Cass County Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, we're going to go ahead and call the July 29, 2026, 12 o'clock commission meeting in order. Roll call, please, Kathy.

Bob Houston. Present. Jeff Fletcher. Mike Moreland. Present.

Please rise for the pledge. I need a motion to accept the agenda as presented. So moved. I'll second that. All in favor? Two votes for, zero against. I need a motion to approve the commission meeting minutes from July 22nd, 2026. So moved. I'll second that. All in favor? Two votes for, zero against. Approval of the work session minutes from July 21st, 2026 on historic courtroom updates and July 22nd, 2026. Opioid settlement funds and employment retirement. I need a motion. So moved. I'll second that. All in favor? Two votes for. They're against presentation of the stormwater management plan and the public input pertaining to the coverage under Missouri Department of Natural Resources General Permit MOR04C. Need a motion? So moved. Christina, would you like to do a presentation?

Sure. Okay, so for those I haven't met before, I'm Christina Lubert. I've been working in the civil engineering field for 31 and some change years and have specifically specialized in stormwater clean water compliance regulations for the last two decades or so. Cass County is required to apply for coverage under the new municipal separate storm sewer system permit 180 days in advance of that permit issuance. The current permit expires September 30th. and the new permit is expected to be issued on October 1st. This means the application was supposed to go to the Department of Natural Resources on or before April 3rd. However, with delays that were following the 2025 audit of the program and an attempt to get a waiver of those requirements, we were delayed and our application for coverage under that permit will go in by September 1st. The permit received a major overhaul in 2020 and had very minimal changes in this next five year permit cycle. So the regulations as they stand today are going to be very, almost identical to what they will be after October 1st. As part of our application, we're required to hold a public meeting to accept any comments on our renewal application and proposed stormwater program plan, as well as hold a public comment period of at least 30 days. The public notice for this permit renewal meeting was posted on June 25th on the county website. which indicated that the entire renewal application could be viewed on the website. The Commission and the public should keep in mind that most of the program plan is based on comprehensive, prescriptive requirements in the proposed permit language. If anyone is here to speak on the matter, we would like to hear their comments.

At this time, we'll open the public comment portion. Anyone like to speak? Seeing none, we're going to close the public comment portion. Thank you, Christina.

