Friends of Lake Jesup

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:17 p.m. by Chairman Robert King.

Approval of Minutes of October 16, 2003: There were no changes to the minutes. Chairman King reported that in response to the October minutes sent via email, Jim Bourg responded and said he did not know he was supposed to pick up a copy of the suction study from the City of Winter Springs.

Mail and membership: Nothing reported.

Old Business:

1. Update on progress of Restoration Plan / Hydraulic Model - Pete Milam, USACOE: Mr. Milam was absent. Chairman King said he had attended a meeting in Jacksonville on Tuesday prior. He said the timeline had been pushed back again because USACOE was having trouble quantifying the improvement in habitat to the lake. He said water quality improvement is not enough, due to rule changes which require a higher level of explanation. He said the explanation needs to be explicit. He said the area to be quantified is only the area at the neck of the lake. He asked other agencies to help provide any information that might help. He said usually the project partner, in this case the WMD, is expected to supply the Corps with technical information.

   Chairman King said there has been no work done on the hydraulic model. He said the modeler is waiting on the habitat unit information. He said Mr. Milam has asked him to do some work without the habitat unit information.

   Chairman King said Congressman Feeney has asked for a progress report. He said Mr. Feeney would give him a report as soon as he heard from USACOE.

   Chairman King asked if these delays would affect FDOT's project. Scott Bear, CH2MHill, said they are waiting on information which will affect permitting and removing the causeway for mitigation credit.

   Barbara Bess, FDEP, asked if she could get a copy of the new guidelines from USACOE. Update of SR 46 Bridge Project - Scott Bear / Chuck Vreeland, FDOT: Mr. Bear said the geotechnical firm is still boring holes and the surveyors are caught up, so there will be lag time until the geotechnical firm finishes collecting its information.

2. Update of Muck Removal Project - Ed Hayes, FFWCC: Mr. Hayes gave an overview of all of the options he discussed with FDEP over the past month. He said no viable ideas emerged from the discussions.

   Chairman King said he had asked FDEP, WMD and FFWCC to agree on the amount of nutrients that would return to the lake, how long it would take and what that mean to the overall nutrient level in the lake. He said he did not think that determination was ever made and still needs to be done.

   Mr. Hayes said he had contacted soil scientists at the University of Florida to help him with that information

   Mr. Hayes said the remaining $12 million needs to be encumbered by January 15. He said to do that; he would have to contract a dredging company and would thereby be liable for at least $200,000. He said he has been told once the money is encumbered; it won't ever be taken away.

   Chairman King emphasized that his discussions with state legislators garnered intentions that funds would not be taken away from the Lake Jesup project.

   Barbara Bess, FDEP, said she agreed with Mr. Hayes summarization and that there is not a meeting of the minds. She said her boss, Vivian Garfein, feels that two primary issues are flood plain storage and water quality. Ms. Bess said Ms. Garfein believes the water quality issue can be resolved.

   Cecilia Height, Sierra Club, asked Seminole Soil & Water Conservation District representative if anything had been done by that agency with regard to the independent soil study. The representative the agency does not have funding established yet for that project.

   Chairman King asked the SSWCD representative to ascertain the importance of the project to the group and possibly some help might be found in getting funding for the "peer review" project.

   Chairman King gave an overview with discussions he has had with Seminole County Agricultural Extension to find someone to try to "peddle" the muck to agricultural concerns. He also discussed the land spreading proposal by Troy Deal, Aztec Development. He said he would get back in touch with Barbara Hughes at the ag center and ask her to contact Farm Bureau.

   Mr. Hayes reported that he has been assigned to another project and unless something substantial happens to the direction of the dredging project, he will not be attending the FLJ meeting for a couple of months.

   Ms. Bess said her husband is an environmental consultant and might be able to help with the USACOE quantification project.

4. In-basin mitigation tracking update: Ms. Bess had someone working on gathering all the 2003 applications and quantifying the results of the in-basin mitigation program. She distributed the results. Steve Rich has reviewed the results and said a good start has been made. He said the researcher needs to present ratios of the amounts of preservation acres, creation acres, etc. He said the study should also show wetlands versus uplands.

Reports of other members:

5. Seminole County Stormwater Projects - Bob Walter: Chairman King introduced Mr. Walter as the representative from Seminole County. Mr. Walter provided an update on the County stormwater projects:

   1. Regional Stormwater Center (Mellonville Avenue)
   2. Navy Canal Stormwater Center
   3. Cameron Avenue Stormwater Park on WMD land
   4. Solary Canal Stormwater Facility
   5. Howell Creek

New Business:

6. 2003/2004 Legislative Agenda: Chairman King reported that the Seminole County Legislative Delegation would hold a public hearing for area input on December 15 and he had secured a place on the agenda for the FLJ issues. He asked for input from the group about areas of concern. The group agreed that the most important item for Chairman King to bring before the delegation was protection of the dredging project funds.

Adjournment:

Chairman King said unless there were pressing matters for the group to discuss there would be no meeting in December. He said he would notice the group via email if the need for a meeting arises. The meeting was adjourned at 9:07 p.m.