Thank you. Good morning. And
welcome to this meeting of
density Council's Committee on
the environment. I apologize
for the late start. Uh it is
nine or nine and we have a
quorum present. So, uh, Seeing
seeing that let's dive into our
agenda for today. First on the
items for consideration is item
a considering approval of the
April 5th 2021 minutes. I'll
entertain a motion. Anyone
second it? Myself. All in
favor. Aye. Aye. Aye. Minutes
are approved. Um item B,
Receive a report, hold a
discussion and give staff
direction on the proposed
changes to the mosquito
response surveillance plan. MS
R P. You have the floor. Good
morning, Council member. This
is Deborah Vera with
environmental services, and I
will be presenting to you the
proposed changes to the
mosquito surveillance response
plans this morning. The first
plan was actually put together
around 2002 as a response to
the human, the first human
cases of West Nile virus that
we had in the in this North
Central region. The driver of
the plan itself is just to the
control of the West Nile
virus in the human population
and the plans, even though has
was first put together in 2002,
it has been revised on a
regular basis. Um it is
important to to to note that
the plan is not intended to
control mosquitoes from a
nuisance standpoint, but only
to control the West Nile virus,
uh, the spread of West Nile
virus in the human population.
Uh, the plan is broken down
into two big sections. The
first section pretty much talks
about all the information about
West Nile virus mosquitoes and
so on and the framework that it
was used to actually put the
action plan together, which is
the second part of the plan.
Just diving into the to the
action plan. Uh, the plan is
divided into five risk levels,
each level having conditions,
triggers, recommended responses
and control measures. And all
those, uh, triggers are based
on the, um, data that we
collect through trapping of
mosquitoes throughout the
cities. And also is based on
any West Nile virus human
epidemiological data that we
get from Denton County Public
Health Department. The plan is
is a succession of levels and
where the readers, I'm sorry,
reduction of breeding grounds
are the main goal here. Without
breeding grounds, we will
control better the mosquito
population. So there's a big
emphasis on the source reduction.
Uh, the next step in in
controls is pretty much, uh,
targeting the larvae, which is
are the, um, baby mosquitoes
that are found in water. And at
that point, if source reduction,
uh, seems to be problematic,
then we will start putting BTI,
which is a pesticide that we
put in the water is a bacteria
that is very specific to the
mosquito, and it targets the
mosquitoes in the water. Um,
when you target mosquitoes in
the water and you reduce the
population, then the amount of
adult mosquitoes that will be
able to, uh, emerge from water
and actually be, uh, flying
mosquitoes, uh, would be reduced
as well. And the third control,
uh, level is spraying, and that
stage only happens when we
reach, uh, risk level five,
which is the highest of all the
risk levels that we have. It
requires the approval by
council by resolution. So it's
not an automatic steps that we
take to make sure that the
mosquitoes don't fall into it.
Uh, there are a lot of
considerations that staff will
take, uh, when we recommend
spraying, not only, uh, the
human cases that we are, uh,
experiences, but also aware in
the mosquito, uh, season we are
and so on. Um, last year, we
change the pesticide that we
use. In the past, we have used
the pesticide to contain in the
MSRP itself. Uh, so last year,
we moved to Marist 3.0, and we
are proposing to continue the
use of that, uh, pesticide and,
uh, staff has updated the map.
I'm sorry, the plan to reflect
that. Uh, it's also important
to, to highlight that staff
have made all the changes
that they need to make more on
the, uh, introduction part of,
of the document just to update
the information with new
citations, new information that
is available through, uh,
research paper and such. So
Marist, uh, just to go a little
bit into what Marist is, uh, it
is actually the first, um,
organic pesticide that obtains
the NOP, which is the National
Organic Program Standards, and
also to the, um, it is OMRI,
which is the Organic Materials
Review Institute. So it is the
first one and the last and, and
the, and the only at this point
who actually have, uh, be able
to obtain those credentials.
Um, it is formulated by
pyrethrin, which is, uh, comes
straight from, uh, flowers and
doesn't control and doesn't
contain any petroleum distillates.
So, um, that's, that's the big,
um, characteristic of Marist.
Um, staff is recommending, uh,
the changes to the mosquito
surveillance response plan. We
are, uh, planning to go as a
work session, uh, to bring this
as a work session item to
council, uh, in, in few weeks.
