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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2024_tcwsmin0212Council Work Session February 12, 2024 Council Chamber, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia, 7:00 p.m. Mayor Kelly Burk presiding. Council Members Present: Todd Cimino -Johnson, Zach Cummings, Kari Nacy, Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg, Patrick Wilt, and Mayor Kelly Burk. Council Members Absent: Ara Bagdasarian Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Town Attorney Christopher Spera, Deputy Town Manager Keith Markel, Assistant Town Manager Kate Trask, Director of Public Works and Capital Projects Renee LaFollette, Stormwater and Environmental Manager Chad Minnick, Management Analyst Whitney Hughes, and Deputy Clerk of Council Lyndon Gonzalez. Minutes prepared by Deputy Clerk of Council Lyndon Gonzalez. AGENDA ITEMS 1. Items for Discussion a. Historical Highway Marker — 1902 Lynching of Charles Craven Ms. Kate Trask discussed with Council the placement of a historical highway marker at the intersection of Catoctin Circle and East Market Street, the location of the 1902 lynching of Charles Craven and provided some history of those events. Ms. Trask discussed with Council that in 2018 the Loudoun NAACP had approached the Town regarding the placement of marker. The NAACP will share in the expense of the marker and assist in submitting the application to the Department of Historical Resources. It is anticipated that the application will be submitted by May 1". Council and staff discussed the item. It was the consensus of Council to move the item to the February 13, 2024, Consent Agenda. b. Stormwater Management Program Update Mr. Chad Minnick presented Council with an update on the Town's Stormwater Management program. Mr. Minnick explained what actions the Town is taking to meet compliance with the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit, which is issued by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) and renewed every five years. He provided a timeline for compliance. Council and staff discussed the item. No further action is required for this item. liPagc Council Work Session February 12, 2024 2. Additions to Future Council Meetings a. Proclamation Requests i. A proclamation request was received from Diversity Commission Staff Liaison Kara Rodriguez to proclaim February Black History Month in the Town of Leesburg. It was requested that the proclamation be presented to Ms. Tammy Carter with the MLK Engagement Foundation at the February 27, 2024, Council Meeting. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the February 27, 2024, Council Meeting agenda. ii. A proclamation request was received from Environmental Advisory Commission Liaison Deb Moran to proclaim April 2 - 8, 2024, Intemational Dark Sky Week in the Town of Leesburg. It was requested that the proclamation be presented to EAC Commission Vice Chair Julie Bolthouse at the March 26, 2024 Council Meeting. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the March 26, 2024, Council Meeting agenda. iii. A proclamation request was received from Deputy Chief of Police Vanessa Grisby to proclaim April 14 - 20, 2024, National Public Safety Telecommunication Week in the Town of Leesburg. It was requested that the proclamation be presented to Police Dispatch Communications Specialist Cindy Cain at the April 4, 2024, Council Meeting. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the April 9, 2024 Council Meeting agenda. iv. A proclamation request was received from Parks and Recreation Events and Outreach Manager Linda Fountain to proclaim Saturday, May 18, 2024, Kids to Parks Day in the Town of Leesburg. It was the consensus of Council to add this proclamation to the May 14, 2024, Council Meeting agenda. b. Future Council Meeting and Agenda Topics Mayor Burk asked Council if they would be interested in holding a Town Hall, open to public, on the concept of Data Centers with experts in the field in attendance to answer questions and provide information. The meeting would take place at Ida Lee Park Recreation Center on a date to be determined. It was the consensus of Council to hold a meeting sometime in the future. 2[Page Council Work Session February 12, 2024 3. Adjournment On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Cummings, the meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. Clerk of Council 2024 mwsmin0212 3JPagc February 12, 2024 — Leesburg Town Work Session (Note: This is a transcript prepared by a Town contractor based on the video of the meeting. It may not be entirely accurate. For greater accuracy, we encourage you to review the video of the meeting that is on the Town's Web site — www.leesburgva.gov or refer to the approved Council meeting minutes. Council meeting videos are retained for three calendar years after a meeting per Library of Virginia Records Retention guidelines.( Mayor Kelly Burk: [inaudible] Council Work Session February 12th. Our first item for discussion is the historical highway marker. Ms. Trask is doing this one. Kate Trask: Mayor and Town Council, good evening. Tonight, I would like to discuss the placement of a historical highway marker at the location of the 1902 lynching of Charles Craven. The request for this historical marker started in 2018 when the Loudoun NAACP approached the Town to jointly erect a historical marker to memorialize Charles Craven, who was lynched in 1902. It was at the September 111h, 2018 Council Meeting that a Resolution passed that endorsed the installation of a historical highway marker near the location of the lynching, and the Resolution noted that the NAACP would be willing to raise the funds necessary to pay for the marker and would work with the Town on the placement of the marker. [inaudible] There we go. This is an example of a historical highway marker that is through the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The text for the marker that were proposing will be written by the NAACP. I wanted to share some of the history of the 1902 lynching of Charles Craven. Based on the research conducted by the Loudoun NAACP and from documents provided by the Balch Library, we understand that in July of 1902, Charles Craven, a young Black man was arrested for the murder of a confederate veteran. A mob charged the Leesburg jail, captured Mr. Craven, and took him to Leesburg Potter's Field. It was there that he was hanged and shot. The site of the lynching was Potter's Field that is approximately at the intersection of Catoctin Circle and East Market Street. I have a couple of maps here to show you. On the top there, you'll