WEBVTT

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 All right everyone welcome. Welcome to the Sustainability Framework Advisory

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 Committee. It is 1 o'clock. We will call our meeting to order Wednesday June 29th.

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 We do have a quorum and we are in the City Council Work Session Room. We will

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 begin with our first item for individual consideration. Consider approval of the

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 April 22nd, 2022 minutes. Did everybody have a chance to review those?

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 Yes I did and I just wondered if on the part of the minutes it talks about the

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 presentation of the gas wells. I think it would be appropriate, yeah I think

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 it would be appropriate if modern geosciences and Dr. Tram were included

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 in that because they actually gave the presentation. It's basically just a

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 staff now. Oh okay okay can we can we add and make that correction as to who it

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 was that gave the presentation to coincide with the actual presentation?

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 Yes. Okay. All right. All right so can I have approval with the added

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 correction? I'll move to approve. Second. Second? Okay all those in favor say aye.

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 All right minutes have been approved. We will go down to B, receive a report, hold

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 a discussion, and receive feedback on integrated pest management program and

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 pilot projects in Denton Parks. And we have Marshall Ms. Gee from Parks. Oh hello, welcome to the podium here.

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 Thank you. And we the mic above you is the one that is going to capture your

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 voice. Okay so this is just wanted to touch briefly on the integrated pest

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 management program, programs plural that we have ongoing in the city now. The

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 introductory program was at Deenia Park.

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 Say it again. The first program was at Deenia Park courtesy of a plan that was

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 devised for us by Howard Garrett and Associates. We've had some success with

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 that. We've had visual success in that we think that the fields are as green as

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 they were pre-treatment, meaning when we were using chemicals and fertilizers. The

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 weed population has increased though in the common areas. I think there's been

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 residual chemical activity that's still been available in the fields themselves.

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 Soccer fields and softball fields has helped keep some of the weed populations

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 at bay and that will leach out over a period of time. The soil at Deenia is just

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 miserable to begin with so it's tough to devise a soil program like we have, like

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 we were able to come up with Avondale and Mack Park, but we might be able to

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 transition to that. We have been working with Beyond Pesticides and Osborne

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 Organics. They work together. They helped us come up with the plan for

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 Avondale Park and Mack, but Mack specifically south of McKinney.

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 I'll back back up to Avondale, but Mack is actually comprised of both sides of

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 McKinney, north and south. We're just doing the IBM program on the south side,

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 the one that encompasses the soccer field and the baseball field. We are treating it

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 and Avondale, in the same method, we're using a

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 humate to feed the soil microbes. We're not applying any organic fertilizers right

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 now. We're just treating the soil with a food source for the microbes to feed off

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 of and produce the nitrogen, some mild fertilizer that way. It's so new, both the

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 program at Avondale and at Mack, that we don't have a comparison yet to

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 determine. In fact, we just put the humate down within the last two months. So, we'll

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 keep you apprised as when we do soil tests again this time next year, what

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 we're looking at and how they compare to the control samples. So, that's pretty much it.

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 I wish I had more information for you, but I am excited about the program with

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 Beyond Vesticides. It seems to fit a little more into what we're looking for

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 in the way of organics and what we're able to replicate throughout the city if this pans out.

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 It's a very simple, easy method. So, if anybody has any questions, please feel free to ask.

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 Yeah, I was just curious, is the pilot program for a year so that all

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 seasons are encompassed? That's our thought, that it'll be for a year. It

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 depends probably on the soil results we get or the visual results that we see as

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 well, but it'll be at least for a year. It may extend into a second year as well. And the

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 steps after that? That we'll continue consulting with Beyond

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 Vesticides and Osborne Organics. Specifically for Ravendale, is that what you're

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 asking about? Well, any of the pilot programs, I mean, is the point to be able to

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 continue it? Oh, entirely. To continue and to morph into any other location that we

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 have in the city. Great, thank you. Go ahead. Budget-wise, is there budget we're

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 operating under and then what are the cost goals or financial goals? Will this organic

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 material cost us less than pesticides or what's the goal over here? Right now, yes.

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 Yes, it's costing us less. The fume aid that we apply to Ravendale and Mack is fairly

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 inexpensive. I'd probably pay more in freight than for the product itself. It's

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 easy to apply, it's granular, but that is just a food source for the soil microbe.

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 So, next we have to have the discussion of do we want to continue putting the

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 pre-emergent out. There is no organic pre-emergent. I mean, there's corn gluten meal,

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 but I'm not sold on efficacy of that. But right now, the program is slightly less than any non-organic control programs.

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 And budget-wise, we have a budget we are okay with? We do. We are so far with this.

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 I have just a couple, oh, go ahead. I'll let you go and then I'll go.

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 Thanks, Marshall. So, this is just for applications to sports fields. So, there's no, there's,

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 you're not doing any tests on any areas off of, like, you mentioned common areas

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 and stuff, but this looks like it's just going on actual sports fields? No, this is common,

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 this is everything, common and athletic fields. Okay, so then like, and you remove, like,

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 Roundup spraying and everything else? Correct, correct. Okay. And that, and everything else

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 about it? That's actually correct. They are entirely organic. Just two different approaches.

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 Okay, so then like the edging and stuff and weeding is taking place for a while? Oh, yes, yes, yes.

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 Or cultural, the cultural methods are still being employed. Okay, thanks.

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 Oh, okay, go ahead. Is that all right? Yeah, sure. Can you give us a sense of the metrics

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 that you use for comparing the different methods? What counts as success? What are you looking at?

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 It sounds like you've got a few different factors. Right now, a lot of it is visual.

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 The, the, I have soil samples and I didn't bring them, I'm sorry, the soil samples from Denia,

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 from dating back to 2019 and 2021. We didn't do them in 2020 because of COVID. In fact,

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 our applications lacked a little bit during COVID, either for resource issues, we couldn't get the

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 product in, or staffing issues. But the metrics would be primarily soil sample results and visual.

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 That's not a scientific method, but it is easy if you've been in the industry to go out and say,

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 this looks a whole lot better than it did last year, or I'm not seeing much of a difference.

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 You kind of just touched on one of my questions, because I remember hearing that Denia was kind of

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 during COVID, and then there were some budget reductions and less staff that weren't able to

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 do everything you wanted to do for the organic part of it. So has that been taken into consideration

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 as you call it a pilot? Yes, to the extent that we did resume last year,

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 or in the middle of last year into now, we're currently back on track.

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 The one weak link in this chain is that I'm having trouble sourcing some of the product

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 from vendors that I can get on contract. So I'm in discussion with our purchasing department now,

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 I forgot how to remedy that, but it'll work out. But we are back on schedule for applications and

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 timing of them. Somebody, I think you mentioned Roundup, but just to confirm, we're not using

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 Roundup in any of the city parks, not just- I'll own an ounce of Roundup.

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 Right, yeah. Just for clarification on that, if somebody were to hear, it's not just in these-

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 It's not just Roundup, I'm sorry, it's any glyphosate product.

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 Any glyphosate, yeah. Yeah, just to remind people out there. Thank you. And

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 so on the weeds that you said are kind of more prominent, are we mowing more than we expected

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 on that, or is it just kind of- Mowing is about our best cultural method

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 to take care of it, and we added two mowing cycles in the early spring and two in the late fall

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 to help mitigate, to help counter the lack of glyphosate. So we're not mowing weekly

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 at these locations, it's just through the growing season, we extended it by two cycles before,

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 it used to start in two cycles after. Okay, all right. And my last question is,

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 well just a comment, I want to thank you so much for this, and I know that we've had some

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 trouble with volunteers and communication, it's just hopefully next time more communication goes

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 out and the residents who are excited about this can show up and help. Sure, sure, and we'll advertise

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 it more heavily next time, we'll try to get the word out there. Okay, and just the last thing,

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 you said something earlier when you first started talking, you said "miserable soil,"

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 so I'm just kind of wondering what you mean by that. It's a lot of rock out of Denia,

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 there's not a whole lot of organic matter mixed in there, and it's not what you'd call a nice

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 friable workable soil, you wouldn't want to plant your garden directly into it, it's a lot of rock.

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:30.520
 Okay, all right, well thank you so much, Marshall. Ed, you have anything to add?

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 Just to clarify something about what happened on the volunteer day,

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 speaking from my own neighborhood, a lot of people, majority of the people I will say,

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 did not have their own spreaders, and as a result they didn't go, so if there's some way in the

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 future if spreaders are required, I don't know what kind of, if you guys have any, but I don't

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 think people are willing to go out and buy a spreader just for one time use. Yeah, and I get it,

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 I guess I thought most people would have spreaders, and apparently not, that's absolutely fine,

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 we'll figure out a different way. You know, your offer was generous, and anything would have worked,

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 a spoon would have worked, but we'll see what spreaders we have, you might be able to bring.

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 Great. Everybody? Good, and before you let Marshall get away, I have to ask him to talk about how they

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 treat weeds with the backpack sprayer. In mulch areas? Playground areas? Oh, in playground areas?

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 How do you treat weeds in the playground areas? Weed. So we don't treat, we steam kill

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 weeds in the actual footprint of the playground itself. We don't use any pesticides or herbicides

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 in there at all. It's either hand pulling the weeds or weed eating, you know, there's some,

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 unfortunately some of the playgrounds have a little established areas of Bermuda grass,

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 and that's tough to kill because Bermuda can run its roots nine feet deep. So we weed eat,

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 but we also have this great machine, it's called the steam weed killer, and it is exactly that,

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 it just uses water that's heated to 230 degrees. It's not a complete kill, it kills the tops of the

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 weed, whichever it is, so it means we have to go back and continue treating. But it's safe,

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 you can use it in the rain, you can use it in any weather, you can use it with kids around,

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 with animals around, as long as we don't spray them. So it works really well. And I just wanted

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 Marshall to highlight that, because if somebody sees somebody else spraying, they may not know

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 that it's steam. Yeah, I would have wondered the same thing, so thank you for that. It's just

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 straightforward. Now the misconception that I've had is that the entire park is a playground,

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 and I guess it's semantics, but to us in the Parks Department, the playground is the dedicated

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 footprint with the engineered wood fiber unit and the plate structure. I have one more thing.

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 Okay. Just a little history for some of the folks who may not know, and a huge thanks to the current

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 Parks Department. This program was initially started almost 20 years ago, and allowed to

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 gently disappear. And what's it been? Three years ago? 2019? Yeah, it was brought back and

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 new people, new minds, new ideas, and great committee to work on it. And it's just really

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 very reassuring to see how important positive things like this are, and how they can be done.