We are also doing a survey among
other cities to see how, uh, how
common is the use of Marist, uh,
throughout the Metroplex and
provide that information to you
when we, um, when we have the
work session. And at this point,
um, I stand for any questions.
Um,
you're going to take the slide
down.
Uh, yes.
My only question is, I'm trying
to remember about what time we
hit, uh, mosquito level one, uh,
last year. I'm trying to
remember amid all the COVID
stuff, um, what level we got to
last year and about what time of
the calendar year we hit it.
Uh, last year, we usually start
at level two, level one of the
plan is if we go by, uh, we
know, uh, was not virus activity
whatsoever for a couple of years.
And we usually start at level
two. So last year we started at
level two and then we reached,
um, the, the peak, I would say
probably if memory serves me
well, uh, sometime in October,
September. And that's when we
have the three human cases, uh,
two of them were unfortunately,
uh, were deceased and all of the
three versions of the, uh, the
forms of the West Nile virus,
uh, they were the, um, the one
that affects the brain.
Okay. So we just kind of live at
level two, knowing it's in our
area, it's active in our mosquito
population when they get going in
the summertime. And, um, but
presumably if those folks that,
that we know had it last year
passed away, then the measures
that we take to control the
mosquito population are, uh,
helping to keep people from
getting sick, probably saving
lives.
Correct. And again, the, the,
the big emphasis is the source
reduction, which is something
that not only the city, uh, is
actively doing through putting
BTI in drainage channels and so
on and in parks and, and so
forth, but also the population,
the residents, the, uh, business
owner, the property owners that
have a big role into it.
Uh, it is a joint effort because,
uh, unfortunately we cannot get
into private property to treat
those areas. So we, uh, try to
educate and to make BTI
available for free to the
residents. So any, in any way
that we can partner up with the,
with the, uh, community members,
uh, is the best way to go.
Thanks.
I have a couple of questions.
Um, first of all, I now
understand better from the
presentation that the move, or
correct me if I'm wrong, the
move from Duet to Maris is
because it's the only one with
the organic credentials?
The council had a
preference last year or have
expressed preference to use
organic pesticide, uh, to be
aligned with the IPM that was
put together by, by, um, the
Parks Department managing, uh,
city property. Just keep in
mind, the MSRP is outside the,
uh, IPM because we are treating
right of way and things of that
nature, which is a little bit
different from actually managing,
uh, city property per se.
Okay. So it has its own
characteristics. So, uh, based
on that preference that council
have shared with us, um, we
moved into Maris. Just keep in
mind, we haven't sprayed for
three years before the 2020.
Okay. And Maris became NOPs,
uh, certified and only listed
in the past four years. So this
is a fairly recent, uh, um,
pesticide that is available to
the market. Uh, one of the
some of the languages that I
included is because I'm
expecting for more organic
products to become available
through other, uh, manufacturers.
Uh, the, the statement currently
state that we will continue to
use Maris or any organic
certified pesticide that become
available because, uh, at this
point, we, our selection is very
limited.
Yeah. Well, you know, to the
extent that all this body does
is kind of help you prepare for
going to council. Uh, I would
say that, that, that would be a
good perspective to share that
you think there are other
organic, uh, uh, alternatives,
you know, uh, coming down the
line. Uh, cause, uh, you know,
I just doing a very cursory, uh,
search, you know, I ran into the
statement that the pest that
Maris is toxic to aquatic
organisms. I mean, good for
people. That is the priority,
but toxic to aquatic organisms,
including fish and aquatic
invertebrates, and then runoff
from treated areas or depositions
of spray droplets, droplets into
a body of water, maybe hazardous
to fish and aquatic invertebrates.
So, uh, first of all, I'd be
curious if that, uh, is factual
to your understanding, if it's,
uh, kind of on your radar and
how do we mitigate?
Okay.
Oh, so, okay. I was, I'm
asking you now, like, is there-
Okay. I thought that you were
taking me to-
Well, cause I, I would have
asked you what alternatives are
there. Well, now I understand
or clearly that the framing is
we're looking for alternatives
that are organic, and we're
hoping to have more organic
alternatives in the future than
we're hoping and expecting, but
so this is the one we have, and
it's dangerous to fish and
aquatic invertebrates. So, uh,
if that's where we're focused,
first of all, it does kind of
make me wonder, like, uh, how,
how toxic is the inorganic one?