see the star, which is somewhere between the bank and the Wendy's on East Market Street on the north side. The X in the bottom, yes, it's right on the dogwood tree. That is about the location we were proposing this marker. The anticipated costs for historical highway marker totals about $6,400. It is anticipated that the NAACP would fund the application to the Department of Historical Resources, and that's about $3,400, and the Town's cost would be $3,000. That's to get the plat and easement because the location of the marker is on private property, as well as about $500 for the installation. The timeline for this project, once we have your decision tonight, would be to work with the NAACP to put together the text and the application that is due to the Department of Historical Resources by May 1". The DHR has a rotating schedule of applications, so this would be the first one that we are eligible to meet. The Department of Historical Resources only chooses five applications for each batch that they get. It would be in July that we would find out if we have been selected, and then they would go through the editorial committee to determine if the text is approved for that marker. Then it goes to a public hearing sometime in that August -September, were a little loose on these dates because it's not nailed down through DHR. Then it would go to the public hearing. Then the DHR has a foundry they work with that actually creates the historical marker so that would happen sometime in September. Then in November, hopefully, we would have that to install. I did want to note that if in May or July, if we weren't to make that approved list, then we would have to reapply for the next round of applications. That's how it works, so you dont automatically get pushed to the next batch. As our understanding, we would just take that application and reapply again. Mayor Burk: When can you reapply? Kate Trask: I believe that next one is a September deadline, is like four times a year. 11February 12, 2024 Mayor Burk: Four times a year. Kate Trask: Right. Mayor Burk: All right. Kate Trask: Tonight, we have a motion before you for the installation and maintenance of a historical highway marker near the site where Charles Craven was lynched in 1902. Mayor Burk: It's a work session so we don't do a motion tonight. Kate Trask: Oh, we don't. No. Mayor Burk: I will see if people are interested in putting it on consent tomorrow. Kate Trask: For tomorrow. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Sure. Is there anybody who has any questions on this? Dr. Cimino - Johnson? Council Member Todd Cimino -Johnson: Thank you, Kate, for the presentation. I just have one question, the wording that goes on the marker. It looks like the NAACP sends that to us, and then do we approve, or how does that work? Kate Trask: No, we don't approve. DHR has really clear guidelines on what needs to be submitted. That would be submitted along with the resources of the NAACP writes it. We have to submit that to DHR. It's a number of text, and it's a limited amount of text that can go on there. Then the resources that you obtained the text from needs to go with it to DHR. So we wouldn't be approving, as the Town, we wouldn't be approving that. We will be approving that what they wrote meets the qualifications for DHR based on their formatting, and then DHR actually goes through the historical process to ensure that the facts are on the marker. Council Member Cimino -Johnson: Oh, excellent. Okay, thank you. Mayor Burk: Any additional questions? I have a question. Does it really have to go where the tree is? Kate Trask: [laughter] Mayor Burk: This poor little dogwood tree, we're going to take out that dogwood tree? Kate Trask: We can replant the dogwood tree. In terms of being able to see it from the road, we don't have much property there. That could go left or right at that tree too because if you notice, there's a utility pole right there. Until we run this utility, we might not know exactly where that marker is going to go. The property owner is okay with us moving that tree and reinstalling it elsewhere. There's a bigger tree to the left too that's probably bigger than that photo. Mayor Burk: I can see the other one, but I just-- We do get rid of our trees very quickly. Then I'm just concerned that we get the wording by the deadline because we've been working on this, as you say since 2018. The Town has been ready and willing and able to move forward so we got to get the wording brought forward. Are there four people that would be okay if we put this on consent tomorrow? That's everybody. Okay. Thank you. Kate Trask: Thank you. Mayor Burk: Our next discussion for tonight is about the Storm Management Program quarterly update. We have been asked for 20 minutes on this. Does anybody have an issue if we allowed 20 minutes? All right. I taught with a Minnick. [laughs]] Chad Minnick: Really? 21February 12, 2024 Mayor Burk: Yes. That was kind of funny. Its not a usual name. Anyway, Chad Minnick, welcome. Chad Minnick: Thank you. Mayor, Members of Council, it's great to be here with you this evening. My name is Chad Minnick. I've been the Town's Stormwater Environmental Manager for the last year. Here with you tonight to go over updates to the stormwater management program, things we've accomplished, things we have in motion. Some of which pertains directly to the action this body took back in November for the supplemental appropriation. Let me give you a high level of what were up to. Beginning, really, we want to talk about what is stormwater management. When we use this term, what is it exactly that we're talking about? We're going to do a high-level overview really, conceptually, what are we talking about, and then we're going to get to the practical of the meat and potatoes. We're going to talk about this MS4 Regulatory program that the Town is permitted to do through the State. Again, I'll give you some progress notes on items underway, and then some dates in the calendar upcoming. The high level. What is stormwater? We have conversations like this. I want to make sure were on the same page. The stormwater is exactly what it sounds like. It's precipitation that originates during a rain event, snowfall, anything that's falling from the sky, precipitation hits the ground, that's what were talking about. On the left side here of the slide what you see is, in a natural setting, stormwater goes down or it goes up. It's able to infiltrate through the ground, it's able to recharge groundwater. Eventually, it'll evaporate back to the sky, and it'll make its way through that natural water cycle. What happens in