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 Good. Thank you. It is a good program. We have never used chemicals that are skull and crossbones.

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 We've never used anything to that end. In fact, we have a pretty small arsenal of what we do use

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 on a frequent basis. We try to keep everything to the lowest signal where possible.

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 We try to adhere to the IPM program as much as possible, and it's a good thing.

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 I promised you I'd let you go here in just one second, but I had another question that kind of

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 popped into my head when we were talking about weeds and ants, because I know that that's kind

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 of an issue in some of our parks. You know, when I'm walking out to the community garden, I see,

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 you know, big kind of anthills is there. What do we use that fits into this program for insects

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 like that? First and foremost, we use an ant bait. It's a broadcast. It's granular. It's an ant bait.

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 It's labeled for forage. You can put it out in pastures where cattle are grazing. It's relatively

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 benign, and it seems to work. Compared to some of the old ant baits that were out there,

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 they've come a long way, and surprisingly, it does a good job. Otherwise, we moutreat.

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 If it's in a sensitive area, if it's in a high-use area, we'll moutreat with aciphate,

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 which is a good antidote for fire ants. If it's in a, you know, Class B or Class C or Class D park

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 that's not high in use, we'll probably let them go. All right. Well, that's great. Thank you so

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 much. You appreciate it. Sure. And this fits well into our sustainability framework committee. So

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 thank you for coming today. You can always reach me and get any questions. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate

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 it. All right. So we will move to item C, receive a report, hold a discussion, and receive feedback

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 on education, outreach, and training efforts for sustainability programs.

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 We're gonna have Kim and Julissa start this one, and I think I have some slides at the end.

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 All right. Good afternoon, everyone. So my name is Julissa Yamador. I'm one of the Waste

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 Productions coordinators that works inside of Environmental Services and Sustainability.

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 I will be presenting as well as Kim Jennings, who serves as the other Waste Reductions programs

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 coordinator. And we're going to be talking to you guys about the education and outreach update.

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 So this is a little bit of information on today's focus. So a little bit of background.

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 I specifically focus on the residential and multifamily recycling education. I was hired on

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 in January 2021, and the position was previously vacated for a bit. We also have the Denton

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 Sustainable Schools program, which is a big community favorite. And Kim Jennings came on

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 in October of 2021, and we're expecting to have a full relaunch of the program this upcoming fall.

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 We also included in Environmental Services and Sustainability is, of course, Sustainability

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 Education, which was launched in 2007 with DISD field trips to Clear Creek and has expanded over

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 the last 15 years. So I'm going to go into a little bit about what I do. So with COVID,

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 we had a lot of barriers from reaching people in regards to recycling education and in regards to

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 the contamination that we were seeing at the curb. So what we did is with the help of Solid Waste,

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 we did a lot of audits and we evaluated our contamination rate. So our audits were divvied

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 up. And the way that we looked at contamination, we took the two highest recycling contaminated

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 routes for commercial and then for residential. For commercial, we would actually divvy up those

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 properties by multifamily, by DISD property, and then other or commercial. And then three coordinators

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 are dedicating to auditing those containers. And what we do is when we're auditing a container,

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 we're evaluating the signage. We're looking at it. We're making sure that it's very distinguishable

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 that this is a recycling container and not a trash container. We're also looking at the location of

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 the container. Is there a lot of illegal dumping? Is it in an area where there is a lot of illegal

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 dumping? Another thing that we do is we look inside. We look at what's inside of that container.

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 Is it programmatic material? Is it material that could possibly alter some things at the

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 recycling facility or Murph Crat Industries? If the container is too contaminated to be collected,

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 then what we do is we put it on a do not collect list. So the next day when a driver is running

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 that route, they will not collect that container because it's too contaminated to be collected.

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 And that property owner needs to either clean the container by having a maintenance or grounds

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 keeper remove the items, or they can empty the container as trash. And that's a $75 fee.

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 So it does give them the, we do give them the option and it is up to that property owner.

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 And depending on the property type will depend on who runs, I guess, interference for that property.

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 So if it's multifamily, I'll be talking to them, seeing what they want to decide. Do they want to

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 clean the container or they want to empty it as trash? If it's a DISD, then it would be Kim,

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 for example, who would contact the property or the DISD groundskeeper and see what they decide about

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 that. So audits and contamination are a way that we see, all right, what are we seeing in the field?

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 What is our recycling facility seeing in the field? Is it coming from just one particular property? Is

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 it coming from the multifamilies or is it everybody? Are we seeing plastic film? Are we seeing certain

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 things and where is it all coming from? So it gives us a little bit more information than what is just

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 coming to prep. We can actually see it in the field. So along with outreach and collaboration,

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 so of course community events, we table at places like Great American Cleanup. We also table at

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 places, you know, we've had Redbud, we have Green Fling, we're going to be having in August where

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 we'll be tabling and reaching out to more residents about recycling and education. And sometimes it's

00:22:35.240 --> 00:22:39.960
 us just having, you know, our pamphlets giving everybody the one-liner, you know, don't bag your

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 recyclables, keep it empty, clean, loose, and dry. But it's also a great time for residents to come

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 up and ask us questions. So if they have questions about some of those particular items that can be

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 tricky or items that they're a little confused about, they can always come there and ask us

00:22:54.520 --> 00:23:00.840
 questions about them. Another way that I reach out to residents is through HOA meetings and community

00:23:00.840 --> 00:23:07.800
 organizations. So there's some HOAs that because of the pandemic they weren't meeting. So some have

00:23:07.800 --> 00:23:13.880
 actually been able to, if I give them some education, for example, there was one HOA that they

00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:19.720
 don't meet anymore, but she was willing to work with me and they posted one of our flyers that

00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:24.440
 had some recycling education in their Facebook group, which of course I don't have access to

00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:29.080
 would just be that HOA. So just to remind the residents, you know, if we're seeing a lot of

00:23:29.080 --> 00:23:33.480
 plastic film from that area, it might be education directed towards, you know, removing flexible

00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:39.320
 plastic and not placing it in your curbside container. And then also print media. So recently

00:23:39.320 --> 00:23:44.520
 we started doing targeted mailers to the highest contaminated residential routes. So if you're

00:23:44.520 --> 00:23:49.720
 receiving a mailer anytime soon, you know why. But it's going to be a lot of the big heavy hitters,

00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:55.800
 you know, no styrofoam, no plastic film. We've seen a lot of textiles, clothing, things like that. So

00:23:55.800 --> 00:24:00.360
 that's what it's going to bring you, bring some awareness to. As well with print media, we also

00:24:00.360 --> 00:24:05.320
 include information about diversion or recycling education in the citizen connections, and then

00:24:05.320 --> 00:24:11.160
 also resident updates as well. So we're including information in print media also. Social media and

00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:16.920
 targeted messaging. So for social media, we're on all platforms, so our majority. We're on Facebook,

00:24:16.920 --> 00:24:23.000
 Twitter, Instagram, and then next door. So for social media, we take all of the information that

00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:27.160
 we get from our drivers. What are the drivers seeing in the field? We're seeing a lot of

00:24:27.160 --> 00:24:32.120
 styrofoam, or we're seeing a lot of wood, for example. And then we'll take that, we'll take

00:24:32.120 --> 00:24:38.200
 what we're seeing in the field, and then we'll also take what Pratt is seeing at their floor and be

00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:43.160
 able to craft a message according to that. So we're not just creating social media posts for the

00:24:43.160 --> 00:24:48.200
 willy-nilly of just creating them and generating posts. We're actually tailoring it to what we're

00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:53.160
 seeing at the Merck and what our Merck is having issues with, or a recycling facility. So for

00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:59.800
 example, batteries was a big thing. Sharps and needles have become a little bit more recent.

00:24:59.800 --> 00:25:05.080
 So it's where we're able to talk a little bit and craft a message on social media to be able to post

00:25:05.080 --> 00:25:09.560
 that. Just kind of remind residents what they can and can't put in for excitement. There are

00:25:09.560 --> 00:25:14.040
 other alternatives to diverting material. You don't just have to recycle it. You can donate it. You

00:25:14.040 --> 00:25:19.560
 can take it to home chemical collections and things like that. And then for targeted messaging,

00:25:19.560 --> 00:25:25.000
 we're also on next door. So I'll take the highest contaminated residential routes. We'll break them

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.640
 up by neighborhood and next door, and then we'll post directly weekly on them, just reminding

00:25:29.640 --> 00:25:34.040
 residents what they can and can't put in their curbside part. If we're particularly seeing an

00:25:34.040 --> 00:25:39.480
 item, for example, bag recyclables, then we'll go ahead and post a message, and it'll be regarding

00:25:39.480 --> 00:25:45.000
 bag recyclables. If we start seeing wood, if the interns start seeing brush, then we can start

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:53.640
 tailoring a message to that as well. And of course, UNT, or definitely wouldn't be the same

00:25:53.640 --> 00:25:58.280
 without UNT and TWA, which are the big universities that we have. I graduated from UNT, so it's really

00:25:58.280 --> 00:26:03.000
 cool to kind of do a close circle of going back there and tabling, which is really awesome.

00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:08.520
 So that's a picture of us at the UNT Recycle Resource Fair. We have a great relationship

00:26:08.520 --> 00:26:12.200
 with the We Mean Green Fund and the people that are involved in sustainability over there.

00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:19.640
 So we were even able to, on the far right, is a picture of their updated Big Belly signage on

00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:27.080
 campus. So the UNT We Mean Green Fund actually reached out to me and talked about, we got to

00:26:27.080 --> 00:26:31.880
 talking about some of the verbiage and the language that they wanted to use in their big bellies that

00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:36.440
 they have on campus so that they could keep it consistent within Denton and then also within the

00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:40.600
 region. So there are phrases like, "Do you know what to throw?" There's phrases like, "Empty,

00:26:40.600 --> 00:26:45.800
 clean, loose, and dry." Those are phrases that we use in our language and in our educational material,

00:26:45.800 --> 00:26:50.600
 so they were able to implement it as well on campus also. So you may see some of these

00:26:50.600 --> 00:26:57.960
 on UNT's campus. And then that middle picture is an example of our HCC battery drop-off collection,

00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:03.000
 where we were able to divert batteries from the landfill. Our Murph has been seeing a lot of

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:07.880
 batteries, and batteries are a big issue because they can spark every night, specifically lithium

00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:12.040
 ion batteries. So we wanted to raise awareness that residents don't need to put them in their

00:27:12.040 --> 00:27:16.760
 curbside cart because batteries can be recycled just not in your curbside cart. You want to make

00:27:16.760 --> 00:27:20.760
 sure you take them to the HCC Home Chemical Collection, or if you're not a resident, there are

00:27:20.760 --> 00:27:33.640
 even some home improvement stores that can take it. So during that time, while we were looking at

00:27:33.640 --> 00:27:40.680
 audits and contamination, there were two commercial recycling routes that were on the highest

00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:46.120
 contaminated list for a while. And when Solid Waste looked at them, they found that they were

00:27:46.120 --> 00:27:52.360
 predominantly multi-family. So they were very multi-family heavy. And what they did was,

00:27:52.360 --> 00:27:57.560
 they ran a route with just multi-family properties on there for one week, and they found that the

00:27:57.560 --> 00:28:04.680
 contamination rate for just multi-families on those routes was 64%. So 64% of the material

00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:09.080
 wasn't able to be recycled because it had to be diverted to the landfill because it was basically

00:28:09.080 --> 00:28:16.680
 trash. So what they did was, for about two months, we ran a pilot where we had a chute lid and a

00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:22.200
 locking bar placed on these multi-family containers. That picture on the left is a picture of the old

00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:27.720
 model. So if you see more of an old or outdated container, it may look like the one on the left.

