Champaign County Environment and Land Use Committee Met June 10.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
Committee Members
| Present | Absent |
| Aaron Esry (Vice-Chair) | |
| Stephanie Fortado – via Zoom | |
| Mary King – via Zoom | |
| Kyle Patterson – via Zoom | |
| Jacob Paul – via Zoom | |
| Chris Stohr – via Zoom | |
| Eric Thorsland (Chair) – via Zoom |
Others Present: None
MINUTES
I. Call to Order
Committee Chair Thorsland called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m.
II. Roll Call
A verbal roll call was taken, and a quorum was declared present.
III. Approval of Agenda/Addendum
MOTION by Ms. King to approve the agenda, seconded by Mr. Paul.
Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously to approve the Agenda.
IV. Approval of Minutes
A. April 8, 2021
MOTION by Mr. Patterson to approve the minutes of the April 8, 2021 meeting, seconded by Ms. Fortado. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously.
V. Public Participation
Scott Trumbull – here concerning Subdivision Case 205-21, Trumbull Subdivision. Here to get that approved this evening and would be available for questions.
Derald Seeds - spoke to the bee issue. He sent Mr. Hall a picture today showing the mess the bees make on windshields and cars. It’s hard to clean off; you have to use Windex with alcohol to get it off. He took his grandkids for a walk and the bees were terrible, so there is still an issue. The neighborhood would like to get it to a manageable level.
Barney Bryson – He appreciates that the effort is being made to move this on to the ZBA. He had a question about the ordinance that would be better asked and answered at the ZBA. He had no further comments tonight.
VI. Communications
There were no communications for the committee.
VII. New Business: For Information Only
A. Champaign County Solid Waste Management – Information Series (Part 5 of 5)
Ms. Monte presented Part 5 of 5 of the Champaign County Solid Waste Management – Information Series. Tonight’s presentation focused on Hard to Manage Materials. Ms. Monte made a correction concerning rechargeable batteries from the previous presentation. They are not banned from landfills; they are banned from recycling carts. This may relate to the ignitability of some of the lithium batteries as they are being transported and causing fires at recycling facilities.
Hard-to-Manage Materials was part of the reason Champaign County Environmental Stewards (CCES) was formed. This is a non-profit community organization formed to support efforts to provide area citizens with safe and convenient collection options for household materials that pose potential problems at the end of their useful life.
The focus this year is on:
*Improve HHW (Household Hazardous Waste) Collection Options
*Improve E-Waste collection options – make more convenient
*Improve battery collection options
*Encourage less reliance on single-use plastics
*Encourage pre-consumer food waste composting options
Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) is the wave of the future. It is a mandatory product stewardship that requires manufactures and producers of materials to take responsibility for how those materials being produced are handled at the end of their life cycle. That way the burden is shared and not all on local governments. It is spread out among various parties.
This current legislative session there was high hope a Paint Bill (ERP type bill) would be passed, but that got bogged down and probably won’t happen until next year. Latex paint is not accepted at HHW events. This is the most common inquiry they get at recycle events; what can I do with my paint. The Pharma Bill for pharmaceuticals did not get very far this session. There are three fewer places that will now take pharmaceuticals here in the county. Area police stations, Champaign, Urbana and U of I, are no longer going to have collection boxes in their lobbies. The Carpet Bill still has a chance to pass this year. Carpet is difficult to manage because it’s bulky. It seems sad it has to go to a transfer station and then a landfill when it can be recycled. If it passes, it will probably take a year or so to get the program set-up.
Food scraps are a hard to manage material. There are very few options for this in our area. There is a pilot program at the Landscape Recycling Center for restaurants and some grocery stores to provide food scraps to the Recycling Center. It holds a lot of promise. Another program that’s being talked about, and just starting to gain interest, is curbside pickup at residence. This would be a subscription program. The U of I has a more advanced and higher funded program to collect some of their residence hall food scraps. They work with the UC Sanitary District and use bio-type handling of the food scrap material.
HHW (Household Hazardous Waste) – there is a lot of interest in increasing awareness of this problem. For several years there was no option for HHW collection from the State. The State gets involved because these types of collections are not a profitable endeavor. It’s also a public safety issue. Currently there are only four facilities open in the state that collect these items. They are all in northern Illinois. A fifth facility will be opening soon in Madison County, across the river from St. Louis. CCES is working on updating a feasibility study on HHW with results available in August.
One-day HHW collection events are expensive. If IEPA did not assist with this the costs would be about $125,000. Some counties sponsor their own events because they don’t want to wait on IEPA. Our one day event was in April. It was very well attended and efficiently run. People that participated in this year’s HHW collection event were given a link to a survey to complete. Approximately 900 people received information about the survey and about 55% responded. Ms. Monte shared some of the results from the survey.