the developed world, so this is the Town, as we develop land and as we create more impervious or hard surfaces, that water begins to move from point A to point B. It will follow the contours of the land it'll go to the lowest point, typically where there is a catch basin or other stormwater drain, and then it finds its way through the storm sewer network to a receiving water. Practically, what does that mean? When runoff hits our roofs and gutter systems, when it runs down our driveways, when it rolls off a commercial parking lot, it hits a storm drain, follows through our storm sewer system, and ends up untreated in our local waterways. Many are familiar, Tuscarora Creek, Town Branch, ultimately, the Potomac River, and then the Chesapeake Bay. That particular geographical circumstance places localities like the Town of Leesburg in a particular regulatory situation where not only are we responsible for improving the quality of local waters, but because we are in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USEPA through the States have put us in a position with more onerous requirements to improve stormwater quality. We talked about it at a high level. Conceptually, what are we talking about with stormwater? Here is where the rubber meets the road. The Town's regulatory program or MS4 Program, a municipal separate storm sewer system is a long file for a program that originates with the Clean Water Act. It began for Virginia localities, Town, Cities, and Counties in 2003. It's a permitted program through DEQ that we renew every five years. The Town has held that permit since its inception in 2003. MS4 programs are organized ways to reduce stormwater pollution to the maximum extent practical. This organized program takes a look at three key audiences, the general public, the development community and business community, and then ourselves as permittees. When we talk to the general public, they need to know what were doing and why we're doing it, and what they can do to affect the small amounts of change in their daily lives. When we talk about development and we talk about the business community, ultimately, these are the folks who are developing land, who are using it. We go through, and by setting of standards and reinforcing procedures, ensure that they're doing their part to minimize stormwater pollution. At the end of it all, as a locality, as a permittee, we have a direct responsibility in how we conduct business to make sure that we are also doing our part directly to minimize stormwater pollution. Each of these six areas that are on the screen in front of you, we have to assemble a set of tasks over the course of the next few months to make sure that we are in as best position as we can to meet the guidelines set by DEQ, ultimately meeting that qualitative goal of improving water quality through stormwater management. 3IFebruary 12, 2024 There's another component to the program that is directly tied to the Chesapeake Bay, and that's called the Total Daily Maximum Load Program. Some will call it a pollution diet. Ultimately, you have these qualitative goals that were trying to meet, but this is the quantitative side. This is where we look at pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus and sediment and have numeric targets that we have to meet at several different intervals. The next set of reductions that we have to meet must be completed by September 30. That's where were doing direct investment through Capital Improvements to meet these reductions. Sounds like a lot. It is a very involved undertaking. What you see right now is the structural framework of how a stormwater program is implemented and how it affects the Town's government. The program is housed in the Department of Public Works and Capital Projects. It affects every division of the department, but it also reaches into other departments and divisions. Plan Review, Utilities Department, and how were co -located with each other at our compound, its not an isolated situation. There are many actors involved, there are many pieces that we have to assemble and then ultimately follow through with. Because it's regulatory, its regimented, it's detail - oriented, there's a lot involved on the back end as well as those nice things that we see when we put a new project on ground. Want to talk about some key pieces of when we go to put this program into action, what does that really entail? We talked about public education, outreach, participation, involvement. We have annual requirements that involve targeting segments of the population as it relates to certain types of stormwater pollution. As we educate them, we try to give them, not just pause on the issues, but enable them to then take action in their own way, either individually or collectively, what can we do to improve the situation? It's also our responsibility under that umbrella to give the public opportunity to ask us questions. We're a public program as part of a locality there to look at our program to offer comment when they want, especially in the program development phase. When we look at the remaining three, this is where we get more into the technical piece where we start looking and locating where is our infrastructure, how is it operating. What type of interactions are people and activities? As these all come together and we look at illegal dumping as a broad concept. This could be trash making its way in the street gutter. It could be leaky vehicles making it to a catch basin and anywhere in between. There are ways through education and through action that we seek that tiniest bit of behavior change, because collectively, when we seek that behavior change, multitudes of good happen. Post - construction stormwater management, that's where we look at things in the field like wet ponds and rain gardens, and other practices have been put in the ground to treat stormwater after construction. Are those operating as designed? The Town has requirements for those practices that we own. There are requirements for private owners who operate those facilities, and ultimately, we talked about the good housekeeping element. What are we doing? What practices are we putting into action as we conduct the Town's business? Being sure to train our staff, to make sure that the point is across that we are to conduct business in a certain way. The items were going to discuss in brief moving forward are these priority items as we are moving into a new permit period. Each permit period lasts for five years. First part of year one is assembling a plan. We call it the MS4 Program Plan. It takes these high-level concepts, these six minimum control