00:28:27.720 --> 00:28:32.680
 The one on the right is the updated one. So it has a place for you to place a lock right in the center.

00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:37.560
 And we have no issues collecting this container because it's a gravity-fed lock,

00:28:37.560 --> 00:28:41.400
 so you don't have to go out, property owners don't have to go out and unlock them before we

00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:48.040
 collect it. It can be collected as is. And what we saw was, it helped a lot with keeping a lot

00:28:48.040 --> 00:28:54.040
 of unnecessary material, debris, illegal dumping out of the containers. So we wanted to see if this

00:28:54.040 --> 00:28:59.640
 would help increase the quality of the recycling that was being entered into this stream versus the

00:29:00.280 --> 00:29:08.680
 quantity. And this is an example of the multi-family before and after. So of course, during the time

00:29:08.680 --> 00:29:15.480
 when we had these locks and chute lids on these containers, we wanted to make sure that the

00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:21.320
 properties were locking them down so that they could stay in place. I can go back to the picture

00:29:21.320 --> 00:29:25.400
 so you guys can see. We wanted to make sure that the lock stayed in place. We wanted to make sure

00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:29.960
 that they weren't touching them. They were having their residents actually empty their recycling

00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:35.560
 directly into the slots and not placing it right next to the container. So I was able to communicate,

00:29:35.560 --> 00:29:39.320
 you know, letting them know that they need to let their maintenance, their residents,

00:29:39.320 --> 00:29:43.960
 and Trash Ballet. So Trash Ballet also needs to know that they need to empty the recycling

00:29:43.960 --> 00:29:48.920
 directly into the container so it can be properly used. So during those two months, we were able to

00:29:48.920 --> 00:29:57.320
 see a change of it going from 64% contaminated to 39%, which is a really big change. And you can kind

00:29:57.320 --> 00:30:02.280
 of see that in these pictures. So this is a multi-family property that is actually near the

00:30:02.280 --> 00:30:07.640
 university, and for some reason, a lot of people like to donate things to it. It was filled to the

00:30:07.640 --> 00:30:13.000
 brim with clothing. I used to see a lot of people bringing canned food, like fully canned food,

00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:19.320
 thinking it was like a drop-off donation center. I even used to see like household items all the time

00:30:19.320 --> 00:30:24.520
 and people scavenging. So then we put the chute lid and the locking bar on it, and then that's what it

00:30:24.520 --> 00:30:29.320
 looks like on the right. So it looked a lot better. The product is a lot cleaner. You can see a lot of

00:30:29.320 --> 00:30:35.000
 it is loose. It's not perfect, of course, but it is a big improvement, especially for a container

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:41.160
 that I've always seen was just filled to the top with basically trash. And all that material can be

00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:47.080
 diverted. You know, clothing can be diverted to a donation center. It can be diverted to, you know,

00:30:47.080 --> 00:30:52.200
 like any places on campus. I know that campus has some drop-off locations as well, but it doesn't

00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:58.600
 need to go into a recycling container where it contaminates or is not programmatic. All right,

00:30:58.600 --> 00:31:02.360
 so I'm going to turn this over to Kim Jennings.

00:31:02.360 --> 00:31:17.240
 Committee members, my name is Kim Jennings, and as Jelisa said, I am the second Waste Reductions

00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:22.760
 Program Coordinator with the Environmental Services and Sustainability Department, and I work primarily

00:31:22.760 --> 00:31:28.840
 with the Denton Independent School District and the Denton Sustainable Schools Program. Today we're

00:31:28.840 --> 00:31:33.640
 going to talk a little bit about the background of Denton Sustainable Schools. We're going to touch

00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:39.160
 on some of the audits, the contamination that we were seeing on the campuses, the outreach

00:31:39.160 --> 00:31:45.720
 collaboration, and some of the exciting details about the program's relaunch coming this fall.

00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:52.040
 So initially, the program has been around for quite some time. It was launched in 2004

00:31:52.040 --> 00:31:57.880
 in collaboration with the City of Denton Solid Waste Department, Keep Denton Beautiful, and UNT.

00:31:57.880 --> 00:32:04.520
 This has been 18 years of a very strong partnership that we're looking forward to growing

00:32:04.520 --> 00:32:10.600
 in the future. The mission of the Denton Sustainable Schools Program is to encourage students,

00:32:10.600 --> 00:32:15.400
 families, faculty, and staff to improve our environment and support the Denton community

00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:22.360
 by implementing a comprehensive sustainability education program. So what this means is that

00:32:22.360 --> 00:32:30.280
 we use environmental education that is mirroring the sustainability framework, and we do this

00:32:30.280 --> 00:32:36.920
 through classroom programs. This is an example of one, and this is at the Dean of the Wright Center

00:32:36.920 --> 00:32:43.080
 after school program. We did some recycling relays with the kids. Who would have thought that dumping

00:32:43.080 --> 00:32:48.840
 a big pile of recyclable trash and non-recyclable items in the middle of the room and having them

00:32:48.840 --> 00:32:55.880
 go through them would have created so much excitement, but it did. You can also see here's a picture

00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:03.880
 of our careers on wheels where we come and visit the schools and we bring out our solid waste

00:33:03.880 --> 00:33:09.560
 vehicle and talk to the kids about recycling and about the different jobs that are available to them.

00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:19.480
 We also have education that helps explain by having people come out, schools do visits for

00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:26.680
 field trips to Pratt, the landfill, water treatment plants, some of the additional programs that we

00:33:26.680 --> 00:33:33.800
 also do on wheels. And this is like something that is with multi-city departments. It's not just solid

00:33:33.800 --> 00:33:40.040
 waste. The fire department comes out, the police department comes out, the library comes out,

00:33:40.040 --> 00:33:45.640
 everyone. It's a very much a team-oriented effort where people come out and the kids just

00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:51.720
 just love it. A lot of the times since COVID, the schools have been restricted on having visitors,

00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:56.920
 so being able to come back into the school system has been very rewarding and very welcome for the

00:33:56.920 --> 00:34:04.680
 teachers and the students alike. We've also do continue education credits. We had a Denton

00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:08.760
 Sustainable Schools teacher training earlier this month. We went with the teachers and talked about

00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:15.480
 the program. And we also have STEM kids that we loan out to the school district. Originally,

00:34:15.480 --> 00:34:21.560
 the program was tracked using recycling weights at each school campus and awards were given based on

00:34:21.560 --> 00:34:29.800
 these recycling weights. But now, and there's a tracking, a points tracking system. So there's a

00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:35.400
 teacher involved as the point of contact for each campus and they kept track of all the points and

00:34:35.400 --> 00:34:40.600
 they submitted at the end of the year different activities that they did in order to earn points.

00:34:40.600 --> 00:34:49.400
 So moving forward though, we're going to move away from monetary awards. Basically the points

00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:56.600
 were used and points were awarded for primary, secondary, and private. And they had money that

00:34:56.600 --> 00:35:00.200
 were given to them, but we're moving away from that since COVID. And now we're going to be

00:35:00.200 --> 00:35:05.720
 awarding schools with different items such as garden supplies, STEM kits, recycling bins,

00:35:05.720 --> 00:35:11.240
 pizza parties, really anything that's going to encourage participation and be motivating

00:35:11.240 --> 00:35:17.080
 for those students. So like we said, you know, the COVID shutdown and different school restrictions

00:35:17.080 --> 00:35:22.280
 has limited the program's implementation, but we're excited to say we're back in the education

00:35:22.280 --> 00:35:31.080
 game once more. So I came into the position in October of 2021. Prior to that, I worked for the

00:35:31.080 --> 00:35:36.040
 city of Waco. I was a park ranger for 20 years. I came back here to be with my family and finally

00:35:36.040 --> 00:35:40.520
 get back to recycling with the city of Denton. And it's been, it's been quite the ride. I've really

00:35:40.520 --> 00:35:45.080
 enjoyed all of my co-workers. And I'm just saying that because my boss is sitting right here, but

00:35:45.080 --> 00:35:50.520
 this is a fantastic group of people. I've really enjoyed coming back to Denton and working with

00:35:50.520 --> 00:35:56.920
 everybody here. So, but during this whole time of COVID, it's sort of been like a sort of a free

00:35:56.920 --> 00:36:02.360
 for all. The schools were recycling containers, didn't have much monitoring. To be honest, there

00:36:02.360 --> 00:36:08.040
 wasn't a whole lot of education that was going on. There wasn't much enforcement from contamination

00:36:08.040 --> 00:36:13.960
 that was happening on the school campuses either. So my first week here, I'm on board, kind of

00:36:13.960 --> 00:36:19.960
 excited. I'm sitting in a meeting with Brian Warren, director of Solid Ways, and he was doing a

00:36:19.960 --> 00:36:24.760
 presentation on contamination. All right. And he comes to the slide where he's talking about

00:36:24.760 --> 00:36:28.760
 Denton ISD. I said, okay, all right, these are my people. Let's see what he has to say.

00:36:28.760 --> 00:36:35.720
 And basically they did a route for one week and they collected nine times. Normally Denton ISD is

00:36:35.720 --> 00:36:42.360
 not on its own specific route. It's normally dispersed with other commercial routes. So it's

00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:48.040
 very hard to tell kind of who's doing what, but they did one week of nothing but the ISD and they

00:36:48.040 --> 00:36:55.000
 came back and they said, drum roll please. And we're at 90%. And I jumped up and I was like 90%,

00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.400
 we're winning. And I thought about it for a minute. I was like, no, 90%, that's 90% contamination.

