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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJune 3ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Date: June 3, 2021 ●Attendees: Vrinda, Steve, Stan, Anand, Aileen, Pat, Peter, Jolie, April, Jay Shideler ●Guests: ○Terry Oldberg: Scientist, policy research, and LAH resident ■Model used by the UN for climate change is seriously flawed. ■Falsification of a unit of measure.... "the law of the excluded middle" ■Steve asked what the impact of fixing it would be on climate projections... Terry said it would be huge. ■Stan asked if we could get it in writing. ■Peter: Same argument from 2013? Yes. Terry discovered it 15 years ago. ■Jay Shideler: He reviewed the paper and sent him comments. ■Terry: We definitely have global warming... somewhat of a trend toward higher temperature. ■Vrinda will provide text and include it in minutes. ○Katelyn Lewis (Director of Sustainability and Strategy) & Emma Rasmussan (Sustainability and Communications Analyst) from GreenWaste: Los Altos Hills & SB 1383 ■Response to SB 1383: Short-lived pollutants bill. ■Methane from landfills' organisms make up 20% of the state's methane emissions. Organic waste is 50% of the landfill material. Goal: reduce organic waste disposal by 75% from 2014 to 2025. ●New requirements for diversion and procurement starting 1/1/2022. Creating markets as well. GW is already compliant for LAH both on collection side and processing side..This presentation is not about rescuing or recovery of edible foods. ■Organic mulch available! Plus soil amendments... electric generation from anaerobic digester.... renewable diesel! ■GW is recovering 75% the organic waste of the mixed compostable streams through its hgh diversion facility and for the yard trimmings upto 98% of the stream is recovered. Recyclables are not covered by 1383 but the recovery rate of recyclables is 85%. ■LAH provides material or high grade farm compost as well as landscape compost ■1383 will not affect the collection and processing, but will increase reporting ■Processing of organic material recovered (>400 tons in 2020) is done by Zbest (Gilroy) and the ZWED (the anaerobic digester, SJ) ■They are focusing on clean recyclables, so need our help to make sure clean recyclables are in the blue bin and hazardous waste is not in those bins. ■Using renewable diesel, route optimization, solar panels on facilities. Work with partners that help in recycling plastics and other recyclables. Use AI to get high diverging rates ■Jay: Need to get the word out about all the good things GW is doing ■Katelyn: You know your community and the channels to reach your community. Look forward to guidance from you ■Stan: What about the higher bills? And what about manure? What can the town do to help residents with really high bills? ■Katelyn: dealt with this issue at a great length and we are open to for more. ■Steve: Renewable diesel was a huge impact! Anaerobic digester... to SVCE? I've used compost and soil amendments and crushed bricks. ■Peter: High price for manure is killing off horses in LAH... there was a guy in Woodside who made "gourmet compost". $800 for 3 months, now $200/3 months. How is recycling going? Upto 85% is being recycled. LAH material is very clean. ○Jay: Dramatic jump in cost in the 2019 contract. ■Did greenwaste meet the 50% diversion rate goal? GW: Yes! Jay: Publicize this. ■April: Inserts in the bill are the way to communicate--less coloring for kids and more data and info about what can and cannot be recycled. ■Peter: customized content on the GW-LAH page. ■Stan: GW making too much margin...? ■Steve: Prices have gone up! ●Steve: LAH plan for $250k resiliency grant ○Opportunity was in October; Cody created a proposal; Goal is to allow town's PV system to charge a big new battery that will support the main systems for at least 12 hours.Funds need to be spent by Oct. 31. ○Jolie: Is this a microgrid? Steve: The battery will offset some of the TOU energy requirements and will be a backup in time of emergencies. Peter: Yes. ○Jay: Is the town hall solar producing at good capacity? Steve: Yes! ●Peter on Undergrounding update ○$254,462 contract for Icebreaker project... assessment district (?) for design of the civil and design for utilities--will issue bid packages to utilities and support during construction phase. ○This contract is only for engineering and not for construction. ○The company is looking at this project as a civil engineering project--trenching and trenching design, what utilities, any interference from water & sewer etc. arrive at a joint trench plan, the vaults, the conduit, the connections ○Utilities will be designing and laying the wires...? Or put out to bid...? Not clear. ○Assessment district for this project? ○Form B --calculate the costs and assign costs and responsibilities to individual entities ○Once the plan is done they will put the the plan out to bid ○They support project during construction. ○Project to be completed but June 2023 ○Peter: Town