measures mentioned earlier, and we figure out, "Okay, how do we take theory and put it into action?" You see before you are several sub -tasks that make up key documents when bundled together equate to this program plan. Ultimately, this document when assembled, we'll send it to the State. There will be an approval process, and once the State gives its approval, that means its time for us to get to work. A few of these, we've mentioned public education and outreach. That plan looks at key constituencies and how to communicate key information to them. We're talking about certain standard operating procedures as to how we internally implement the program. The whole slew of things that lead up to how do recent regulations at the State level trickle down to the Town and what adjustments do we need to 4IFebruary 12, 2024 make. There will be some Ordinance review and things of that nature to ensure that we're keeping up with what's happening there. Two days after Council authorized the supplemental appropriation, we went to work on this, and were making great progress. Several of these individual documents are already underway. Some of them in first draft and under comment, no schedule impacts on this whatsoever. This is set to be back to us for our own review for ultimate public comment and then submission to the State by our deadline. Another priority item involves what we call outfall inspections. It's a discharge point. It's a point along the storm sewer system that moves into a receiving water. Any creek, anytime you cross a bridge within Town limits, you're seeing a receiving stream. The requirement to implement here is that once every five years, we need to put an eyeball and inspect every one of these discharge points that leads to a receiving water. To make it easier for administration, we divide that out and attempt to do 20% a year over the five- year period that we have. The task years were going out and were going to inspect at least 100 outfalls. We're going to assess them based on their physical condition. What we see from a potential illicit item or other pollution that could be evident in the general area. If there's something we witness, then that starts a process of working backwards to understand the source of the issue, and then follow up as is necessary. Again, this task and many of these outdoor tasks are very weather -dependent. We're in the process of finalizing details here and getting the project underway. This should be completed no more than two to three months after we give that notice to proceed. One of the most significant pieces of the program, and perhaps, the most difficult one to achieve, is having an accurate digital map of our storm sewer system inclusive of these stormwater management facilities we talk about. The annual requirement is to make updates as they are discovered to ensure accuracy, to ensure that when something happens or when we need to locate something, we know what were looking for, where we need to go. The task includes looking at those items, getting our ownership information up to date, so when we do reach out to folks and inspect these facilities, we have accurate documentation as to who were communicating to, and it makes that process so much better. That project is currently underway. We've got some great technical people on it, and were through the very first phase of getting this underway. The next piece related to that is also infrastructure - related, has to do with stormwater management facilities. As I mentioned before, some of them are above ground. You've probably seen some of them. You've seen wet ponds, you've seen dry ponds, you've seen green gardens, you've seen other things out there in the built environment set to do a certain task. What were working with here are types of devices that are actually underground that serve that same purpose. They're just a little less visible because, at times, people want to use their site in different ways. First part of that is anything that the Town owns. The Town went through and reviewed its underground facilities that it owns, discovered some items that we need to address. Of those that we found, 12 of them we need. You see in the photos here, these hefty cartridges that are designed that as water comes into the facility, it treats the runoff, it removes pollutants that we discussed before, nitrogen, phosphorus, and then ultimately, leads its way out a little better along the way. We're going to work on 12 of those, and then in addition to that, were going to do a follow-up in six months to make sure there's no additional wear and tear on these. These cartridges have a half-life of between two and four years, so it's a regular thing were going to be doing moving forward, but this is the first step to getting some of that nasty taken care of. The other side of that coin is the privately owned facilities. Much the same way, were looking at underground stormwater facilities. They're not quite as visible, but they're very impactful. The annual requirement for the Town, for its own facilities, is that we inspect all of our facilities annually. It's black and white. The requirement for private stormwater facilities is much like others. We have to look at them once during every five-year period. Again, to simplify administration, we break that out to attempt 20% every year over the five-year period. 5IFebruary 12, 2024 Right now, in this task, were looking at 129 of these that are privately owned and operated. Same types, some of them have the cartridges like you saw in the last photo. Some of them are boxes that have vegetation above it, and interacting with the vegetation helps with the filtering process. Well go through, well inspect those, well make comments, and then that's when the communication with private ownership begins. Part of the requirement is to ensure that these operate as designed. That means the communication flow with private ownership and the importance of having that accurate information really comes into play. At times, making sure their operating is designed is as simple as reviewing the report, seeing no comments moving forward. Sometimes, it can take weeks, and in my experience, sometimes, it takes months to work with a private owner to make sure that these are put back into an operational position. No schedule impacts that were perceiving on these either. Again, weather is always an option, but it's something that we have contingencies for. What I mentioned before, the total maximum daily load, the pollution diet, also known as TMDL. What were doing right now is were evaluating concept sites. We're trying to evolve our offering to meet