00:37:01.400 --> 00:37:05.800
 So what we were seeing, unfortunately, is that there's extremely high levels of contamination

00:37:05.800 --> 00:37:13.960
 in the DISD campuses. So what now? Well, I'm heading back to Wakefield. Thanks guys. It's been

00:37:13.960 --> 00:37:20.120
 fun. Not really. This is a challenge. I love a challenge and trying to figure out why is this

00:37:20.120 --> 00:37:25.080
 happening? How is this happening? Who's doing it? And how can we make this better? Because obviously

00:37:25.080 --> 00:37:30.760
 we definitely, we can do better. There's room for improvement. So we try to find patterns for high

00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:37.880
 contamination schools. So this starts with with audits. So since I started, I've done, I think,

00:37:38.520 --> 00:37:44.280
 964 audits. So what that means is I roll up in a super sweet minivan, it says solid waste

00:37:44.280 --> 00:37:50.200
 recycling on the side. I hop out and I'll go over and I'll look in the container. I'll open the lid,

00:37:50.200 --> 00:37:55.240
 I'll look inside and I'll document what sort of things are we seeing on your campus? Are we seeing

00:37:55.240 --> 00:38:02.840
 a lot of plastic film? Are we seeing a lot of books? Are we seeing a lot of illegal dumping?

00:38:02.840 --> 00:38:09.160
 Is there community dumping going on? What is causing these high contamination rates? So basically

00:38:09.160 --> 00:38:15.800
 I did a lot of research to come up with some metrics to figure out who we need to try to fix

00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:23.000
 first. So I met with some of the schools that were doing it right to find out why is your contamination

00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:28.520
 so low? It wasn't like they were all at 90%. Some were very, very low while others were obviously

00:38:28.520 --> 00:38:33.560
 they had some struggles. So I met with principals, I met with kitchen staff, janitorial staff,

00:38:33.560 --> 00:38:38.200
 individually, basically learning how their system works. Who takes the recycling? Who's responsible

00:38:38.200 --> 00:38:43.160
 for it? Is it contracted staff? Is it staff that you have on board for many years? What are the

00:38:43.160 --> 00:38:49.320
 consistencies that we're seeing to make them successful? We also offered solutions and suggestions

00:38:49.320 --> 00:38:54.680
 like some of them they have revetments but they weren't blocking them. So one of the ways I

00:38:54.680 --> 00:39:00.920
 really wanted to know was like who's doing this? So there was one campus in particular during the

00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:04.600
 holiday break, I went and hit them hot and heavy. I went to almost every single one of them multiple

00:39:04.600 --> 00:39:08.360
 times and I wanted to see who's making the mess because there was no students, there was no staff,

00:39:08.360 --> 00:39:12.120
 there's no one there to make the mess, right? So I should be cleaning. Oh my goodness, it was not.

00:39:12.120 --> 00:39:17.640
 Some of the worst contamination that we saw was during that holiday break. It was like everybody

00:39:17.640 --> 00:39:22.200
 was making room for all the new toys and all the new furniture that they were going to get over

00:39:22.200 --> 00:39:28.600
 the holiday break and it was a massive amount. If you need a steam cleaner, a couch, a washer dryer,

00:39:28.600 --> 00:39:33.640
 great, come to DISD, take your pick. There's all kinds of things that were left there for wishful

00:39:33.640 --> 00:39:39.000
 recycling. So some of the solutions that we offer, you know, let's maybe move the donation bins. Some

00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:44.280
 of these donation bins were right next to where the recycling bins and the trash bins are and so

00:39:44.280 --> 00:39:49.160
 people that just can't seem to part with some of their items that they hope could be recycled,

00:39:49.160 --> 00:39:54.440
 like this bed frame is made out of wood, right? You can recycle wood. They, it might be broken,

00:39:54.440 --> 00:39:58.680
 but it's recyclable so you would find these things kind of pushed up against the recycling

00:39:58.680 --> 00:40:05.400
 container, you know, which makes it unfortunately contamination. Other things that were also

00:40:05.400 --> 00:40:12.840
 motivated, motivating that we were doing, that we consistently do with properties that have high

00:40:12.840 --> 00:40:21.000
 levels of contamination is a $75 do not collect charge. So basically if a campus had, it was

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:26.520
 either be by an audit that I performed or if the drivers come out and they see that the can is

00:40:26.520 --> 00:40:33.240
 unserviceable due to high levels of contamination, you know, there's a $75 charge fee. So, you know,

00:40:33.240 --> 00:40:38.280
 we give, we always give the customer the ability to, hey, would you like to clean it up? Just like

00:40:38.280 --> 00:40:43.640
 everywhere else, DSD, especially with their maintenance, is shortstop. For them to jump in

00:40:43.640 --> 00:40:49.640
 the container and take out a mattress with the amount of stuff that they have is, is quite a

00:40:49.640 --> 00:40:56.120
 stretch. So here's an example of one of the campus businesses that we've grown and this is mostly,

00:40:56.120 --> 00:41:03.560
 you know, this is stuff that isn't being generated, one with the duct, from the school. This is a lot

00:41:03.560 --> 00:41:10.360
 of, a lot of construction you have, a lot of plywood, you have pieces of pallets, you know,

00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:17.480
 ceiling tiles, all kinds of things that are non-programmatic for, for the program. So following

00:41:17.480 --> 00:41:23.400
 on the success of the multi-family program, we decided, hey, let's lock them up. Let's, you know,

00:41:23.400 --> 00:41:28.040
 let's, let's save by the lid. Let's put some locking sheet lids on and let's see what happens.

00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:35.480
 So we installed, our solid waste installed locking sheet lids on 20 different campuses

00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:41.400
 and same campus, this is a locking sheet lid on there. So it's a huge difference. Those lids

00:41:41.400 --> 00:41:45.880
 that are on there, there's a hole this big. If it doesn't fit through that hole, it's not going

00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:51.000
 open and what's great is that there's, I call it the key to the city. I usually have it around my

00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:56.840
 neck, but each DISD campus has the same lock and so it's not like there's this, this key that everyone

00:41:56.840 --> 00:42:00.920
 has. So you can just leave it open. If it's not locked, it doesn't do any good. People will just

00:42:00.920 --> 00:42:05.480
 flip open the lid and they'll throw their mattress in there. So having these, having these locked has

00:42:05.480 --> 00:42:11.240
 made a huge, huge difference on contamination and you're not able to put in items that aren't

00:42:11.240 --> 00:42:19.080
 recyclable. So what we've seen since, since last year, the city has done overall contamination

00:42:19.080 --> 00:42:25.960
 rate, it's much, it's much more under control. In 2021, they're averaging 59% contamination rate

00:42:25.960 --> 00:42:34.360
 and so far for year 2022, our current year, we're averaging around 47. So, you know, another reason

00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:42.120
 for the success is our outreach and collaboration. We talk about recycling until the cows come home.

00:42:42.120 --> 00:42:47.720
 We talk about recycling and contamination every single, every single week. We have contamination

00:42:47.720 --> 00:42:53.720
 meetings with Solid Waste. We have meetings amongst ourselves. We even have monthly outreach

00:42:53.720 --> 00:42:59.320
 meetings. We're in constant communication with Solid Waste and the drivers have the opportunity

00:42:59.320 --> 00:43:04.840
 to provide pictures and feedback on certain, certain areas, different campuses. If I see the

00:43:04.840 --> 00:43:09.080
 driver and say, hey, they've tagged a certain campus and they take a picture, they're sort of

00:43:09.080 --> 00:43:13.160
 seeing these campuses at like four, like early earlier. They're some of their first stops that

00:43:13.160 --> 00:43:16.440
 they make. They might be there five, six in the morning. It might be dark. So the picture might

00:43:16.440 --> 00:43:22.120
 not be that clear. So I'll go out and I'll take a look and I'll see what it is and I contact DIC

00:43:22.120 --> 00:43:26.360
 directly. I send them a picture and I'll let them know, hey, this is what we found. You know, this

00:43:26.360 --> 00:43:30.520
 is where this should go. This should go to a whole chemical collection, you know, a bunch of light

00:43:30.520 --> 00:43:35.240
 bulbs or batteries, whatever it is that we're seeing, fire extinguishers, certain things like

00:43:35.240 --> 00:43:41.160
 that. So there's an education component and that's one of the reasons why we have seen,

00:43:41.160 --> 00:43:47.240
 you know, a drop in contamination is because of these outreach and collaboration efforts.

00:43:48.360 --> 00:43:52.520
 So like I said, like when I'm going out and driving around the minivan, I try not to be too

00:43:52.520 --> 00:43:57.800
 intimidating. I usually pop out and wear my safety vest and, you know, I really try to, I'll help

00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:01.400
 them. Like if, you know, you've got kitchen staffer out there, they have a little cart and they usually

00:44:01.400 --> 00:44:05.320
 have cardboards and cans. Those are the two most popular items that are recyclable from the kitchen.

00:44:05.320 --> 00:44:09.240
 Yeah, I'll just talk with them. Hey, how's it going? How's your day? Can I help you with this?

00:44:09.240 --> 00:44:12.920
 You know, we learn real fast, like those cans, you got to put them in one way, try and put them

00:44:12.920 --> 00:44:17.160
 in sideways. No, not that. So running home square peg is kind of figuring out the new system. Hey,

00:44:17.160 --> 00:44:21.560
 how do you like these? How do you like the chute lutes? Or just saying, hey, did you see this is

00:44:21.560 --> 00:44:26.200
 in here? And they'll take a peek. Oh, no, that wasn't us. I got you. I know it's not y'all,

00:44:26.200 --> 00:44:30.600
 but just, just so that you're aware, like when somebody knows that you're being watched, your

00:44:30.600 --> 00:44:36.440
 actions will, will change. As a park ranger, I can guarantee that because we had staff when we

00:44:36.440 --> 00:44:39.960
 visit places and talk with people and the fact that people knew that we were there, we were making

00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:45.320
 contact makes all the difference in the world. And I'm seeing the same thing happen, happen here.

00:44:46.600 --> 00:44:52.360
 Going into, going to the schools and teaching the students. This is one of the best ways to teach

00:44:52.360 --> 00:44:58.600
 recycling. I'm really encouraged the way Denton has been handling all their sustainability goals.