should turnkey the entire project and only get a sign off from the utilities will be cheaper and faster. The cost estimate will be known when they come to 65% of the joint trench plan. ○Steve: Palo Alto is paying $90 a ft. We paid when we contracted out everything $130/ft. This could be $1000/foot... too expensive. ○May reduce town support for a town-wide project. ○Steve: 50% off credits that George was pursuing (from other cities) may not be available. ○Ocean Liner project: $128k.. analysis by the end of the year. Make feasibility assessment; ID possible improvements; create the maps of the overhead and underground. Creating additional capacity is not included in the scope. They will do a cost benefit analysis, identify funding mechanisms, political viability--series of reports. Will people be comfortable with cost estimates that come from this. There is no design. ○ 30% report due when...? No idea. Paid monthly. Due at the end of the year. There are no milestones for either one of these contracts. We have done mapping before--twice. We know how many miles etc. Town has access to it but it is a small part of the total budget. ○Stan: Can we work with George.. Peter: It is his thing and he is working with the staff. ○Peter: Macro questions: ■Who should have what roles--in large expensive undergrounding project. Should the utilities have such a prominent role ■If we are going to double or triple the capacity by electrifying the whole town should it be like for like replacement or should we build the system for next hundred years ○Vrinda: Oversight? ○Stan: This City Council is committed to undergrounding ○Discussion that a committee should own this, not just George, to provide oversight. ●Jolie: Should we have a subcommittee on water? ○Peter: Purissima Water district does not have a conservation coordinator. Not doing much in terms of conservation programs. Water use is creeping up. Track LAH water use over the past 10-15 years, find variations, figure out what worked during the drought. We adopted water efficient landscape designs a few years ago-did it work? What is the future for LAH for water use? ○Peter will help tracking down the data. The data will come from the district but Town has access to that billing data. Water district does not have the people and the town does not have the bandwidth. ●CAP subcommittee ○Vrinda suggested we may need help from EIC committee members (Jolie?) on several items from the CAP subcommittee ○We will present and update at the next meeting. Text of the statement to the LAH Environmental Initiatives Committee by Terry Oldberg I am a scientist, public policy researcher and resident of Los Altos Hills. In policy research I have conducted I have learned that the United Nations climate models are seriously flawed. Consequently, runs of these models provide a would-be regulator of Earth’s climate system with nil information gain about the outcomes of the events of the future for this system, given the outcomes of the events of the present, precluding effectual regulation by a would-be regulator of this system. Currently the town of Los Altos Hills attempts to regulate Earth’s climate system by placing curbs on emissions of carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere though to regulate Earth’s climate system under nil information gain is logically and scientifically impossible. In scientific research that I have conducted I have found the cause of the nil information gain and have published this finding in the scientific literature. The cause is violation of the Law of the Excluded Middle by the argument that is made by each of the United Nations climate models; the Law of the Excluded Middle is among Aristotle’s three Laws of Thought. Consequently, the axiom of probability theory called “unit measure” is falsified by the argument that is made by each of these models. In the argument that is made by each of the United Nations climate models, the fact that “unit measure” is falsified is obscured by attachment of unusual meanings to statistical terms, one of which is the word “probability.” As it falsifies “unit measure,” this so-called “probability” is not actually a probability. That falsification of “unit measure” is obscured in this manner appears to have been the reason for enactment into law of logically and scientifically unsupported policies by many governments. Among these governments is the government of Los Altos Hills. A question that may have arisen in your minds is of how I know that the Law of the Excluded Middle is falsified by the argument that is made by the United Nations climate models. A short answer to this question is that I have constructed a mathematical proof of the contention that the Law of the Excluded Middle is violated by this argument. To provide you with this proof so you can subject it to critical examination by yourselves or by your advisors is a task that I will complete for you at your request and without charge Now I’d be pleased to take your questions, if you have any.