Mr. Stohr asked if there were still openings for the upcoming E-Waste event. There are still openings. He then asked out SB2515 on the Mahomet Aquifer Council. Ms. Monte was not tracking that. Mr. Stohr said he had just looked it up and it may still have a chance to pass this year.
Ms. King asked about the food scrap recycling, specifically the curbside recycling. There is a couple in Urbana who are interested in doing this. They were asking CCES how they would go about starting this. Markets need to be built up in this area for this type of program.
B. Online registration Open for May 22 Residential Electronics Collection
Ms. Monte gave an update on the Residential Electronics Collection. There are still 150 spots available for the May 22 event.
VIII. New Business: Items to be Approved by ELUC
A. Authorization for Public Hearing on Proposed Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment to Add Requirements For Beekeeping in Residential Districts.
Motion by Ms. King and seconded by Ms. Fortado to approve the motion as read.
Discussion followed. Mr. Hall brought the new members up to speed on the ordinance. The intent was to pick the most lenient standards because he was concerned people would be alarmed that we were going to start regulating beekeeping. There’s not a lot of differences in any of the ordinances as to what is a reasonable number of beehives to have on small residential lots. One of the biggest concerns is water supply. Water supply can be a problem if you don’t have adequate water supply. Bees will always be attracted to swimming pools. Providing multiple water sources and making sure they are full is one way to combat that. There is both a Zoning Ordinance and a Nuisance Ordinance amendment. Mr. Hall explained the timeline and how the process works. He anticipates a lot of discussion at the ZBA.
Ms. Fortado thanked John for all his work on this, especially the water piece as that’s really important. She also thanked Mr. Bryson for the good phone conversation with him.
Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously.
IX. New Business: Items to be Recommended to the County Board
A. Subdivision Case 205-21: Trumbull Subdivision – Final Plat Approval of a One-Lot minor Subdivision located in the Southeast Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of Section 33 of T21N-R14W of the Third Principal Meridian and commonly known as the open land west of and adjacent to the house at 2096 CR1850N, St. Joseph.
Mr. Hall explained the memo from the Health Department. It documents their review of the subdivision. This is not an approval of a septic system. There will have to be a permit for a septic system at the time they want to build. They have approved the subdivision in terms of the Plat review.
MOTION by Mr. Stohr and seconded by Mr. Paul to approve the motion as read.
Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously.
B. Annual Facility Inspection Report for the period 4/1/20 – 3/31/21 for Champaign County’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Storm Water Discharge Permit with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA)
MOTION by Ms. King and seconded by Mr. Stohr to approve the motion as read.
Mr. Hall stated that this is our annual report that is due to EPA by June 1 of each year. It reviews what we’ve accomplished in the past year and what we hope to do in the coming year as well as reviewing all the construction projects the county had in the past year where there was land disturbance. The highway information comes from the Highway Department. It’s not that we’ve done more construction this year but that we’re reporting on projects that have been done the past three years. That’s why that looks larger than usual. One of the minimum measures is Environmental Justice. Every year we analyze our Environmental Justice areas via input into a survey. Most of our MS4 jurisdiction is in an Environmental Justice area. The County Board decided to limit the MS4 jurisdiction to just the areas it has to be. They did not extend it to the full county. It’s just the unincorporated part of the urbanized area. We send out a survey to the Environmental Justice area every year. We need to see if those areas have changed.
Mr. Stohr asked if the permit includes runoff from farm fields. It does not.
Ms. Fortado mentioned that the Federal money that we are receiving specifically mentions broadband, water, and sewage. We won’t know until mid-May what the guidelines are. Some of the items that are in the plan may be eligible for those funds. We might want to think about how ELUC can take on some of the discussion specifically related to water or other environmental issues. We may also want to think about the non-profit environmental aspect. The MS4 report is something that should be considered.
Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously.
X. Other Business
A. Monthly Reports
i. March 2021
The March report was received and placed on file.
XI. Chair’s Report
There was no Chair’s Report. Chair Thorsland took a straw poll about how the committee feels about a return to in person meetings. Discussion followed on this as to having some standards and following health department guidelines. Also, as to maybe having some type of hybrid meeting option.
XII. Designation of Items to be Placed on the Consent Agenda
Items to be placed on the Consent Agenda include 9. A. and B.
XIII. Adjournment
Mr. Thorsland adjourned the meeting at 7:32 p.m.
Please note the minutes reflect the order of the agenda and may not necessarily reflect the order of business conducted at the meeting.
https://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyBoard/ELUC/2021/210506_Meeting/210506_Minutes.pdf
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