00:44:58.600 --> 00:45:02.840
 When I grew up, we didn't talk about recycling. No one really sat us down and said,

00:45:02.840 --> 00:45:06.840
 hey, this is how you do recycling. Recycling really wasn't a thing until we came a little bit

00:45:06.840 --> 00:45:11.400
 older. I want to tell you how old I am. But the fact that these kids are being introduced to this

00:45:11.400 --> 00:45:17.480
 at such a young age is, is phenomenal and a great opportunity to teach them how we do recycling.

00:45:17.480 --> 00:45:21.560
 Just because you can recycle something doesn't mean that that's the way that Denton recycles.

00:45:21.560 --> 00:45:26.120
 So that's why it gets so confusing sometimes when people say, well, I don't know what to recycle.

00:45:26.120 --> 00:45:31.960
 I thought you could do this and now it's this. Well, it's based off of what items that our,

00:45:31.960 --> 00:45:37.720
 our recovery, our materials recovery facility can handle. So that's why it gets, it gets confusing.

00:45:37.720 --> 00:45:43.080
 But you know, going in into the schools, these are pictures of, of Geyer High Schools,

00:45:43.080 --> 00:45:48.120
 their advanced placement, environmental sciences and statistics class, believe it or not,

00:45:48.120 --> 00:45:55.480
 did a full-blown like week-long recycling initiative. And these students, I didn't tell

00:45:55.480 --> 00:45:58.760
 them to jump in there, but they went in and they went to one of the, they have two different

00:45:58.760 --> 00:46:02.760
 containers, one that's behind the school where you see everyone standing and then one that's more

00:46:02.760 --> 00:46:07.400
 closer to the front. And that one usually has more of the illegal dumping. A lot of times that's

00:46:07.400 --> 00:46:11.320
 with access. If you can go in and out really quick and you can do a quick dump, that's where you're

00:46:11.320 --> 00:46:15.560
 going to see a lot of the illegal dumping and higher contamination numbers. But these students,

00:46:15.560 --> 00:46:19.560
 they went in, they pulled everything out, they did a grid and they, they made it, they made it,

00:46:19.560 --> 00:46:24.600
 you know, a science, mathematic exercise. So it's, it's great. You know, the students are excited

00:46:24.600 --> 00:46:29.480
 about it. You know, they want to make a difference and they want to see it done right. Here's another,

00:46:29.480 --> 00:46:34.200
 you know, after school kids. I didn't make these kids like be happy. They were just like happy that

00:46:34.200 --> 00:46:37.880
 someone was there to talk to them. Someone was there to play with them. You know, we jumped all

00:46:37.880 --> 00:46:43.160
 that in the middle of the room and their first inclination is, hey, can I jump and climb in the

00:46:43.160 --> 00:46:47.880
 pile? And my first thought is, well, yeah, but wait, you can't. But, you know, just meeting with these

00:46:47.880 --> 00:46:53.400
 kids and having them sort through these items. So basically what we did is this huge pile of trash,

00:46:53.400 --> 00:46:58.120
 we break them up into teams and then they come one in, one in, one at a time and they pick up one piece

00:46:58.120 --> 00:47:05.000
 of, of, of a piece of trash and they either put it in their recycling or their, or their trash.

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:11.320
 And then afterwards we take their recycling and we go through each team literally item by item and

00:47:11.320 --> 00:47:17.400
 whoever has the least amount helps. So we'll go through literally hundreds of items and by the time

00:47:17.400 --> 00:47:23.400
 we're finished, the kids get it. Like they may not be great to start with, but they see the pattern

00:47:23.400 --> 00:47:28.200
 and the fact that they have physically touched an item, it makes a huge, huge difference in that repetition

00:47:28.200 --> 00:47:33.160
 and that connection is just making it lasting. And these kids like, they'll go home like, oh yeah,

00:47:33.160 --> 00:47:36.600
 I tell my mom all the time, you can't just talk about that or you should be doing this. So they're

00:47:36.600 --> 00:47:42.440
 great ambassadors for the message that we're trying to send out. You know, this is a picture

00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:49.560
 from Denton's Explorium and we've also gone to the libraries. These kids all getting in these trucks.

00:47:50.760 --> 00:47:56.280
 Not gonna be biased, but usually the trash truck is like the kids' favorite time, especially during

00:47:56.280 --> 00:48:00.600
 COVID. It was kind of like one of the highlights of their days to come see the big truck come and

00:48:00.600 --> 00:48:05.640
 pick up their trash and their recycling every day. Our drivers do a great job. They connect with the

00:48:05.640 --> 00:48:11.480
 community well and the joy in these kids' faces to see trash truck is really, really satisfying.

00:48:11.480 --> 00:48:19.640
 This is a, one of the career days that we went to at Rivera Elementary. So another thing, you know,

00:48:19.640 --> 00:48:24.040
 people think, oh gosh, you know, trash, no one wants to be the trash guy, right?

00:48:24.040 --> 00:48:30.200
 There's so much more to this profession than just trash. There's science behind this and there's

00:48:30.200 --> 00:48:36.440
 technology and these kids need to understand that this is a service that is far, it's not simple.

00:48:36.440 --> 00:48:42.840
 It gets actually quite, you know, quite complex. So we have a smart routing system called Rubicon

00:48:42.840 --> 00:48:47.800
 and, you know, when the kids go inside the cab, they get to see we have an iPad. We use technology.

00:48:47.800 --> 00:48:53.080
 We have active trackers, routers that have notes. So our drivers show these kids like, you know,

00:48:53.080 --> 00:48:59.800
 these are the reasons why you need to, you know, to learn this stuff in school. This is actually

00:48:59.800 --> 00:49:05.320
 applicable in real life. And then too, if you could see in that picture, like they're holding like

00:49:05.320 --> 00:49:10.360
 this little green sheet. This is like a list of questions that they ask. Like some of these

00:49:10.360 --> 00:49:15.880
 questions, like they make you blush. Like, so they're wanting to know, a lot of these kids,

00:49:15.880 --> 00:49:20.280
 they're already civic minded. They already like, their number one thing is, I want to make a

00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:26.680
 difference in my community. I want to help. What can I do? In these career days, you know,

00:49:26.680 --> 00:49:32.120
 they're quite helpful in making these connections and letting these kids know, yeah, hey, there is

00:49:32.120 --> 00:49:37.480
 a job in sustainability. Moving forward, this generation will have ample opportunities to use

00:49:37.480 --> 00:49:45.080
 metrics, science, everything that can be useful to help you regarding sustainability.

00:49:46.680 --> 00:49:55.480
 Okay. So we've also, we've also started up, I did a teacher survey. I wanted to know,

00:49:55.480 --> 00:49:59.640
 it's been a while since we've had the Dentist Center for Schools program, it's been inactive.

00:49:59.640 --> 00:50:06.120
 And I wanted to know, teachers, since COVID, what does your life look like now? And how can this

00:50:06.120 --> 00:50:11.160
 program be useful for you? And what can we do for the city of Dent to make this program something

00:50:11.160 --> 00:50:16.120
 that you're excited about and you want to participate in? So we got a lot of great feedback

00:50:16.120 --> 00:50:21.640
 from these teachers. We saw a lot of, a lot of similar themes, like they want, you know, their

00:50:21.640 --> 00:50:26.520
 students to make, to have personal accountability. They want them to make responsible choices.

00:50:26.520 --> 00:50:31.000
 They're heavily involved with wanting to make a difference in the community and the environment.

00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:37.000
 Basically involvement, which is, which is what this program was designed to do. You know, we

00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:41.560
 met one-on-one with these teachers just so I could, you know, get their reactions. I wanted to know

00:50:41.560 --> 00:50:46.920
 that what we're going to be doing is going to be useful and helpful for them. And here's a picture

00:50:46.920 --> 00:50:51.400
 that we had from our teacher training earlier this month. So this is like circle trust, I'm

00:50:51.400 --> 00:50:57.480
 just kidding. It's actually like an electricity circle. So it's not just, the program isn't just

00:50:57.480 --> 00:51:01.960
 about recycling. It is recycling focused, but it touches on different areas of the framework,

00:51:02.680 --> 00:51:08.520
 of the framework, so that these kids will get a well-rounded vision of what they can do for

00:51:08.520 --> 00:51:15.160
 environmental stewardship and sustainability in their life. Our tours are back online. We're able

00:51:15.160 --> 00:51:21.960
 to go into Pratt. We're going to be doing one of our first landfill tours here next month. So this

00:51:21.960 --> 00:51:28.200
 is, this is exciting. It's a good, it's a good time. One of the things, you all have to use your

00:51:28.200 --> 00:51:35.960
 imagination here, because there's no sound. But when, as part of that week-long recycling initiative

00:51:35.960 --> 00:51:40.360
 that Guyer High School students did, their teachers required them to come up with a

00:51:40.360 --> 00:51:46.520
 recycle PSA. Now there's no sound on this. This is one of the top ones. They submitted, it was close

00:51:46.520 --> 00:51:52.040
 to a little over 40 different videos that these groups did. And we selected some of our favorite

00:51:52.040 --> 00:51:56.920
 ones. And this is one of the favorite ones. It has a real dramatic theme to it. But these students,

00:51:56.920 --> 00:52:02.280
 they did this themselves. And what's really, really, really interesting and really cool is that these

00:52:02.280 --> 00:52:07.960
 kids listened. They didn't just like Google some of these statistics. They pulled these from the

00:52:07.960 --> 00:52:14.920
 presentation. These came from things that we're learning, you know, from our, from our management

00:52:14.920 --> 00:52:22.440
 plan, from our department, from the city. These are real metrics. And for these kids to understand

00:52:22.440 --> 00:52:28.440
 and grasp the severity of their actions, and to know like, this is what we're doing as students,

00:52:28.440 --> 00:52:33.400
 here's what we can do to make it better, was really, really cool. So I just wanted to share

00:52:33.400 --> 00:52:39.160
 this with you guys to show you that this program is useful. It makes a difference. And we're super

00:52:39.160 --> 00:52:46.600
 excited to have it come back online. And that, that's what I've got. But without further ado,

00:52:46.600 --> 00:52:54.360
 let me introduce our special guest, long time listener, first time caller. I have one question.

00:52:54.360 --> 00:52:59.960
 Well, before you go, does anybody have a question about the sustainable schools?

