 19, 2008, meeting as presented. Motion passed unanimously Annual Stormwater Permit update As background, Environmental Regulatory Specialist, Susan Strong, stated Fort Collins' Municipal storm sewer drains are not connected to our sanitary sewer drains and are, therefore, untreated water. Under the Clean Water Act, the Water Quality Control Division requires Fort Collins to have a state permit to prevent the discharge of pollutants from urban runoff through storm drains. Because it is a best management practices permit, Stormwater has numerous measurable requirements and items they must implement every year. ■ Susan explained it is an annual requirement that she go to various boards, including the Natural Resources Board, to inform them of Stormwater's annual accomplishments towards meeting their requirements and to go over changes they have for next year. Stormwater's annual report is due in March and the stormwater management descriptions for 2009 need to be rewritten and submitted to the state in June in order to get a new permit. If the NRAB has any input or comments to this permit after her presentation, please contact her. o Any changes to the permit require a permit modification process. Deletions are usually for things that weren't very effective or weren't as active as they should be for a permanent program. Susan pointed out that once you've committed to something in the permit you can't eliminate it unless something equal is added. Susan pointed out during the first permit, her group surveyed hundreds of outfalls and did not find any illicit discharges. This was a very expensive program and, as a result, they are proposing to the state that they terminate it. Instead, they will educate and rely on staff to recognize illicit discharges, have a spill decision tree for response or call Poudre Fire Authority. • In answer to a question from Joe Piesman, Susan. stated there was an EPA Brownfield coal tar plume and landfill superfund redevelopment site behind the Northside Aztlan Center building, but it was not identified through this program. • Susan also answered a question from Liz that appropriate City-wide staff have been educated to identify illicit discharges. In 2009, they plan to do tabletop exercises with decision trees and run scenarios to give staff more experience on what to do. Construction Site Runoff Control program — (no measurable goals) • Consists of having an ordinance in place to prevent pollutants from coming off construction sites and provisions in place to have proper water detention to capture water runoff. Any time construction is over one acre, it needs a Stormwater plan. • Susan made some wording changes to this section, added some codes for 2009, made changes to the inspection schedule to enable more comprehensive inspections and worked with legal staff to make an escalated enforcement plan with erosion control escrow paid up front. • Because of the poor economy, some developers are backing out of projects and not cleaning up their messes. Susan stated, in that case, the City needs to clean up the construction site. o Post -Construction Stormwater Management • Program to insure the long term and maintenance of water quality ponds for flood protection and water quality. • This requires the City to develop a program of educating Home Owner Associations (HOAs) how to maintain their stormwater features created by the contractors. Susan's group has been working with legal staff to go through all the municipal codes related to this stormwater permit to be sure they have what they need to carry out the program. • Susan explained that City Council has been looking at all the Stormwater programs. They are working with CSU to review them and are considering: o More low impact development best management practices. o Demonstration projects such as porous pavers, green roofs with rain guards to remove pollutants o Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping for Municipal Operations • Includes general training and hazardous waste and waste management. • Susan stated she wrote a Pollution Prevention Plan because the City is required to teach citizens and businesses to not pollute. • Susan said the state now wants a list of municipal standards operating procedures and it is her goal to create this in 2009. Questions: • In answer to a question by Heather Manier, Susan stated that Fort Collins has a standard permit. In 1999, when stormwater regulations were promulgated, Phase I cities were those with populations over 100,000 and Phase 11 cities were under 100,000. At that time Fort 3 o This bill only applies to Colorado municipalities with more than 5000 customers and sets net metering capacity minimum thresholds at 10 kW for residential and 25 kW for commercial and industrial customers. o It requires the municipalities to post and adopt small generator interconnection standards that must be functionally similar to those adopted by the PUC. The legislative intent was to create a consistent net metering environment statewide. • Net metering is only required for eligible energy resources such as solar wind, hydro and geothermal. It doesn't specifically define combined $eat and power. • The net metering law only applies to "customer -generators" and doesn't open the door to third party generators. • Compensation for the netted customer generation offsets the customer's consumption and payment is effectively at the municipality's retail rate. • The major benefit of net metering is that it offsets the usage at the retail rate. If generation exceeds customer's consumption, "excess generation" is carried forward through the calendar year, zeroing out in December. o Steve stated the PUC has been approached to consider changing the calendar year from March to March to avoid having 2 winter periods in the year to allow for a better energy offset. • In answer to a question from Alan Apt regarding anyone who far exceeds energy production over consumption, Steve stated Utilities will be recommending to Council that they purchase that excess energy at the retail rate. o The Electric Board suggested adding a sunset or trigger in the code that allows them to re-examine what effect customer energy generation is having on the operations of our system, • Steve presented charts and graphs showing energy plant generation and net energy usage scenarios and compensation cash out amounts. Discussion: • In answer to a question by Clint Skutchan regarding carbon offsets, Steve stated they attach "x" number of pounds of carbon to the mix of generating plants. In a solar energy production scenario, they would not be producing carbon but are offsetting what's produced at a fossil fuel plant. The calculation for the offset is currently 1.76 points