You know, is organic the highest
virtue of, if the, if the organic
one kills fish? Uh, you know, I
mean, it gives me a little pause.
Well, um, duet is, is, um, not
soluble in water, so what, it's
one of the, the benefits of duet,
the, the previous pesticide that
we had there for, uh, it would be
less, um, available to aquatic
insects itself, because remember,
what we are doing with duet, or
when we're doing the spraying, we
are not trying to kill the
mosquito in the water or the
larvae. At that point, we are
targeting the adults, the flying
mosquitoes. Okay. So part of the
answer is we, we target away from
the water, the mitigation. Yeah.
So you still have the runoff
issue. Yeah. So pretty much the,
the duet, it was, uh, it was not
soluble or is not soluble in
water. So that prevents being,
becoming available to aquatic
organisms. However, it is not
organic. Duet is not an organic
pesticide. So what are the
environmental badnesses associated
with duet versus the environmental
badnesses associated with Maris?
Well, they, yeah, they, they are
different. They, they are, they are
made different. You know, the, uh,
or the duet is a pyrethroid, which
is a synthetic, uh, molecule that
is meant to resemble the
pyrethrin, which is in Maris.
Okay. But it's not quite, it's not
the same thing. So it will have a
side effects in different, uh,
organism. Also keep in mind the,
how the pesticide is applied, the
time that is, uh, when it's applied
during the night hours, when, um,
most of residents are not exposed
to it. When, for example, there was
a concern about bee and beekeepers,
uh, when you spray and you do it
during the night hours, when the
beehive are not active and so on,
you try to manage those risks a
little bit better. Okay. Um, with
the Maris, we're still applying all
those, uh, additional steps on how
you apply the, um, the pesticide.
So, uh, if you are interested, I can
probably provide you a side-by-side
comparison between Duet and Maris
and see, you know, if that's something
that, uh, that concerns, uh, council
to, to take a step on that. I think so.
I mean, because if I can find this
concern so readily, others will too.
Uh, and, uh, I mean, I'd be curious
to know what just your, your opinion
rather than just wanting to serve the
express interest in using organics,
which, you know, I shared, understand
looking at it holistically, which do
you think is the least bad, most
effective, you know, optimal choice, uh,
for these level five situations? Well,
um, unfortunately it depends with what
we're dealing. Oh, sure. It always
depends. Okay. So, and I think that
Duet has its, uh, pros and have its
cons, the same as Maris, and, uh, we
try to have, um, a, as many resources
as, as our disposal just to, uh, you
know, try to, to, to navigate potential
scenarios, uh, when West Nile virus
become actually present in human
population. Um, just keep in mind that
what you will be doing is making a
decision on managing risk. Okay. And I'm
going to lose a very loose comparison.
Pesticides is very similar to, to the
use and antibiotics. Doctors, they don't
recommend the use on, uh, of antibiotic
very, uh, freely. You know, you have to
have certain conditions and the risk of
using some of the, uh, antibiotics, uh,
outnumbered the risk of actually letting
the infection progress. It is very
similar to pesticides. Okay. So why you
are, what you will be making is a call
about risk, managing that risk. Yeah. And
I'm comfortable with that. I just want
to weigh the two sets. Yeah. So I can
definitely bring you a side-by-side
comparison of do it versus, um, mayors
for you to make that and, and walk you
through what the risk are and what they
mean. Okay. That'd be very appropriate.
So I, I will make sure that I will
provide that during the work session
with council. Thank you. Um, uh, that,
that, that's sort of enough direction for
me because it, it kind of puts off
ultimately the decision, which would
ultimately be, I mean, we have an option
here of having a solid recommendation to
council that they can take or leave. Um,
but I would say my direction, sorry to
usually person chairing gives direction
last, but I'm halfway into the sense. Uh,
my direction would be not to give
direction, but to, um, make sure the
council has this side-by-side assessment
or yeah, assessment of the differential
risks. Um, but, uh, what, what's your
direction? I agree with that. I think
we'd be, I like the way that Deborah
framed that as management of risk and
mitigation of risk. Um, I think if we, if
we thought that organic just meant blanket
safe, that'd be kind of a naive way to
look. I mean, tigers and Ebola are
organic, right? It doesn't keep them from
killing you. So, um, I, I think a whole
holistic look at it in a staff has a
recommendation, you know, certainly bring
that forward as well, but giving council
the information to make that choice that
we don't, you know, blindly follow a
label without knowing all the information.