00:52:59.960 --> 00:53:09.160
 Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, a couple questions. The headline would be, I believe that there's a

00:53:09.160 --> 00:53:14.680
 great opportunity to continue educating our children. First, let me commend you and your team

00:53:15.400 --> 00:53:21.320
 for working with me as you are to get this message out there. However, I still believe there's great

00:53:21.320 --> 00:53:29.240
 opportunity to continue the education and expand the education to our children. So one of my

00:53:29.240 --> 00:53:36.920
 questions would be, are we visiting every elementary school? And are we doing it on a consistent

00:53:36.920 --> 00:53:45.400
 basis? As I process this in my mind, obviously turnover, second grade to become third grade. Are

00:53:45.400 --> 00:53:51.720
 we revisiting the second grade each year, each school to continue to set up those high school

00:53:51.720 --> 00:53:57.720
 students to be as effective as they are? I also believe that the greatest

00:53:57.720 --> 00:54:04.520
 influencer in the household as it relates to behaviors are children. And so we want to change

00:54:04.520 --> 00:54:10.360
 the behaviors of the adults. We might want to put a lot of emphasis in the children. So that would be

00:54:10.360 --> 00:54:17.320
 number one, if you could speak to that, how consistently are we impacting the schools?

00:54:17.320 --> 00:54:24.200
 And then number two, from a partnership perspective, I see you and T as a partner, if you would,

00:54:24.200 --> 00:54:30.760
 but I think I mentioned this in April. I do know, I have some experience and worked with the

00:54:31.480 --> 00:54:37.640
 St. Louis County School Board and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers implementing a program very

00:54:37.640 --> 00:54:43.560
 similar to this and did it in the form of a six-week summer boot camp where they brought even

00:54:43.560 --> 00:54:48.520
 models of a community and they poured oil at the top of the hill and so that the kids could see

00:54:48.520 --> 00:54:54.440
 where that motor oil was dumped on the street or on the curb can end up in the lakes and the streams.

00:54:54.440 --> 00:55:01.240
 When I look at information such as the trash pile in our oceans, it's twice the size of the

00:55:01.240 --> 00:55:07.800
 state of Texas, of which we're contributing to that. Certainly we can't control what's

00:55:07.800 --> 00:55:13.560
 going on in the ocean, but we can impact it by educating and getting behavior change in

00:55:13.560 --> 00:55:18.600
 our local communities. So from a partnership perspective, we consider the Army Corps of Engineers

00:55:18.600 --> 00:55:27.480
 to have a tremendous program available to help educate, I believe it's third grade through high

00:55:27.480 --> 00:55:34.200
 school with regards to impact on, with regards to recycling and contamination and so forth. So

00:55:34.200 --> 00:55:40.120
 that would be the two areas I'd like to get some more information or address if you would.

00:55:40.120 --> 00:55:47.560
 Absolutely. So in terms of how often we're visiting all of the schools, so for the audits

00:55:47.560 --> 00:55:53.240
 each month Solid Waste comes up and they pull a record of the highest contamination routes.

00:55:53.240 --> 00:56:00.600
 So there might be, let's say one route, like 436 has 29% DISD campuses. I'll make note of

00:56:00.600 --> 00:56:06.440
 which campuses are involved in contamination for that route and for that month we'll concentrate

00:56:06.440 --> 00:56:12.200
 on that to find out is it the DISD customers on these campuses, is it the students, is it the

00:56:12.200 --> 00:56:18.040
 teachers, is it the campuses here that are contributing to this higher contamination rate.

00:56:18.040 --> 00:56:23.560
 Now the Denton Sustainable Schools program, it has not been officially launched. So these programs

00:56:23.560 --> 00:56:28.520
 and things that you've been seeing, if someone has reached out to us, we've made contact and we've

00:56:28.520 --> 00:56:36.360
 gone out to do those types of programs. Once the program launches again in the fall, they'll have

00:56:36.360 --> 00:56:41.960
 access to basically almost every city service. So I'll serve as a liaison. So if they want to talk

00:56:41.960 --> 00:56:48.440
 about forestry, I'm going to go with Parks and Rec and see what they need. One of the things that

00:56:48.440 --> 00:56:53.080
 is that's great about this program, we want it to be programs and topics that are of interest for

00:56:53.080 --> 00:56:58.280
 the teachers and students. We don't want it to be so broad or just use broad strokes. They don't

00:56:58.280 --> 00:57:04.360
 really get a lot out of it. The teachers can request programs that are specific for different

00:57:04.360 --> 00:57:11.160
 teats that they might be needing for a specific topic or certain things that they want to focus on

00:57:11.160 --> 00:57:15.800
 that their kids have shown an interest in. So we want it to be able to build programs that are for

00:57:15.800 --> 00:57:22.280
 these teachers. So once they have signed up and are part of this program, they have access to us

00:57:22.280 --> 00:57:28.280
 to provide for them the education components that we need. And having these partnerships to be able

00:57:28.280 --> 00:57:33.320
 to access these our coordinators, that is not something currently that I'm aware of that we

00:57:33.320 --> 00:57:37.880
 have done yet, but absolutely that sounds like that's a resource that we should definitely

00:57:37.880 --> 00:57:41.160
 be looking into, to form some additional partnerships.

00:57:41.160 --> 00:57:43.480
 What, what? Absolutely.

00:57:43.480 --> 00:57:48.360
 Well, okay, I'll talk about something.

00:57:48.360 --> 00:57:55.160
 No, it's, it's, I'm good. I get my answer. I'll follow up.

00:57:55.160 --> 00:57:56.460
 Yes.

00:57:56.460 --> 00:57:58.680
 Anybody else?

00:57:58.680 --> 00:58:03.240
 Okay. All right, thank you.

00:58:05.720 --> 00:58:11.960
 And I'll just add, pre-COVID, we probably had about 75% of the schools participating.

00:58:11.960 --> 00:58:17.640
 It was higher on the elementary side than middle and high school. So it's interesting that the

00:58:17.640 --> 00:58:23.000
 high schools are the ones who've reached out now and are interested in participating. But with the

00:58:23.000 --> 00:58:31.800
 relaunch, Kim has been able to go in pre, kind of get the tail end of COVID and pre-relaunching

00:58:31.800 --> 00:58:36.120
 the program and build these relationships with the principals, with the janitorial staff. And

00:58:36.120 --> 00:58:39.800
 that was something that we were missing before. We had good relationships with the teachers,

00:58:39.800 --> 00:58:43.800
 but we didn't have the relationship on the back end, which is what was really going in the container

00:58:43.800 --> 00:58:52.120
 at the end of the day. So we're able to cover both sides of the house now. And I think that as the

00:58:52.120 --> 00:58:56.680
 schools, it may take a little bit of time to recover and get each school built back up with

00:58:56.680 --> 00:59:03.720
 a green team. They didn't have green teams this year. Just the capacity wasn't there. So I think

00:59:03.720 --> 00:59:10.680
 as they reintroduce green teams and the teachers feel like they can take that on without being

00:59:10.680 --> 00:59:17.320
 overwhelmed and you have a teacher sponsor for the green team, I think that we'll be building back.

00:59:17.320 --> 00:59:22.200
 And it's just going to generate buzz. The more schools that are participating and the other

00:59:22.200 --> 00:59:26.440
 teachers are hearing about great programs that are coming into the schools and helping

00:59:26.440 --> 00:59:33.720
 teach their TEKS lessons, then it's just going to start to grow organically again. We do have a

00:59:33.720 --> 00:59:38.040
 watershed model that we take out and we have one that we can loan out to the school if they want

00:59:38.040 --> 00:59:41.960
 to keep it for a few weeks. Very similar to what you're talking about with the oil, so they can see

00:59:41.960 --> 00:59:47.880
 how that looks and how it all goes down into our watershed. I have a question about the green team.

00:59:47.880 --> 00:59:54.200
 You brought that up. I remember when my son was in elementary way back when, and they did have a

00:59:54.200 --> 01:00:01.800
 green team and they would go and monitor all the recycling and you know each grade level had one kid

01:00:01.800 --> 01:00:06.440
 that would go in and like take the recycling or look in it and there were other things that they did

01:00:06.440 --> 01:00:14.040
 in the school. But do we have a budget or is there a way once this gets started back up to

01:00:14.040 --> 01:00:19.880
 have like t-shirts for those kids so that they are recognizable and people can and other kids can be

01:00:19.880 --> 01:00:25.560
 like whoa you know what are you how do you get to do that kind of thing. And that's what we're moving

01:00:25.560 --> 01:00:31.320
 to with the survey that Kim did. You know they found out that the gardens were just so neglected

01:00:31.320 --> 01:00:34.840
 during COVID and didn't really need a lot of help so they asked for garden help so we're going to

01:00:34.840 --> 01:00:41.080
 work with that the first year. But yeah green team t-shirts that could be a great prize as they work

01:00:41.080 --> 01:00:47.400
 forward and and they earn points for sustainable schools. So I think that's a completely doable

01:00:47.400 --> 01:00:55.560
 option and i think that you know that's something to work towards. Hello I'm sorry. Yeah go ahead.

01:00:55.560 --> 01:01:02.360
 In addition to that the AHAs that I heard her mention before the schools that are doing a great

01:01:02.360 --> 01:01:10.200
 job, can that be published to other schools, teachers even, to include you know recognition

01:01:10.200 --> 01:01:17.640
 reward for children are those AHAs if you were that's what we call them. Are those is that

01:01:17.640 --> 01:01:22.840
 information available because somebody might look at I know my behavior has changed since the April

01:01:22.840 --> 01:01:29.480
 meeting even and really talking about this and my household has changed as a result of how we treat

01:01:29.480 --> 01:01:34.040
 recyclables at this point. I'm even having conversations with some people in the neighborhood

01:01:34.040 --> 01:01:41.560
 you know the point when you go on your walk you see exactly so so the point I'm making you can

01:01:41.560 --> 01:01:46.200
 give that good information out there you know here's some simple things you can do that's going to

01:01:46.200 --> 01:01:54.840
 encourage our children that we can implement at the at the home level and primarily my big focus

01:01:54.840 --> 01:02:01.240
 is educating children that they are our future. So that's what those AHAs are available and more.

01:02:01.240 --> 01:02:08.360
 And we're sharing some of the school AHA moments on our sustainable schools page so in that and we

01:02:08.360 --> 01:02:13.960
 have a newsletter that we'll be launching so they'll share all of that between all of the schools so

01:02:13.960 --> 01:02:17.880
 it's like hey this school's doing a great job and this is how they're doing it and Kim has been able

01:02:17.880 --> 01:02:25.080
 to have those conversations out in the field just with cafeteria staff or with the contract staff

01:02:25.080 --> 01:02:29.640
 saying hey this is how they're doing it at this other school and it's working out really well.