Okay, we will also be accepting public comments submitted to Valerie McCoven after this meeting for the next 30 days. So we're opening that 30-day comment period that we're required to have. Upon completion of the public comment period, we'll be prepared and we will submit the final permit renewal application to MDNR by September 1st. So we've already found a couple minor errors. I had some some outfalls that were in areas that were that are within one of the other jurisdictions. So we're going to get those minor things corrected. And it's also not the final plan. We're still evolving the final plan, but just kind of wanting to let people know that it's not a static document that will be As we figure out what works for the county, we'll continue to massage that. Both the existing and the proposed permits also require that the county commission be given a status update on the MS4 program annually. We recently completed our annual report on the 2025 permit compliance. Again, because of delays following the audit and the unsuccessful waiver request, this report was due the end of February but was submitted June 29th. I've begun rewriting the stormwater management plan that is required as part of that permit compliance based on the rough outline that is included with the permit renewal application. And I'll work to finalize that this fall ahead of when the new permit becomes active. The program also requires that the county conduct outreach and education on the prevention of nonpoint source pollution. from contamination of stormwater runoff. One of the selected best management practices from the permit was to post stormwater education information on the county website. Content was assembled and posted at the end of June on the codes page to meet this requirement. We have also begun developing a flyer that will be included with future building permits to help educate builders and contractors on proper construction runoff control. We're looking into options for meeting the other public education requirements at this time. We're considering using quarterly social media posts and possibly joining the MARC Water Quality Committee. We're still looking into how much that costs. We're reviewing what Missouri stream teams are active in the area, and there are some especially up in that urban area, to see if we can potentially approach them to partner on some of the public involvement activities that we're required to do. The county doesn't actually have to host those activities. They can provide support to those activities either through disposal of, you know, if they do a stream cleanup, we would provide the disposal of the waste they collect or something like that. So there's different ways to do it without necessarily the county having to be 100% in charge of it. The program also requires the development of an illicit discharge detection and elimination program. This is looking for anything that is not stormwater that is going into stormwater conveyances, whether that's road ditches, pipes, inlets, etc. And it requires mapping of outfalls within the MS4 area. We have begun reviewing the topographic information, the stream locations, and the urban area boundaries in the northwest part of the county where the MS4 regulations apply. We've also drafted the required illicit discharge ordinance and are presenting that today after this for adoption. There's numerous other tasks that need to be completed in that category, but those are the ones we've tackled so far since May, whenever, when the contract was issued. The program also requires the development of both the construction site runoff control and post-construction runoff control program. The majority of the development that your inspectors deal with are either outside of the MS4 regulated area or are land disturbances under an acre, which are not required to have land disturbance permits and MS4 regulations on them. However, your inspection staff works diligently to address any track off or other sediment discharge from construction as a matter of good practice. We will be working to determine what regulations may need to be reviewed, modified, or added to meet the MS4 requirements in the coming year. The program also requires a good housekeeping and municipal operations program that includes training of all public works maintenance staff on how to prevent and reduce non-point source pollution as they carry out their county maintenance duties. It also requires that we train them on spotting and reporting illicit discharges. We'll be setting up a time to do some of that training later this year. And we will also be doing inspections of the maintenance facilities as required under the permit. Those have to be done annually. And it's just mostly looking for anything on the lay down yards and the storage and maintenance facilities that could lead to pollution. So we'll look at things like how their waste oil is handled, how fuel is handled, any other chemicals, pesticides, herbicides. So that is the quick and dirty of it. I'm happy to answer any questions about the program because I know this is kind of been dumped on you in recent months, so I didn't want to go into too much detail, but I wanted to kind of give you the general overview of where we're at with the program. Really just trying to get our arms around what needs to be done to get us back into compliance. DNR's kind of been hassling us about a compliance agreement, but instead I've just kind of been pushing forward with getting some of the low-hanging fruit picked and making progress.

Thank you, Christina. Jeff, do you have any questions? Good sweeping reading. Anything else, Christine, you'd like to add to that?

No, we can move on to the adoption of the ordinance, if that's...

Thank you very much, Christine. I appreciate that. All right, Cass County Codes and Zoning Department Ordinance Number 26-07, an ordinance amending the Cass County Code by enacting a new chapter 411, illicit discharge detection and elimination, and incorporating the same by reference as exhibit A. I need a motion. So moved. I'll second that. Valerie, do you have any comment on that, or Christina?

Basically, we used the federal model ordinance for illicit discharge. It was a little bit out of date, so there were some things that were edited to bring it up to snuff. And then we ran that through legal, and he had a few other minor changes, and then We sent it to DNR. They blessed off on it that this would meet the requirements within the permit. And it basically is just saying it's illegal to put anything other than stormwater into stormwater conveyances, which should be understandable, but... It's making it explicit and creating an enforcement mechanism that if somebody is found dumping waste into the storm sewer system or the road ditches or anything like that that is owned and operated by the county, then there's a legal mechanism to go after them for that.

Okay. Thank you very much. Valerie, do you have anything to add to that? No, she covered it all. Any further questions? No, thank you. All in favor of ordinance number 26-07? Two votes for, zero against. Ordinance 26-07 passes. Thank you very much, and I appreciate that. At this time, we're going to open the podium for any public comment. Seeing none, we're going to close the public comment portion of the meeting. Commissioner communications. Seeing none, we are going to go into executive session under RSMO 610.021.1 legal. RSMO 610.021.2, real estate, and RSMO 610.021.12, contract negotiations. After we come back from the executive session, we will dismiss the general session. Need a motion? So moved. I'll second that. Roll call, please. Kathy?

Bob Houston? Yes. Jeff Fletcher? Yes.