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Environmental Board <br />July 30, 2025 <br />Page 3 <br />B.Storm Water Pond Pilot Program <br />City staff has received feedback from concerned residents regarding the aesthetic <br />quality of storm pond RLA-010-B located in Birchwood Acres Park. This pond treats <br />stormwater runoff.Fromnearly 70 properties located primarily on Hawthorn Road and <br />Lonesome Pine Trail in the Park Grove development. <br />Communication has gone back several years to deal with concerns of vegetation, smell, <br />and stormwater management. <br />Staff reported to the Environmental Board twice in spring of 2025 over the possibility of <br />allowing private treatment of city stormwater ponds. <br />Recommendation at the time was to not allow private treatments and look into other <br />opportunities and options and potential pilot projects. <br />Staff is looking for direction from the Environmental Board on recommendations for <br />potential stormwater treatment pilot program. <br />TomHoffman, Environmental Coordinator for the City, spoke about the history of this <br />action item. He saidthat they had a couple meetings this past spring talking about <br />potential treatments of storm water ponds owned and maintained by the City as part of <br />their MS4 system and doing a pilot program with chemical treatments, noting that there <br />were some mixed reviews on allowing chemical treatments. Mr. Hoffman wanted to <br />bring it back to the board to ensure there was interest in chemical treatments, and if <br />not, wanted to look at updating ordinance to include options like aerators, bio <br />engineering, filtration, etc. <br />Ms. Nelson noted that as a society, she thinks we have overdone chemicals when trying <br />to solve problems and that she would be in favor trying non-chemical methods in this <br />situation as well. <br />Mr. Schwartz said that he agrees with Ms. Nelson’s statement. He would like to try <br />alternativemethods first and if those methods fail, they can then have a future <br />discussion about chemicals. He noted that he, and others present,don’t possess the <br />knowledge on how that would impact the MS4 permit. If they were to begin <br />entertaining the idea of allowing residents to treat city-owned ponds with chemicals, he <br />would enlist the help of an engineering firm to show them blind spots and pitfalls of <br />such actions. <br />Ms. Buchmeier also agreed with the Board’s statements. She stated that more testing <br />and understanding should be done before we allow the introduction of chemicals. She <br />asked whetherprevious testing has been done on non-chemical treatments. <br />DRAFT MINUTES <br /> <br />