And it does say very much to me that you,
you don't view them as, uh, or you do view
them both as options. I mean, that it's
not like clearly one is very bad and
that's why I'm moving away from it. I'm
not hearing you say that. Is that, is that
fair? As I said, um, no product, no
pesticides, perfect, uh, council member
Maltzler. And so we, we try to be very
objective on what they are and what
they're good for and in what situations
they are appropriate. So, uh, it's a, it's
toxic. Well, I mean, this, it's a, it's a
thing you do when lives are at stake and
it comes at a, with risks. Well, and, and
to be honest with you, it, it, I think it,
it resonates with sections of residents
who are, have concerns about the use of
pesticide and because Amerus is recommended
to even be used around, around agricultural
fields and things like that. I think that
give, um, residents a, a level of peace of
mind. So that's also a component when you
are making a decision is, uh, you know,
what the residents wants and think is
more appropriate. So, uh, again, we will
provide those options to you side by
side in that way you can make a, a
consensus, uh, decision and, uh,
hopefully we, we can get this approved.
Not to extend this too long, but, uh,
your, uh, analogy, you know, to, uh,
something like antibiotics is very
helpful where, I mean, ultimately in the
assessment of risk, it's, it's treat or
not also, right? Cause you're saying a
certain percentage of the population will
have adverse effects. Human population
will have adverse effects from the
treatment. And it's that, you know, how do
you compare that to the, the quantity
that, you know, the number of people who
will, uh, be sick or, or perish from not
treating. So the, I mean, the, the risk
calculation ultimately goes that far too.
Uh, okay. Thank you very much. I think
we've said about what we can at this point.
Any other, um, I provide a red line
version. I also summarize table of all
the changes. Would you like to see those
in any other way provided for, uh, full
counsel when we go to the work session?
I like the way that's presented. I think
a red line is helpful for those that
will get into the text. I think that's
helpful. Um, one of the things that's kind
of occurred to me, we probably, you know,
without overdoing it, we probably have a
particularly attentive public for public
health right now. And so this may be the
year that we, I know we do a great job of
publicizing in our PR, uh, our
communication staff does a great job. Uh,
talking about draining your standing
water and all that kind of stuff. But
maybe this is the year we really lean in,
uh, even more, um, getting kids building
bat houses to put in the backyard and,
um, sharing with their neighbors that
they're draining all their stuff,
whatever we can think of to really get it
out there. If we're not hitting, uh,
fatalities until September or October,
that's a long time that we can be working
to control the population in ways that
don't require spraying.
Now I love that impulse. I think that's
great.
Yeah, we, we have a, um, an outline, uh,
process for working with, uh, uh, public
communication affairs and us is a joint
effort where depending on the trigger,
the different fridge levels, we, we send
out information. So, uh, it is, is
definitely the plan is, is, is in place
and we can definitely look for
alternative way to reach out the community.
Great. And I, I, you know, that would be
another suggestion would be to do a
little, a little, include a little show
and tell on the public communication side.
I'm going to go to council.
I think they would appreciate that.
Great. Thank you. Uh, if there's nothing
else, I'll close the item.
Very good. Moving on. Thank you very much.
And, uh, we're now going to item C
management reports, uh, the action items
matrix.
And you have the matrix in your backup
and if you have any questions, I can
help or Brian burner is on the phone as
well.
I have, well, go ahead or 10 anything.
Um, I, I guess my only real question is
the, on the status of the commercial food
diversion, it's pending solid waste
strategy. So that kind of begs the
question of, um, the solid waste
strategy. How are we doing with that?
Kind of where are we in the timeline?
Um, because I know more than just that
one action item, uh, kind of hinge on
that strategy.
Uh, uh, uh, Mr. Chair, members of the
committee, uh, Brian burner, solid waste
director for the city of Denton, uh,
update you on the, the, uh, status of
the comprehensive solid waste management
strategy. In my opinion, it's going
well. Uh, we have just finished last
Thursday, the think tank portion of the
public input for developing the strategy.
And now the consultants are going back
in and taking into account all the rules
and regulations, the survey results, the
think tank results, trying to mesh them
in to put them in some sort of order
that we can go to consider.