per kWh, but could change according the power generation mix. • Steve pointed out Fort Collins Utility rates are low. $0.0122 cents/kWh is the offset generation rate from PRPA for renewables going back into the system. The current residential retail rate is $0.06498/kWh. • Steve pointed out the questions they are carrying forward to Council after recommendations from Electric Board are: o Where should the net metering generation threshold be set? We're recommending one megawatt (MW or 1,000 kW) which provides an incentive for larger customers to install renewables and receive the retail rate back o At what price should annual excess energy be purchased. We recommend the retail rate. Steve presented some additional models for small to large commercial customers from 50 kW to 750 kW and possible savings o The rates for commercial customers are made from 3 components: an energy component, facilities peak component and coincidence peak component. o The models show potential customer savings and the impact on our payment in lieu of taxes and the fee the utility collects in lieu of a franchise fee with the City that goes into the general fund. By implementing this we have an impact on the general fund. In answer to a question from Clint Skutchan who asked what would endanger a "monopoly" status, Steve Catanach stated that, under the existing code, we have a large industrial customer that one of our neighboring utilities could get to without crossing public right of way. So, under our current code, that utility could negotiate a contract and take that large customer away from us. Retail competition in the service area downgrades Moody's rating. Next year PRPA will be pursuing $120 million in bonds to finance projects and upgrades. For example, every 1% increase in interest rate adds $17 million over life of loan. This would ultimately be paid by customers. It's important to consider that what we do impacts on bonds. Steve explained their presentation to Council will be what effect the code change will have on different scenarios. o No effect on off -grid customers o No effect on customer generation for own use. o No effect to customer generation for customer and tenant use not crossing the right of way. However, the original customer can't mark up the cost and profit from his tenant (master metering). o No effect to customer generation for customer and tenant who is crossing the right of way, but will require City Council approval and a franchise agreement and PUC implications. Master metering requirements would apply as above. o They do have concerns about third party retail sales. ■ PRPA's bond council stated they would they allow this to occur if it is tied to the net metering legislation. There is no concern for customers under 1 OkW and below. Above that, there will have to be a wholesale arrangement between that third party, PRPA and City to allow PRPA to purchase energy from that generator at wholesale level and then sell it back to the City.and that customer. The agreement is that no additional cost will be tacked on. Steve explained the Electric Board discussed the alterations to the code: o They suggested removing the language in the code which states "the proposed code provides for the recovery of all direct and indirect costs of the City and PRPA and such additional amount as may be determined by the City." o Should there be a requirement for insurance for the generators? There is no concern with solar, but spinning generation could cause problems with the system. o Who should be responsible for upgrades to our infrastructure? The Electric Board recommended the customer should be responsible for the costs. Questions • Joe Piesman asked Steve to give an example of what a 5 kW, 7 kW and 1 MW facility would look like. Steve responded that a 5 kW would be 2-4 panels and would service a residential customer without air conditioning and would go up to 4 kW with air conditioning. 1 MW would be 5 acres of solar array. • In answer to a question from Eric Sutherland who asked if Fort Collins would own and operate electric generation, Steve said in the current contract with PRPA, the City itself is not allowed to own power generation. PRPA needs to be our sole provider in order to satisfy the bond requirements. o The Energy Supply Contract that goes to Council work session on February 3, 2008, provides Fort Collins with the ability to develop 1 % or 3,000 kW for generation for City facilities, o Eric said he thought the most economically feasible way to build the pickle plant is to have a 3`d party in a position to capitalize on tax credits and sell energy to Fort Collins because most businesses don't have a contract with PRPA. He thought 3'a Bicycle Advisory Committee & NRAB representation The NRAB needs to select a member to participate in the Bicycle Advisory Committee. It is a subcommittee of the Transportation Board and will convene in February, 2009. It is a monthly commitment of approximately the same time as the NRAB. Clint Skutchan volunteered to be the representative. Alan Apt suggested Clint would be the NRAB liaison to the Bicycle Advisory Committee and would communicate board concerns and represent his own views. Joe Piesman moved and Liz Pruessner seconded a motion to appoint Clint Skutchan to be the Natural Resources Advisory Board's representative to the Bicycle Advisory Committee. Motion passed unanimously New Business Clint Skutchan reminded the board that he committed to not eat the food provided by the City at NRAB meetings and wanted the money saved to go to the City's Christmas tree recycling program. He asked John Armstrong to provide an accounting of this at the January, 2009,. meeting. Announcements Alan Apt stated this Linda Knowlton was rotating off the board with this meeting. Since she was not present at this meeting, Alan suggested he draft a resolution of appreciation for her long service to the NRAB and send it to her. Council Six Month Planning Calendar John Armstrong mentioned the NRAB might be interested in the outcome of Council's work session regarding trash districting. He will have staff present to the NRAB after the Council work session to discuss the status of this item. • Glen suggested the NRAB readdress how they do motions and send them to Council. He would like to readdress the appropriateness of writing rationales of how they voted on motions. Joe Piesman stated he has gotten mixed messages on this and suggested recommendations sent to Council should be kept to one page. Adjourn Joe Piesman moved and Liz Pruessner seconded a motion to adjourn. Alan Apt adjourned the meeting at 8:45 pm Submitted by Alexis Hmielak Administrative Secretary 1 Approved by the Board on 2008 Signed u �S� Ad istratrve Secretary I Date