02-27-19 Joint Health and Public Safety and Utilities

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•CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK well. I also want to point out the map here shows the concentration of solar in the area now and there is a link to a map sirensolar.org, and if you go to map you can track the changes in the solar projects in the region. It's pretty remarkable. You can see the two (2) red dots on the map. South Bend and Goshen really stand out there. Here's a little bit about what Goshen has been up to. Ms. Thill continued, I should mention, as well, that South Bend got to the bronze level of designation if I didn't say that already and is continuing to work on solar related issues.The whole goal of the program is to make it easier, faster and cheaper for people to go solar so it is bringing solar to the general public and making it more accessible. That happens through a variety of things including working on zoning code,permitting,and making sure that the Fire Department is trained. The photo you saw on the last slide was working with the City of Goshen Fire Department so that they were trained to safely respond to a fire in the event that it would involve solar panels. She showed a video presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office. Ms. Thill went on, So, that also captures what South Bend has been working on since 2017, and South Bend participated in Solarize Northern Indiana as well. There were about twenty-four(24) projects in this area. Sixteen(16)in South Bend resulted from that initiative. That was driven by a steering committee of volunteer members, several of whom are in this room today. We're grateful for their contribution to make that a success. The last item that I'm going to talk about is related to water, and that's the St. Joseph River Basin Commission. The River Basin Director is actually a staff member of MACOG and wanted me to provide some comments. For those of you who are not familiar with the St. Joseph River Basin Commission,the watershed is shown on the map, and the commission that he is the director of focuses on the whole watershed. But,the Indiana counties are the ones that provide the funding for the commission. It was established in 1988, so, it's been around for a while. Last year in the Indiana General Assembly, the scope was increased to include flooding and water quantity issues in addition to focusing on water quality. So, that's definitely something to note when we think about preparing for increases in water in the future. Its also important to note the importance of the regional scale and the watershed scale because we are mostly all downstream of somebody, and we're probably upstream of somebody else. That's why it is important to collaborate on that. I want to highlight a few things that are happening upstream of South Bend that make it easier for South Bend to accommodate those changes. One(1)of those changes is the permeable pavers, which helps with recharging the water into the ground water instead of sending it into the combined sewers. In rural areas upstream, there are efforts that are being led by the soil and water conservation districts to work with private land owners to improve soil health on agricultural lands. Best management practices, like no till and cover crops, actually have benefits for the farmers through increased profitability and increased drought and pest tolerance as well as lowering input costs like fertilizer. At the same time, it reduces the amount of water that must be managed in county drains and that ultimately makes its way down to us in South Bend. I also wanted to highlight research being conducted by the University of Notre Dame in Kosciusko County, which is where the City of Warsaw is located to our south. They have shown a dramatic reduction in pollution and an overall amount of water that makes its way to the county drains when these management practices are implemented on a larger scale. Other areas upstream, Kosciusko, Steuben and Elkhart Counties have been utilizing something called a two (2) stage ditch, and the benefits of that are pollution reduction, flood mitigation and lower maintenance costs. One (1) last innovative pilot example, in Lagrange County they're experimenting with a drain maintenance funding strategy that creates a financial incentive through ditch tax reduction for private land owners who use and manage their land in ways that benefit the system as a whole EXCELLENCE j ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 8