01:02:29.640 --> 01:02:34.280
 Maybe that's a way that you could think about doing it and then even talking to Denton ISD

01:02:34.280 --> 01:02:39.720
 facilities about what bags if they have to bag something what bag can be accepted at Pratt and

01:02:39.720 --> 01:02:46.280
 still be opened up with recyclables in it and so they've changed purchasing practices you know the

01:02:46.280 --> 01:02:53.960
 operational changes are a step that you know we wouldn't have thought of before because we were

01:02:53.960 --> 01:02:59.400
 in the classroom so it it was a unique opportunity to let us take that deeper dive into the

01:02:59.400 --> 01:03:09.160
 operational side of it. Not one that we wished for. So just sustainability education in general.

01:03:09.160 --> 01:03:16.040
 It's all right go ahead with your presentation. I know my question will probably make more sense

01:03:16.040 --> 01:03:23.400
 after this. Okay all right so we're excited this past fall we got to return to the in-person

01:03:23.400 --> 01:03:30.600
 education. We have a little heat map here it kind of shows where all we were around Denton. We have

01:03:30.600 --> 01:03:37.320
 learned to conserve water and energy education, air quality, we had some food classes and some

01:03:37.320 --> 01:03:49.960
 nature-based classes that took place. Through all of our events we reached 6802 people

01:03:50.920 --> 01:03:58.840
 if the clickers and the sign-ups are correct. So that covers you know meetings, presentations,

01:03:58.840 --> 01:04:07.000
 tabling events, activities and then the tours. So not bad for for getting started again with our

01:04:07.000 --> 01:04:14.520
 education and outreach efforts and some of the things that that we were participating in during

01:04:14.520 --> 01:04:19.720
 that time frame national night out stream clean we did a senior lunch and learn the after school

01:04:19.720 --> 01:04:27.560
 programs. Some of the usual suspects Red Bud Day, Great American Cleanup, String Clean, a movie in

01:04:27.560 --> 01:04:35.000
 the park which was fun and then you know back to Explorium. That was that was great in the career

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:46.920
 days. So just look to see more of that coming up. We have some classes coming up soon reducing

01:04:46.920 --> 01:04:54.120
 kitchen waste, bulletproof plants, composting and all bargaining. Those will be on the website

01:04:54.120 --> 01:05:00.840
 and Facebook event soon. We're finalizing those with the rooted in group right now.

01:05:00.840 --> 01:05:11.080
 So just some pictures of the fun times that we had with stamps and stickers.

01:05:17.800 --> 01:05:21.080
 The kids love Arlo the armadillo when we talk about air quality

01:05:21.080 --> 01:05:29.880
 our air armadillo excuse me. We'll be at Twilight Toons tomorrow night, is that correct?

01:05:29.880 --> 01:05:34.920
 Yes thumbs up. Twilight Toons tomorrow night will have recycling and sustainability air quality

01:05:34.920 --> 01:05:40.760
 education there. We have the Denton Police summer youth program tumor of the landfall and crack

01:05:40.760 --> 01:05:46.040
 coming up, library programs and then the composting, gardening and clean waste classes.

01:05:47.320 --> 01:05:56.040
 And then we are all available for questions. Yes. Well I think it's wonderful that

01:05:56.040 --> 01:06:02.200
 departments like Solid Waste are partnering with the sustainability

01:06:02.200 --> 01:06:09.320
 area because it's that's been in the past a problem that everybody's been in their

01:06:09.320 --> 01:06:15.720
 individual silos. Things are now really starting to work people starting to work together and along

01:06:15.720 --> 01:06:22.680
 that line a lot of the schools or many of the schools like new schools like Nettie Schultz

01:06:22.680 --> 01:06:32.520
 have considerable renewable energy installations and just thinking out of the box a little bit I

01:06:32.520 --> 01:06:40.920
 don't know if DME has any outreach programs of the scale that Solid Waste does but perhaps at

01:06:40.920 --> 01:06:47.720
 some point in the future there could be discussion with DME about presenting programs on renewable

01:06:47.720 --> 01:06:53.000
 energy and tying that in with the actual installations on the schools in which the kids are

01:06:53.000 --> 01:07:01.240
 which kids are attending. And JT who's heading back in the corner over there he does our

01:07:01.240 --> 01:07:06.360
 conservation programs and he does the energy education at the school so that's something that

01:07:06.360 --> 01:07:12.280
 he could plug in and there is a new person at DME and I'm not sure what her scope is but we can

01:07:12.280 --> 01:07:17.240
 find out if that's something that we can partner on. Oh that'd be great. Yeah we work closely with

01:07:17.240 --> 01:07:25.400
 DME too. Good thank you. Katherine I have a question. Parks is here. Do we have a environmental

01:07:25.400 --> 01:07:33.560
 services person or sustainability who monitors contamination in parks trash? I mean we talked

01:07:33.560 --> 01:07:37.800
 about it here a little bit before but they have like a blue bin and agreement but generally it's

01:07:37.800 --> 01:07:46.280
 all just trash. I mean do we have anyone that monitors that? Parks staff does some monitoring

01:07:46.280 --> 01:07:53.000
 of just what they're pulling from the containers and making sure that it's going to the appropriate

01:07:53.000 --> 01:08:00.440
 location so if it's so highly contaminated that it shouldn't go to crap then it's going to go to

01:08:00.440 --> 01:08:07.720
 the landfill but with the new containers that Parks has on order I believe through the grant

01:08:07.720 --> 01:08:16.120
 200 units of side-by-side trash and recycling we're working with them for signage if they're

01:08:16.120 --> 01:08:21.480
 going to be along the paved sidewalk and looking at some of the sidewalk stickers that can provide

01:08:21.480 --> 01:08:26.040
 some education about what's going to go in the different containers so there's going to be an

01:08:26.040 --> 01:08:30.840
 education campaign that goes along with those new containers so hopefully we won't just have the

01:08:30.840 --> 01:08:36.120
 open top thrums in all of our parks and we can start getting away from that. Like the containers

01:08:36.120 --> 01:08:41.720
 at Avondale? Yes. Okay exactly like those are fantastic. I'm sure they probably help you guys

01:08:41.720 --> 01:08:50.680
 too and solid waste. So there's 200 of those coming did you say? 200 sets coming. Yeah that's

01:08:50.680 --> 01:08:59.080
 good thank you. Yeah that's their grant. Okay yeah thank you. So you guys have a couple different

01:08:59.080 --> 01:09:04.360
 presentations about the percentage of contamination and it sounds like there's that high number and

01:09:04.360 --> 01:09:11.320
 I've heard it around 40 percent being kind of what we're starting to achieve like how does that

01:09:11.320 --> 01:09:17.240
 compare to other cities is one question I mean you guys know what if they're running and then

01:09:17.240 --> 01:09:23.960
 like is that normal and then two like do we expect to hover around 40 contamination rates

01:09:23.960 --> 01:09:31.960
 or is the goal to actually try to get below that? How do you do that? Can I ask Matt are you talking

01:09:31.960 --> 01:09:38.360
 about specifically DISD or multi-family? With both because DISD got down to 39 percent and then we

01:09:38.360 --> 01:09:46.920
 heard two months ago it was the city had dropped to like 40 40-ish percent. If you want to come

01:09:46.920 --> 01:09:53.880
 back up and answer the question if you know and I can kind of jump in on that. Okay okay. As we've

01:09:53.880 --> 01:10:01.720
 audited the different sectors so the schools and multi-family it's narrowed down where contamination

01:10:01.720 --> 01:10:09.480
 might be so while we may be making great gains at the school and at the multi-family sites

01:10:09.480 --> 01:10:16.040
 they're still combined with a route that picks up at other locations so that's where another

01:10:16.040 --> 01:10:21.800
 one of our auditors comes in and she's with the solid waste team so looking at those sites so it's

01:10:21.800 --> 01:10:27.960
 starting to make deeper dives now into those and Pratt has gotten more proactive with trying to

01:10:27.960 --> 01:10:35.160
 give us route numbers and the day that contamination comes in for example sharps we're kind of having

01:10:35.160 --> 01:10:40.680
 to be detectives right now and looking at all of the stops on the routes and you know we've got

01:10:40.680 --> 01:10:48.200
 multi-family but we also have assisted living and we have one business that may use sharps so where

01:10:48.200 --> 01:10:55.960
 could that be coming from so it's a lot they all have to feed together to try to get that contamination

01:10:55.960 --> 01:11:04.120
 down below where we are now but we're still working. But is that like a stamp it's like 40

01:11:04.120 --> 01:11:08.280
 like have you heard of other cities has anybody else talked about like contamination rates have

01:11:08.280 --> 01:11:15.640
 been like we've reached zero percent contaminants? I've never heard zero um was there isn't there a

01:11:15.640 --> 01:11:20.440
 I don't know like a graph or something of other cities comparable to

01:11:20.440 --> 01:11:27.560
 Denton at some point but I don't think it's schools it's it's not specific to multi-family

01:11:27.560 --> 01:11:33.080
 or school it's just no it's just overall and that is in the comprehensive solid waste management

01:11:33.080 --> 01:11:40.840
 strategy and I would have to go back and pull that um but I will say not all recycling programs are

01:11:40.840 --> 01:11:45.800
 equal so what's problematic material here may not be the same some of them may have gone to all

01:11:45.800 --> 01:11:51.320
 paper and cardboard and then they have a much lower contamination rate. Isn't it at one point

01:11:51.320 --> 01:11:59.720
 I remember hearing like 30 percent or is like kind of general I remember hearing 30 something

01:11:59.720 --> 01:12:09.720
 between the yeah 30-ish but we're still high. Go ahead Ed.

01:12:09.720 --> 01:12:21.560
 Where does where does is the solid waste does the solid waste have an end zero program yet?