that 2028 deadline. There's a cost -benefit that has to be considered. There are lots of site considerations, whether it be utility conflicts or if it's improving an existing facility, the cost to move it from its, 1'11 say, injured state to a state of compliance. Many factors there. We're looking at few sites, including some underground options off of some of our transportation rights -of -way. We're really casting a wide net with this. We're hoping to have this done and will have this done by the end of fiscal. That will hopefully be part of the conversation moving forward. One thing I did want to point out is we have multiple watersheds through the Town and where water goes impacts how projects have to be located. It just so happens that the Town fully lies within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where some other Northern Virginia localities are only in parts. If you look at this map here on the screen, you'll see three different colors denoting three different sub -watersheds that the Town is responsible for, but again, ultimately, draining to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. Here's an example of a potential project. We're further refining the concept, the idea with stormwater management, this pollution removal concept. Slow the water down, let it soak in, let it evaporate, don't let it shoot a straight shot from point A to point B. The project that you see here is an example of slowing it down, getting the water to meander rather than flow straight, create vegetative areas so that water can actually be useful and not just pond in the way that the old dry ponds and flood control measures would, and that ultimately gains us valuable credit with the Chesapeake Bay Program. This is the schedule that we originally proposed as part of the supplemental. I wanted to be able to show to the Council that on a percentage basis, what we have here. All of our schedule dates, were still aligned to meet those. Of the funds that we were appropriated, the percentages you see in front of you are dollars that are committed and tasks that are underway. Of the entire sum that we were allocated, averaged out, we're at 77% of that money being active doing something. We wanted to make sure as soon as we could, as soon as the funding was available, we got to it. We have every intention of, we have every intention of using every single dollar that was appropriated to us, so were really excited to get this work underway. Some other program updates we wanted to make you aware of. Much of the work I just described to you is pretty consult and heavy, but Town staff has risen to the occasion. There's been nothing but encouragement and a can -do attitude, and some of what I'm about to describe to you is illustrated with that. Part of best practice and State standard is after a quarter inch of raindrops, we go out and we look at these facilities. We make sure that they have settled correctly. We make sure there are no structural issues. Our public works operations stormwater crew has been out eyeballing these things, making sure business as usual is taken care of. Our annual inspections, I mentioned earlier that the Town has a responsibility to inspect our facilities annually. We're doubling down on staff involvement, refreshing of training, and making sure that our folks are continuing to be a piece of this, to continue to invest in their skills to help pave the way for a manageable future on that particular item. stormwater management facility maintenance. Many of these facilities at the Town require some heavy lifts. There's no getting around that, but there are also some that are within our grasp. 61February 12, 2024 Again, were going back to our operations folks. We're building on the skills that they have, using them strategically to go after these lower -level ones, one at a time, to make sure that we build the skills and the confidence to where we get to a point where the heavy lifts don't happen as often but when they do, we can rise to the occasion and get them. One thing that you'll hear about more often as we go through and talk about stormwater in the months to come is Stormwater CCTV. That is video inspection of the storm sewer system. To my knowledge, a comprehensive survey of the Town's storm sewer system has never happened. It's not uncommon, but what is and has to be an appropriate practice is that before we invest dollars in retrofitting existing stormwater facilities or building new ones, we have to know the condition of the system that feeds them. We have to know that before we spend whatever amount of money it takes to get credit with the Bay Program, that the storm sewer is also taken care of. What we've begun to do as we inspect Town -owned items, we will look upstream in the storm sewer system. We'II understand, okay, is there debris? Are there structural issues, minor or major? This is an intense effort, something that the staff, again, they've risen to the occasion on this. Sometimes, there's confined space entry that's involved. Sometimes, you find rocks the size of bowling balls in infrastructure and are puzzled why, but then you've got to go to work. In short, we are making the strides that we need to make. We are thankful for your help in letting us do that. Some other dates that we wanted to keep in mind that we mentioned before, the MS4 Program Plan. It'll be complete in March and to the State no later than May 1^'. We've got a new program year starting in July 1 where well be able to put that new plan into practice. The GIS Map that's due to the State will be there by October 1 °'. We are guaranteed of that. The MS4 annual report that's due every October, well have that ready to go when activities for the current year- end on June 30. At that, if you have any questions. Mayor Burk: Thank you. Does anybody have any questions at this point? Mr. Cummings? Council Member Zach Cummings: Yes, thank you for the presentation. It was really interesting. I had just a couple of questions that popped in my mind as you were talking. When a Developer or someone building a neighborhood creates a retention or a dry pond, do they maintain or does the HOA or the neighborhood maintain ownership of that or does that management system come into the Town's [inaudible]. Chad Minnick: Nowadays, most, if not all, do remain in private ownership. Its my understanding that easement language stipulates the Town is the maintainer of last resort in the event something should happen, but that is definitely not a stipulation that we lead with. We always want to work with private ownership. Council Member Cummings: When a Developer creates one of those