we updated the operating procedures for the citizen committee and it's now the Scottwater and Natural Resources Citizen Committee. Uh we did this partially because well actually the biggest reason why we did it is because it's a requirement of the watershed management plan that big 10-year plan

for official commissions conducting public business... have to be available to the public. It's a good rule and it is a good statute, but it can make it really ownorous for virtual meetings. Like you would have to tell people where your address is and where your houses and people could come to your house which makes it hard to have volunteers for citizen committees.

I'm fine without having a chair. I think the meetings run fine. um staff are doing a great job presenting the information and as long as I think we, you know, commissioners can uh voice their opinions on it or if they have one, I I think it's been working fine without it.

My motion would be we absolve ourselves of officers for 2026, but we will maintain the voting and the minutes and allow staff to run the meeting.

this plan is not just a document on the shelf. It's really our operational guide book for the next 10 years. So it coordinates cities, um, counties, our organization with other organizations and land owners, um, to manage our water under one unified strategy, we could say.

The state reviews our responses. So, if the state does not approve of our responses or does not feel that they are sufficient, then we would go back and actually reissue a secondary response.

our watershed management plan also becomes the county's comprehensive plan water resources chapter. So because the county board is also the WO board and the county comp plan has to have a watershed plan, a water resources plan itself, it just makes sense to not write two plants.

this is definitely a very citizen-driven plan. This identifies what our goals and issues are here in Scott County and within the WMO area of Scott County and what our priorities are.

this would be separate from our normal kashare program. Um and the idea would be behind it if there are townships and cities that are looking for funding on improving storm water BMPPS that this and they wouldn't be eligible for our normal cost share program um or any other grant funding that this could potentially fill that void.

to really be eligible, they have to kind of go above and beyond, um, you know, either standards or what currently is out there. that you know this has to be an improvement not just like a you know maintaining it.

I would love to see this make things happen that otherwise wouldn't happen. Meaning that, you know, I wouldn't want this to you know, something that was going to get funded anyway, gonna get funded by the city anyway. I I wouldn't want this just I don't know how to say this the right way. I just I wouldn't want this to just save them the money that they were going to otherwise spend. I'd rather see this accomplish something that, you know, but for this would not happen at all.

if we have a city that wants to do a storm water project to help reduce the amount of or prevent polluted water from going to a healthy lake, they're out of luck when it comes to funding really... So, this allows us to provide a little bit more support for what everybody has already agreed to are our most important issues here.

we're about 150 which you can see the cycles up and down through the season. It's pretty seasonal. Um and so the blue line is representing that number of total uh land owners are working with. The green line is the or the green bar represents the portion of those that are actually moving forward with a project.

The applicants wanted to uh redevelop a parcel on one of the lakes and some of the requirements for them to redevelop that parcel because it's a non-conforming lot. They can't meet the regular development requirements uh is to do a shoreline restoration or work within the shoreline to make that better

I think we're the envy of the state in terms of a kosha program with the amount of priority and resources the WO brings to the table and built on top of um a kosha program that we've been implementing since the 1980s.

Anecdotally, the MPCA is short staffed and does not do the inspections that they should or could... and these smaller ones that we might consider a priority, they they just don't have the time to address them and see them as a priority.

the determination was and we actually took it to um the chair vice chair meeting as well to get input. Um we are going to keep that property. uh for the foreseeable future.

Well, I'm I'm I'm excited to hear that. I think y'all developed and did so much with it just to sell it. It just didn't make sense to me.

The water level is very low. Um, I can tell you when I was on Cedar Lake last week, the water temperature on an 800 acre lake was 81°. So, McMahon Lake is only 160 acres. So, with the water level being very low and we had two full weeks of extremely warm weather, you know, 100 degree, the water temperature is probably really high. And when water is really warm, it doesn't hold as much dissolved oxygen for the fish to be able to breathe in that water.

we're seeing more extremes and so like you know five six years ago you would have been talking like 2019 you would have been like is it ever going to stop being this wet right... now we're the other extreme

We found from that is that um bar recommended with the data that they analyzed to continue the curly leaf treatments um to actually make sure that we're actively working to reduce carp because carp is now reproducing in the lake and kind of contributing to that internal phosphorus load. But also they recommended that cedar is ready for a phosphorus inactivation treatment or an alum treatment

if we leave it just up to the DNR, it's just going to go into like a DNR general fund and then that money goes anywhere in the state. if we want it to stay in the county then we have to step up and say we want it to go in the county but we have to provide some directive.

industrial commercial on septic. You're kidding me.