01:12:21.560 --> 01:12:25.480
 Is this or is that coming with the uh

01:12:27.560 --> 01:12:34.200
 will that be part of the that is a comprehensive solid waste management strategy and that may be

01:12:34.200 --> 01:12:38.920
 something in concluding items we can ask for him to come back and talk to us about because I think

01:12:38.920 --> 01:12:49.960
 we have a lot of solid wastey questions yeah good thank you all right good thank you so much

01:12:50.760 --> 01:12:59.800
 we will move on to D staff reports anybody have any questions on on the staff reports

01:12:59.800 --> 01:13:05.320
 there were some really good ones in there lots of information I just wanted to

01:13:05.320 --> 01:13:12.760
 I had a couple of questions about if you have anyone else yeah I have some questions

01:13:14.120 --> 01:13:22.040
 Adam go ahead okay so on the climate action plan I see that scheduled to come before council on

01:13:22.040 --> 01:13:31.080
 july 26 yes and I'm wondering if it's appropriate for this committee as a body or individual members

01:13:31.080 --> 01:13:39.320
 to reach out to city council members or the public at large in an effort to help with this

01:13:39.320 --> 01:13:45.720
 or is that not appropriate if it is appropriate do we have like talking points that I have the same

01:13:45.720 --> 01:13:49.960
 I have the same question and I'm wondering if we needed to like come up with some kind of like

01:13:49.960 --> 01:13:55.640
 letter signed by the committee like asking them to approve I don't I don't know maybe that's a

01:13:55.640 --> 01:14:01.240
 city attorney question if we're allowed to do that or if if you think it's even needed at this point

01:14:01.240 --> 01:14:08.600
 is there something we can do I'll take that a little bit okay to summarize Michael Gagne,

01:14:08.600 --> 01:14:14.600
 director of environmental services sustainability since the work plan went before council and council

01:14:14.600 --> 01:14:18.840
 recommended we go forward with the climate action plan as part of that work plan there's probably

01:14:18.840 --> 01:14:23.640
 nothing additional you need to do at this point they're very clear and aware of y'all support for

01:14:23.640 --> 01:14:28.120
 that but if you wanted to reach out or let people know that's coming up for action that would not be

01:14:28.120 --> 01:14:33.720
 a bad thing but that's just the first step to award that contract then once we start doing the

01:14:33.720 --> 01:14:39.000
 work and getting into that overall climate action plan where we'll need more and more community input

01:14:39.000 --> 01:14:46.200
 and support to build that plan to then bring it back to council next year for adoption of the actual

01:14:46.200 --> 01:14:51.160
 plan just to get the contract in place is just one step that's all it's going to happen in July

01:14:51.160 --> 01:14:56.680
 just actually get a vendor on board they will be voting at this meeting they will they will take

01:14:56.680 --> 01:15:03.240
 action to possibly award that contract to that vendor to start that process okay

01:15:03.880 --> 01:15:11.240
 are you at liberty to tell us who the person the company will not yet we're still finalizing all

01:15:11.240 --> 01:15:16.440
 contract negotiations to make that happen once that can be public we'll make sure you're aware

01:15:16.440 --> 01:15:22.280
 of who that will be that'd be great thank you did anyone else have questions on any of these

01:15:22.280 --> 01:15:27.240
 three stop reports before we talk about the matrix

01:15:34.200 --> 01:15:38.440
 yes i had a question about the gas well unplugging okay and go ahead

01:15:38.440 --> 01:15:46.200
 i was just curious the last time when we had the presentation from modern geosciences

01:15:46.200 --> 01:15:54.120
 at the end of it dr tram said that he would take the numbers leak numbers to his engineers

01:15:54.120 --> 01:16:02.440
 saying that they could give us a ballpark figure of the amount of methane that was leaking

01:16:02.440 --> 01:16:08.680
 or it had leaked out of out of the out of the wells and i just wondered if there's been any

01:16:08.680 --> 01:16:12.680
 development from dr tramp in regards to that

01:16:12.680 --> 01:16:21.880
 michael again no there has not been any development that from talking with modern

01:16:21.880 --> 01:16:27.480
 geosciences they do have information on what the leaks are right that leak information says

01:16:27.480 --> 01:16:31.800
 what was happening then it doesn't actually have a rate associated with it so one of the

01:16:31.800 --> 01:16:36.920
 challenges to build that as far as how much methane is they might not have the flow

01:16:36.920 --> 01:16:42.600
 of the leak they know where it was so they said they would look at that that's one thing they're

01:16:42.600 --> 01:16:47.080
 interested in doing trying to follow back up with dr tram as well to see where they stand on that

01:16:47.080 --> 01:16:54.120
 information provided to us okay that'd be great follow-up thank you just on this i wanted to thank

01:16:54.120 --> 01:17:02.600
 you for this uh data and seeing that 32 wells have been plugged since 2015 um that that's pretty

01:17:02.600 --> 01:17:09.640
 significant i mean not i mean in relation to the total amount but that's it's pretty good amount

01:17:09.640 --> 01:17:14.920
 that has been plugged so thank you for that could could you just remind us again what what are the

01:17:14.920 --> 01:17:22.600
 current regulations about what happens above ground or around those plug wells is there

01:17:22.600 --> 01:17:28.120
 i mean is there any restrictions or is it just like we can now put a house on top of it i'm

01:17:28.120 --> 01:17:34.760
 gonna say here just with this was just the amount of wells that it's not an item for discussion it's

01:17:34.760 --> 01:17:44.760
 just a staff report that in the items coming up you can ask for a gas well presentation okay like

01:17:44.760 --> 01:17:56.520
 the well presentation or just another staff report on that issue i think is that can i ask a couple

01:17:56.520 --> 01:18:02.520
 of them yeah let's go see what adam adam and then we'll come back to you ed all right uh a comment it

01:18:02.520 --> 01:18:07.320
 was interesting on the map that a lot of those look like they're not bar net shale wells i would

01:18:07.320 --> 01:18:13.080
 guess they may be really old wells off the shale but i'm not sure but my question is on the solar

01:18:13.080 --> 01:18:18.920
 generation that was interesting but there's it's interesting how literally they took the uh the

01:18:18.920 --> 01:18:24.520
 quest they gave us two numbers that i don't have any context to understand those numbers so i don't

01:18:24.520 --> 01:18:33.800
 know so 3.8 million kilowatt hours sounds like a lot but do we have any sense of percentage wise

01:18:33.800 --> 01:18:39.480
 what is that like you know the average person might look at this and say oh our city is entirely run

01:18:39.480 --> 01:18:45.720
 by people's rooftops but maybe it's like three trillion kilowatt hours and this is like a drop

01:18:45.720 --> 01:18:51.000
 in the bucket i just don't know if it does anybody know yeah how to read these numbers i thought that

01:18:51.000 --> 01:18:56.280
 was interesting too especially compared to the amount of generation that was installed how much

01:18:56.280 --> 01:19:03.720
 more percentage we're getting off of those well the installed is kilowatts and this is kilowatt

01:19:03.720 --> 01:19:10.040
 hours so that's like so that much i think i can kind of understand but i don't know i just i guess

01:19:10.040 --> 01:19:19.080
 i wonder how many kilowatt hours total in that time period did we there's no context so if we

01:19:19.080 --> 01:19:30.520
 could just have more clarification yeah just to help us understand what that data is me okay

01:19:34.120 --> 01:19:41.480
 and then i guess ed go ahead i'd like to know what the status of the greenhouse gas inventory is

01:19:41.480 --> 01:19:47.480
 so is that on our matrix i don't i don't think so i

01:19:47.480 --> 01:19:55.320
 at last i heard they it was said it was coming out in june or july that was just a

01:19:56.920 --> 01:20:04.040
 communication and i just wondered how close we are now did you have anything on the stack reports

01:20:04.040 --> 01:20:09.960
 are you going to move to the matrix matrix okay all right so we'll move on to the matrix and ask

01:20:09.960 --> 01:20:20.520
 do you have anything about the greenhouse gas the 20 2020 you want to come on up yeah

01:20:24.920 --> 01:20:27.080
 because i think it's listed in the matrix but

01:20:27.080 --> 01:20:33.320
 community members james divas conservation programs coordinator so we got an updated

01:20:33.320 --> 01:20:39.400
 timeline on the regional greenhouse gas inventory and so they will be having all of the final data

01:20:39.400 --> 01:20:44.520
 to us in july what we are waiting for is the off-road transportation data specifically

01:20:44.520 --> 01:20:49.000
 once we get that we will start pulling all of those numbers together and get the report

01:20:49.880 --> 01:20:56.920
 completed for the 2019 updated version as soon as possible for the regional inventory they are

01:20:56.920 --> 01:21:03.160
 looking at a timeline of december for that for collecting all of the data right december december

01:21:03.160 --> 01:21:10.120
 for the for the regional publication so that is what i have on that and then you plan to bring that

01:21:10.120 --> 01:21:20.760
 back to to this body yes okay thank you i have something else okay go ahead uh in the dallas

01:21:20.760 --> 01:21:26.920
 morning news on june 26 there was a really interesting article about the current drought

01:21:26.920 --> 01:21:36.520
 in the state and if i may read a short paragraph here it says the most recent plan of the texas

01:21:36.520 --> 01:21:42.280
 water development board is simply laughable despite all the evidence to the contrary the agency is

01:21:42.280 --> 01:21:48.920
 planning for a 1950s precedent to be the worst case and it doesn't mention two words that are

01:21:48.920 --> 01:21:59.400
 verboten in austin which is climate change the agency says publicly it doesn't even model

01:21:59.400 --> 01:22:08.120
 climate change and then though some municipal water authorities quietly do so i would like to know if

01:22:08.120 --> 01:22:11.800
 our water folks

01:22:11.800 --> 01:22:21.240
 are taking climate change and of course growth into consideration and what sort of plan they have

01:22:23.480 --> 01:22:30.120
 else out to 2050 or whatever whatever the time frame is just to know how how dentin is going to

01:22:30.120 --> 01:22:41.320
 deal with water issues in the next decades okay let me make sure that i have this correct for the

01:22:41.320 --> 01:22:46.920
 matrix so we're going to ask the water department if they're factoring climate change and growth

01:22:46.920 --> 01:22:54.360
 into any of their modeling um out to 2050 yeah i guess i can't hear you that clearly

01:22:54.360 --> 01:23:00.680
 uh modeling the for climate change climate change out did they basically have their own

01:23:00.680 --> 01:23:09.560
 climate action plan for dealing with with the impacts of drought and growth within up you know

01:23:09.560 --> 01:23:16.120
 within 2050 i remember dr banks giving a presentation on that but it's probably

01:23:16.120 --> 01:23:19.800
 changed so maybe we can have that good back today in a different presentation

01:23:19.800 --> 01:23:28.840
 all right yeah so i guess we will close the matrix and go to concluding items does anybody

01:23:28.840 --> 01:23:35.080
 have any concluding items you want to add here i mean i see that on the matrix it says

01:23:35.080 --> 01:23:41.160
 policies and procedures post-production for pad sites and well heads okay so it just seems like

01:23:41.800 --> 01:23:48.360
 adding you know well heads and plug well heads could we get that added to that section would be

01:23:48.360 --> 01:23:53.960
 great thank you thanks anybody else

01:23:53.960 --> 01:23:57.720
 you're good

01:24:03.960 --> 01:24:13.160
 everybody okay all right we will conclude the meeting at 2 24 today thank you everyone

01:24:13.160 --> 01:24:15.880
 for your time i appreciate it