systems, is there a fee or any paperwork that they pay to the Town? Chad Minnick: That would get into some other areas that maybe Renee might be able to help answer, but there's no fee that is remitted just for the sake of having a facility. Renee LaFollette: I'll follow up a little bit more on that. Typically, the HOA covenants require, before the plan is approved, there has to be an agreement. They have to have an escrow established for the maintenance of that facility, and it has to be included in the covenants with the HOA that they understand that they are the maintainer of those facilities, and that the Town is the maintainer of last resort. Council Member Cummings: Got you. So the escrow would be used, if we had to step in and maintain, then we would use that escrow. Is that — Chris Spera: The escrow is maintained by the HOA so that we are assured that they have funds on hand. Then if we have to step in as the maintainer of last resort, we have to write both under our easement agreement and under our Town Code to assess our costs. 7IFebruary 12, 2024 Council Member Cummings: Okay. Thank you. How many full-time employees do we have working on stormwater management at this point? Chad Minnick: One. Though it's one full-time because the program stretches through multiple divisions, we do have FTE support in operations to assist part of roles in planter view and tail the development piece of the stormwater management program. My comment comes from being the program manager in full-time deep in the weeds, but there are countless other people that are involved. Renee will be able to give you an illustration. Renee LaFollette: Within Public Works, we have a stormwater crew of four staff. We have our Assistant Street Superintendent that is currently assigned. About 50% of his time is stormwater oversight and management of that crew. Chad's position and we have one vacant position right now that we will be advertising for shortly. Council Member Cummings: Do we still do the Rain Barrel Program, do we know? Chad Minnick: Not to my knowledge. Mayor Burk: That's through Soil and Water. Council Member Cummings: Through Soil and Water, okay. Renee LaFollette: We did have a discussion at the Environmental Advisory Commission last week about potentially doing that, but they haven't committed to doing a workshop in Town as of right now. Council Member Cummings: I just was curious. I remember hearing about it, but I don't ever remember. My wife always wanted me to do it. I never listened. Mayor Burk: But the storm, stormwater. The Soil and Water does it every year, don't they? Renee LaFollette: Yes. Council Member Cummings: Okay Mayor Burk: Because I know that's where I got ours. Council Member Cummings: Then you brought up the TMDL special condition. You showed us it on a map. It looks like it's over maybe the Stowers neighborhood. Chad Minnick: Yes. Council Member Cummings: I'm just curious about this type of system. Is it better for stormwater management to have this type of system that's moving, dispersing the water, and not just going right into the stormwater management system? Chad Minnick: Modern stormwater management is predicated on nutrient uptake, meaning the ability to remove these pollutants of concern, we'll call, from flow before it goes somewhere else. There are many ways to achieve this. With the example that I provided, that is it means to slow down the rate in which runoff is moving from point A to paint B. Then also allows it to take a stop or two along the way to provide that nutrient uptake that we desperately need to meet those requirements. You can also provide that same benefit with a wet pond if the circumstances call for it. It's sized well enough and has the capacity. You can achieve some of that as well. State guidelines stipulate what practices lead to what percentage, and there's a whole spreadsheet that we use to calculate that. Renee LaFollette: Council Member Cummings, we have two examples in Town similar. We got pond retrofit. Fox Ridge Park is a good example of doing that type of retrofit in a dry pond. Most people didn't realize that where we did that was actually a dry pond in Fox Ridge. BIFebruary 12, 2024 Council Member Cummings: I didn't know. Renee LaFollette: That was one that we did try eight years ago now. We also did something similar at the Greenway Pond, where we did constructed wetlands and put in a couple of fingers in that pond to slow the water going into the deeper pond there. Council Member Cummings: And is that, are you able to do that when you have the land available? Obviously, a corridor of Catoctin Circle, we're not going to be able to do anything like this, but is that really when a land is available, you can do something like this? sort of -- Renee LaFollette: For the retrofits, we look at existing dry ponds that are already there. Some of these will be looking at our Town -owned facilities, and some of them will be looking at HOA facilities as welt Council Member Cummings: Is there any sort of financial benefit to doing it this way? Renee LaFollette: It comes down to a cost -benefit ratio, how much does it cost per pound of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment? You look at multiple ways to go about that. You look at for bays, you look at rerouting, and you look at stream restoration. It depends on which one is going to give us the, "biggest bang for the buck for cost of nutrient reduction" Council Member Cummings: All right. Thank you. Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor, Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: Thanks. Well, 1'11 continue that conversation. I understand how you monitor the outfall. What happens to the sediment in the large ponds like we see on Evergreen Mill Road or over by Tuscarora Village and open ponds like that? At some point, do those have to be dredged out? Then when they are, then what happens with the sediment? Chad Minnick: At some point, they almost naturally will require dredging. The estimated time frame is probably around the 15 to 20 -year mark after it's been in service. It's when you really start looking seriously about taking measurements and understanding how much sediments actually deposed there. More ponds than not will end up some type of dredging in their life cycle. There are multiple ways to discard that spent sediment, so to speak. Just making sure that we follow the DEQ protocol as to sampling that sediment to make sure that there's nothing in there that suspect. Sometimes, it can be sent out for agricultural uses, but if it has some nasty things mixed in with it, then there are other options we have to utilize. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Presumably then for the those both I believe are probably privately owned, so that becomes their responsibility in terms of the maintenance. How do we know how well they are living up to their obligation in terms of maintenance? Chad Minnick: We have an annual certification process where in code and as part of the program that private facility owners are to report to the Town on the condition of their facilities. The State requirement stipulates that you have to hold a DEQ certification or be a professional engineer, professional surveyor to actually conduct the inspection. Then ultimately when that's permitted to us, we will review to make sure that all the i's are dotted and is are crossed, but if there are items that give us pause, we will, at that time, potentially do a follow-up ourselves. What usually happens is, we have a regulatory requirement that the Town inspects private facilities at least once every five years. When we do that, we'll look at a multitude of factors to do with a particular facility, guided by State standard and inspection procedures. One of those for wet ponds that I've done in past lives and I think still is a good practice, is that once you know a pond, it's been in the ground for 20, 25, 30 years that measuring sediment becomes part of that inspection. It's a State regulated dam, there are elements to the facility that you have to go through and inspect. As a facility's life cycle continues, the more important it is to check things like you're mentioning there about sediment levels. Sometimes, there are telltale signs. Sometimes, you can see the water surface 9IFebruary 12, 2024 elevation is halfway up the end of a pipe, or maybe if it was completely clean, it would be under. Those are visual indicators that we use, but then we also look to our friends, our professional engineering consultants to look over our shoulders to double check. Vice Mayor Steinberg: If the monster from the Black Lagoon is suddenly living there, we might think, okay. Now I know with our wastewater management, we have a limit as to what we can discharge into the river and the bay. Is there some limit to stormwater discharge or is that--? Chad Minnick: Not from a quantity perspective. The TMDL or Total Maximum Daily Load program seeks to do that. It seeks to establish not to exceed limit but a reduction from previous sampling and when the ultimate numeric limits were put into play. I think the answer is yes, but it's also not a true one-to-one comparison. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. When you talk about the heavy lifts and maintenance, what types of things are those? Chad Minnick: Some of that has to do with ponds filling in, with sedimentation. That's part of it. Sometimes, it is invasive vegetation, cattails being chief among them. Patches of them aren't necessarily bad, but when they start taking over pond surface area, you have to go in, and you have to pull those out as well. You'll see towers and wet ponds that have multiple holes at different stages of elevation. If one of those gets clogged, it alters the ecosystem inside the pond. Checking those to make sure everything is flowing when it needs to. Those are just a few. Vice Mayor Steinberg: These cartridges, which you said had a two to four year, give or take, half-life, what happens to those? Those get carted off somewhere? Chad Minnick: Basically, yes. At this point, we've contracted with local group. The new cartridges are in order right now. At that point, when were able to come in and clean the facilities out The cartridges will be removed, and then they'll take them off -site and dispose of them appropriately. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Is that landfills or some sort of recycling? I realize this is somewhat about [crosstalk]. Renee LaFollette: Its a combination of both. In a company that I've talked to, they do have some means to recycle them. The actual filter media, once that has reached the end of its useful life, it can't absorb any more of the nitrogen and phosphorus, so that piece of it gets discarded. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Finally, does vegetation like in the rain gardens also, at some point, reach a saturation level and the vegetation itself has to be replaced because it's absorbed so much in the way of not good nutrients? Chad Minnick: How rain gardens and bioretention cells typically work is, sometimes, vegetation does need to be replanted just because plants don't make it. What were more concerned about is the soil media underneath of it. You'll see the mulch layer and you'll see the nice plants and everything, but then there's anywhere between a foot to sometimes 2 to 3 feet, depending on the dimensions of the pond. When you start seeing underdrains clog, you see water ponding for longer than the 48 to 72 hours, we call draw down time. Bioretention cells are one of those that's designed to hold a pool of water for a period of time, but then it goes. If you see water staying in a bioretention cell or a rain garden for too long, you know you have your soil media clogged. Essentially, you've got to scoop everything out, plants and all, relay the soil media plants, and then [crosstalk]. They're the most cost-effective to construct, but if something goes wrong, they're some of the most expensive to remediate. Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Thank you. Mayor Burk: I have a couple of questions. First off, compound, I didn't know we had a compound. [laughter] 10IFebruary 12, 2024 Chad Minnick: I borrowed that from a previous life. It's the combination facility with the Town shop and the utilities maintenance building, not inclusive of the wastewater plant. Mayor Burk: Are stormwater ponds really, basically, the thing that we use the most to remove all the different nutrients that shouldn't be going into the river? Chad Minnick: They're a big part of the equation. Leesburg also has most of its stormwater facilities, both publicly and privately owned or underground. It allows for more utilization of a given land area. Much to the earlier comment of spaces at a premium. When you have space, you can invest in regional pond systems, so maybe you don't have as many undergrounds or these other small things. Yes, ponds are a key element in the equation. Mayor Burk: How many outfalls do we have? Do you know? Chad Minnick: We're currently undertaking that assignment. Some reports put it north of 700. Some reports have it a little more reduced in the 400 to 500 range. The task order that's being undertaken for our digital mapping will ascertain for sure what