Uh, over the next three or four months,
what will happen is between the Council
on the Environment, PUB, council, you'll
start seeing draft information put in so
we can have a final report back, uh, by
September of this year. Now granted that
pushes us real close to next year, but
what that allows us to do is start
putting into account sort of the low
hanging fruit in next fiscal year while
planning the larger, bigger rollouts.
Uh, there is a north central Texas
council government grant process that is
going to be opening here very shortly.
And what we're hoping to do is to
actually focus a little bit on, uh,
preparing for a commercial waste
diversion program, recognizing that is
possibly one of those low hanging fruit
issues. Uh, identifying in the valley
areas, uh, where we have a large
concentration of, of food establishments,
trying to again go back in, determine
what kind of food we have, uh, working
closely with our wastewater group to
digest that material in the digesters
and then, uh, compost, uh, the remaining
material as a part of our beneficial
reuse program. So again, uh, minimal
infrastructure improvements using
existing staff, existing programs to
basically create a synergistic effect
to manage some of this commercial, uh,
food waste. Uh, based on the successes
of, of that information, if we, uh, we
could, uh, roll forward and, uh, uh,
blow it up into, to bigger implementation
across the city of Denton. Uh, and then,
uh, other programs, uh, as, as the, uh,
the, uh, uh, process rolls out.
Glad you asked that question, though.
Really interesting answer. I would
argue that it's, uh, both low-hanging
fruit and vegetable peelings.
Anyway. Um, I think you're going to get
a lot of attention this year, right?
I, I agree. I agree. When, and, and
hopefully, and that's a good thing, so.
Yeah, yeah. You know what else to do.
Anything else, Pro Tem?
Um, I wanted to ask about an item that
I didn't see on the list. It may never
have been on the list, but I, I was, uh,
a while back, I separately asked by
Councilmember Briggs, uh, former
Councilmember Briggs, where we stood on
a request she had to assess changes to
wooded areas of less than five acres.
I, I suppose that, that's a trigger
because, um, I think we, for reasons
that are unclear to me, don't, uh,
designate environmentally sensitive
areas as such if they're less than five
acres. And I think she was looking for,
you know, sort of maybe how, uh, how
permissive that, uh, ruling has been in
terms of, you know, uh, actually creating
a lot of change, uh, and, uh, you know,
just giving us a better idea of what's
at stake with that, with that, um,
marker. So it, uh, I would just, I would
go ahead and ask to, uh, if there is a
way to do that assessment and if so, if
we could put that on the list.
I can reach out to planning and see what
they have. And Depper's group may have
some information on that as well that we
can bring back.
Thank you. And, uh, also, uh, just out of
curiosity, I know we made the
appointments. I'm pretty sure we, we
voted on them. Uh, when does
sustainability, the sustainability
committee start their work?
We are trying to find a date to have a
virtual meeting right now. So getting
everybody together and finding a two-hour
block for a virtual meeting in May is
proving a little bit difficult. So, um,
but I think we can get a regular schedule
starting in June. We may do a one-off
sometime in May and then plug in a
regular schedule in June.
Somehow every other committee finds a
way to do it. I'm confident that you can.
I, I believe I can.
Okay.
Uh, I don't have anything else. So with
that, are there any conc- I suppose these
might have been, uh, that might have been a
concluding item. So I'm going to open
concluding items retroactively, recognize
the question I just asked, and ask if
there are any other concluding items.
I've got one. Um, could we get an email or
Friday report is just fine, I think, but
an IPM update? Um, I, I don't necessarily
want to open up the whole conversation
again, but, uh, just an update on how
we're doing at DENIA. Um, I was out there
the other day and, uh, noticed quite a few
fire ant mounds. And that's one, that's
one particular, I guess I'm thinking
entomology today with the, with the
mosquitoes. That's one particular pest
I think we're going to have a lot of
trouble controlling with just the IPM in
the future. We might even think about a
carve out for fire ants and invasive and
pretty dangerous little bug. So, um, the
only thing I know that kills it is
orthine and nobody likes putting
orthine out in parks, but it's the only
thing I know that kills them. So just an
update on IPM, how we're doing, uh, how
we're, uh, how we're evaluating
ourselves and how it's working at DENIA
and where it might be going next.
All right. I'll work with Parks on that.
Thanks.
Okay. There's nothing else. Um, we'll
conclude the meeting and, uh, I'll call
us adjourning at 940. Thanks everyone.
Thanks, sir. Thank you.