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And let's bring the village board meeting to order.
July 27th, 2026.
It's about 603 in the evening.
And we need a roll call of members present.
Harris?
Here.
Anastasio?
Here.
Washburn?
Here.
Batia?
Here.
So the next item is a Pledge of Allegiance. Please join us.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
So I'm pleased to welcome Kristi Euser. She's with the River Watershed, Rip Pike Wind, and she has a presentation that she wants to update us with.
All right. Hello everybody. My name is Kristi, and I work with Rip Pike Wind. I'm here today because, well, if you don't know Rip Pike Wind, we're a local 501c3 nonprofit that focuses on water quality in the region.
And we are your respect our waters. You're part of our respect our waters program. So that is essentially the DNR has a stormwater permit.
There is a small section that says to do public education outreach, and I am lucky enough to be the person that gets to do the education and outreach for Mount Pleasant and other municipalities.
And working with the DNR, with all our municipalities that have the River Watershed in them, so you guys are lucky, you get the Pike and the Root.
But specifically for our River Munis, I'm going around and doing this brief presentation just to explain kind of what the respect our waters is, what I'm out teaching the citizens, the basics of the issues with the River.
And then what you can focus on as elected officials, since you guys are such a huge part, a huge piece of the puzzle.
So if I haven't met you out and about at different events before, this is a brief overview of a few different displays that we bring around.
So first is the stormwater space experience. This is all focusing on infiltrating stormwater using native plants.
And the kids are the little rain clouds and they blast the water blasters, and we talk about what happens when the water goes down the sewer and all the different pollutants that it picks up.
Versus going on lawn with shallow root systems versus our deep rooted native plants.
And this is a great one for kids and adults alike to see how important it is to have these native plants in the landscape because they act like a sponge and really soak up that stormwater.
Another requirement is actually talking about pet waste and E. coli bacteria.
So we have a pet waste display where people are using pooper scoopers and we're training the kids how to be better because though it seems silly, it is actually a very big issue.
And E. coli bacteria, it is what's closing your beaches downstream.
So this is a great way to get people hands on and involved and it's a memorable one and kids and adults like it.
Then we have the watershed model which gives a great overview of all the different pollutants which I'll touch on shortly.
I love bringing this one to different schools and showing the kids that what happens when I put all these different sprinkles out of the pollutants on the landscape and the water washes across.
And we see our beautiful rivers and lake fill up with junk which is what's happening in real life.
And then the new addition is the salt display.
So chloride levels are rising in all of our rivers and lakes across the state coming from the DNR.
So this one is continually being added to.
The more I get out and about and people ask me questions continue to add to the salt display but chloride contamination is a big issue as well.
And then getting to the root pike basin down here.
So unfortunately of all of these watersheds that are all classified as impaired and that's coming from the EPA and their 303D impaired waters list.
So you can see how large of an area the root river watershed is.
That's all the yellow on here and how many people have the power to make a positive impact on the root river.
And the different issues of why the root river is landed on the 303D impaired waters list along with the pike river as well is going to be excess phosphorus which is causing your algae blooms.
So this is coming from grass clippings and leaves and fertilizer use and to some extent we just have a lot of natural phosphorus down in this area that loves to stick to soil or sediment.
And sediment is going to be your next big polluter and you can kind of see that looks like pond looks like chocolate milk and that is not what our river systems should look like.
So sediment is coming from possibly construction sites that aren't following the rules.
It could be coming from agriculture and then just general stream bank erosion.
So there's a lot of energy when we get these big storms that comes rushing through our rivers and knocks that sediment down into the water which we do not want.
As I mentioned chlorides are a big issue.
So when I see salt like that that really stresses me out but I'm working with a lot of our Department of Public Works and then also just the citizens in general.
So everybody kind of has their piece in the puzzle with chloride reduction.
And then I already mentioned E. coli bacteria is another issue.
So it's coming from our pets.
It's coming from geese.
It could be coming from manure management.
So there's a lot of different sources.
But as someone who's out talking to the citizens I really like to focus on what they can control.
And then other issues that land the river on the impaired waters list is just degraded habitats and low dissolved oxygen.
So you can kind of see before and after.
This is perfect for here.
This is a great local example of the Lambert Creek.
Kind of what it looked like before versus after.
And this one isn't necessarily as much of a concern for everybody.
If you're not someone who's focused on ecosystem health and kind of those warm and fuzzy things.
But you can see when you do these river restorations.
I think you guys know better than most municipalities.
How much it enhances the community.
So kind of the quick overview of what you as elected officials can focus on.
So including more native landscaping in municipal owned spaces.
You already have native plants outside of your village hall which is wonderful.
But in any other parks that be a great space and private residents as well.
Encouraging residents to do their part to get these native plants in their landscape.
Because as you can see in that red box that's turf grass.
The roots are going about three to five inches under the ground versus our native plants are going six to 15 feet under the ground.
So they form this beautiful sponge and they really soak up that water.
And the more we can soak up the water where it lands.
The less it's going to rush into our rivers bringing all of those pollutants that I talked about.
And then this looks familiar probably for most of you.
A few years back we developed a stormwater pond playbook.
And I know I came in and did a midi presentation at some point on this.
But if you would ever like another copy I would love to send it to you.
But essentially we went through these different solutions of how we can improve our stormwater pond design.
Not just from a water quality and an ecosystem perspective but from a cost perspective.
So when you're getting them installed and then you're maintaining them long term.
How can we make it cheaper but also better for our environment.
And looking at these stormwater pond designs as developments come through your pass through your desk and you have to look at the stormwater management plans.
We'd like to get rid of more of your standard stormwater ponds that are just these circles with grass up to the edges and geese surrounding them.
Because that's just pumping the phosphorus, the sediment and the E. coli right into our watersheds.
In a perfect world if we could start with a low hanging fruit is just converting the pond buffers from the grass to native plants.
Because as you know they have those deep root systems we can catch more over land flow and we can really lock in those banks.
So we're not getting the wave action and the ice action just kind of knocking the sediment into the water.
And it can be really gorgeous when it's maintained properly.
Some alternatives to a stormwater pond would be the regenerative stormwater conveyance system.
So this is an example that was working with the DOT this is right on Green Bay and KR so right on the border.
And instead of doing a standard stormwater pond they put in the regenerative stormwater conveyance system which is really just like a series of rain gardens kind of hooked up in a line.
And instead of that water coming in and just being stored in your pond it's infiltrating back into the ground which is really important.
And it's beautiful because it just blends right into the landscape.
And you can see with a big storm event it fills up with water and then it disappears within a few days which is really great.
It can also be done on a much smaller scale.
So at UW Parkside they did an RSC just in their ditch lines.
So maybe you have an area here we're really focusing on slowing down chloride contamination was part of the big reason I'm putting this one in here.