that number is. Mayor Burk: How come we don't know it? How come we don't know that number? Chad Minnick: The key piece there is, it's a lot like how every square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square. Every outfall is a discharge point. I probably butchered that, and I apologize. Every outfall is a discharge point, meaning water leaves it. Not every discharge point is an outfall because the qualifier is when it leaves the end of the pipe, it has to go to receiving water. You can have a discharge point, but then it flows across the parking lot or it's temporarily stored somewhere and then released. There is an additional layer of qualifying, and then that can bring the number down to where we have the larger group and then we sort and filter down. Mayor Burk: Are we keeping track of new ones that are coming into play as new [crosstalk] forward. Chad Minnick: Yes. That's also part of our review where were looking at development projects, specifically over the last five years, to ensure that any development project, public or private, that has been put in the ground, that everything is in the map, and that those outfalls are accounted for. Mayor Burk: We had the plastic bag tax issue and it's made a difference. I was talking to one of the grocery store managers, and they don't buy plastic bags anywhere near the amount they used to. Has that made, do you see a difference in regard to-- a lot of times, you'll see plastic bags on trees and in ponds. Have you noticed the change? Chad Minnick: I think were starting to. I think were starting to see the effects of that. It's one element of a pretty big menu of things that we encounter, but it is a nuisance, and the wrong situation can cause clogging of certain pieces of the storm sewer infrastructure. We're happy to see the improvement where we can get it. If that ends up being a key piece of it, then we feel even better about it. Mayor Burk: Then the other day, I was walking down the street, and I saw a young lady take a bag of trash and stuff it down the stormwater. Chad Minnick: Oh boy, we don't like to hear about that [laughs]. Mayor Burk: I think that there's a real need for an education. I think there's many people that don't realize that that's not going to get filtered. That is going to go straight into the creek. I hope that will be part of what you'll be looking at doing education -wise - Chad Minnick: Yes, ma'am. Mayor Burk: -because it was my screaming down the street, "Don't." It doesn't always work really well. Thank you very much, very interesting. I can see the money most certainly was well needed, and we need to get to the point where we have a better hold on what all these different things are and what we need to do. Thank you very much. 11 (February 12, 2024 Chad Minnick: Thank you. Kaj Dentler: Madam Mayor just to conclude this topic this discussion will continue. This isn't a one- time discussion; you've already made a significant contribution for us to move forward on this. Is this a Federal mandated program that's no funds? At times, we can get grants for certain specific projects, but it's a daunting task as he's described in 20 minutes. It takes a lot of people-- 20 min and 41 seconds [laughter]. It's also going to be a costly effort for us. Next steps that through the budget proposal you're here tomorrow night, there are funds and capital projects that are being requested, some general fund dollars. Then in April, our Financial Advisor will return as if you may recall when he was here in January that he will discuss how the town can begin to look at a dedicated revenue stream for us to be able to afford and sustain our efforts to meet our obligations under this Federal program and the complexities it involve. It only gets more and more complicated. Just a starting point in reality, and then Chad will be back, I think, in September or October with another update. This conversation will continue is the short point. Mayor Burk: Perhaps, we can include in our legislative process these unfunded mandates getting some money from the State to help out with these projects because they're very important. Thank you, appreciate it. Chad Minnick: Thank you. Mayor Burk: Our next item is proclamations. I have three requests for proclamations, and ironically, they're all from staff. The first one is Linda Fountain with Parks & Rec would like to a proclamation for our Kids to Park Day on Saturday, May 18th. The presentation will be May 14th, Deputy Chief Police Vanessa Grigsby is asking for a proclamation on National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, and that would be April 14th to the 20th. The recipient will be dispatcher Cindy Cane, proclamation from Kara Rodriguez, our PIO Officer from the Diversity Commission for Black History Month, Tammy Carter would be the recipient with the MLK Engagement Foundation. Deborah Moran, staff liaison to the Environmental Advisory Commission, declaring April 2n° to the 8th International Dark Sky Week in the Town of Leesburg, presentation on the 26th. Julie Bollhouse, the Vice Chair of the commission will be the recipient. Are there any items there that anybody would like to have removed? Do I have four hands that would be acceptable to these four proclamations? All right. Thank you. At this point, are there any disclosures or any agenda topics? Anybody on that end? Anybody on this end? I have one [laughter]. I would like to see if the Town Council would be interested in doing a Town Hall, open to the public, obviously, on the concept of Data Centers and having experts in the field of Data Centers and experts in the field of environmental, whether it's the Coalition of Data Centers or the PEC that's done a lot of work on them, to give the pros and the cons. There's lots of information out there, not all of it is accurate, and it would be nice to get people in the room together to talk about it, to listen to the ideas that come forward, and make their decisions with real information and not misinformation. So this would be, we would discuss the details of it, but it would be like something at Ida Lee, in the evening, one night, when we can get it all organized. Would there be four people that would be interested in doing that? Vice Mayor Steinberg: This would constitute like a special meeting of some kind, yes. Mayor Burk: Well, it'd be all of us. I would be attending absolutely. Thank you. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Vice Mayor Steinberg: So moved. Mayor Burk: Second. Council Member Cummings: Second. 12IFebruary 12, 2024 Mayor Burk: All in favor? Members: Aye. Mayor Burk: Opposed? We are done. 13IFebruary 12, 2024