Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Township of Sparta Environmental Commission meeting. We are live in the council chambers at the municipal building. Um the live stream is on YouTube.com at spartatwpstreams. Please take notice that action will be taken on the following items at the Sparta Environmental Commission meeting of Thursday, April 9th, 2026. The meeting is called to order at 7:07 p.m. Adequate notice of the meeting was provided to the public and the press on April 6th by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of the ordinance. We have a salute to the flag.

Pledge allegiance to the flag to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have the roll call. Whitney, that's not on the agenda here, but chair Neil Sourine here. Vice Chair Christine Rogers here. Christine Dumbar here. Barbara Casulka, Robert Otto, Alex Birdie here, Councilwoman Margie Murphy here, Nicholas Praau here.

Okay, first thing on the agenda is approval of minutes from March 26, 2026. One thing I missed, Courtney, is under trails committee. Um, uh, the second line, it's y o u n k e r s or yoners landing. That misspelling has been going around in a few places, but glad we're getting it corrected. At least the signs weren't misspelled.

Signs were writing. Sage fun. Okay. Okay.

Anyone have any corrections or or need more time? I'm just wondering if and and it's not a big deal, but maybe we should clarify and this is on page five under winter salt week engineering solutions that Christine Rogers was the person to make the recommendation to us all to view that um winter salt week and then I just carry carried forward a suggestion um that it could be helpful for the master plan, etc., etc. Anyone else?

We're good. I have a motion to approve the um March 26 minutes. I'll motion to approve the March um what was it? March 26 minutes. 2026. 2026 minutes. This is Chris. Uh can I have a second? I'll second. All in favor? I I I minutes are approved. Uh we have no correspondence. We have no applications and there's no one here from the public for comments and I can't vote because I was not here.

Right. Right. Right. So first um next item is reports. would like to go first. I think it's just I don't have anything to report from the planning board meeting. It was rather short. Um and um I will say that our regular meeting is being um postponed to a bit later in April and we're deciding on that date right now. Okay. Yeah. How about the trails committee?

Oh, the trails committee has been very busy. We had wonderful uh ribbon cutting ceremony up at Yonker's Landing and Tap into Desparta was there and we gave her the background information on the project and she took several photos. So hopefully we'll see some publicity from that. And our next trails committee meeting, I believe, is next Wednesday at 3:30. And we'll be working on the trail section on the Iron Horse Trail. And this would go from the Sunset in um to Demerest Road. And we're going to focus on that little section. I think it's about a mile or so. um in terms of getting um a county uh Sussex County trails grant to clear that section and perhaps put in some initial signage to get that trail started for us. And that trail runs all the way from Sunset in out to um well, one that you can the portion you can actually walk at this point um is you can walk from Sunset and it's still brushy and everything, but you can go all the way out to 94 at the Veterans Memorial um site.

And that's next Wednesday at 3:30. At 3:30. Yeah, today that just came up. I think that's going to be pretty sure that's going to be confirmed. Oh, okay. Because um Neil uh Clark said he could be there and he's the kind of the liaison and I think that Landon who is actually the chair of that committee who's away at college. He said he could attend. So it's a pretty for sure. So you'll be doing actual work. No, we're not going to do any work yet. We're gonna we have to write this grant and the grant deadline um we're on on target for it.

Uh it's uh later uh this month I believe or maybe it's in May remember but we're we're moving on this really well. Great. Getting together a budget and everything. Right. So you're are you meeting where are you meeting? Well I would think we're going to meet over right here at the municipal building. Yep. Where we usually meet. Thanks. Where I had a question, where is Junker's Landing? If you go out If you go out to uh continue on on Main Street towards Ogdensburg um just before the railroad tracks, right, there's that um left turn or right turn to the development up the hill.

Yes. Eagle's Nest. Yep. Yep. Eagles Nest. Yeah. You go up to the Oh, that parking lot up on the right hand side. Yes. Okay. Yep. Okay. Know where that is. I know it's called Yunker's Landing, but yeah, it's uh they just named it last year, I think, where they put the sign up. Yes. Yeah, we put the sign up. Actually, the recreation kudos to the recreation department for getting those signs in place for us because we needed them to Yeah.

for our our photo op. And um they they put them in uh the DPW that was organized and um so it's it's a graded uh it's a dirt gravel graded parking lot uh and it has quite a bit of a slope because that whole area is sloped and there's a little uh rim curb too you have to go over. I mean, I notice it because my car is low, but you probably wouldn't notice it if you had a bigger car. But it's there's ample parking there, and it uh leads into the Blue Trail uh in the Sparta Mountain Trail system.

It's a It's a nice trail. It's a nice walk up to the And if you don't, do you know who Jerry Yoners is? No. The Yoners family's been around here a very, very long time. His grandparents used to babysit us. and he worked here. He uh Jerry retired last year, I believe. And uh he did a lot of the uh the work around the lake, a lot of landscaping. He was in charge of he was pretty much in charge of all the landscaping and crew I think around the lake and as was his dad before him, I believe. But so they honored him with naming the trail after him. Nice.

Yeah, very nice people. Yep. And uh uh staying on that topic, we're I saw the email from Michelle about closing the grant. So, we need

getting closer and closer. We're closer to closing the grant. We need to have two events apparently. Um and we need to invite uh the uh sustainable Jersey and the PS and the PSC foundation. We need to invite them to these uh events um in which we would be showing our gratitude for their funding um for the trail signs and we are thinking that one of the events could be held perhaps at um Earth Day.

Um we could have a little table for the trails committee. We'll have to to see if we have the capacity for that next Wednesday at our at our meeting and confirm that with you Christine.

Um and then the other event would be we would love to host a a hike, a trail hike to go around the Yonkers from sign to sign and maybe extend it a little bit further like we were talking about out um by Sparta Mountain uh somewhere. Um, so that probably will need to be confirmed at this meeting also so we can get our publicity in place for that hike. And it would be great of course if you know school children could join us. that would be during the weekday or maybe it should just be on a Saturday so families can Saturday or Sunday so families can can come and maybe it could involve I'm just imagining this a picnic you know if the weather's nice to bring a little lunch or a snack um so

we'll we'll have to um we'll have to come in on the that date though we'll have to to decide that at the meeting Okay, great. What would this group prefer? I'm just curious in terms of if we had a hike, would you prefer it to be um you know late afternoon during a weekday maybe or on a weekend day? Anybody any thoughts about that? I think probably weekend would be that would probably be more accessible for most people. Yeah. So I know it's getting very busy in April though, isn't it? In terms of weekends, yeah,

everything going on. Yeah. So I'm thinking that when is Sparta Day? 20th May. Oh, Sparta Day. Sparta Day is at the end of May. Yeah. So that's out, right? That's that's a weekend that's out. Um and the week before would be Memorial Day, right? So that's out. And then there's Mother's Day weekend, right? But that might be a nice That might be a nice nice hike for moms. Yeah. Yeah. But does that give us I I mean, don't we have to have that grant closed out?

Wasn't didn't Isn't there a deadline for closing that grant? It's in April, which but I through the email that I was just sent, it seemed to be as long as we advertised it and invited them, it might be um acceptable. Sustainable Jersey Grant. Is this the sustainable Jersey the bat and the the two? No, the That's the other one that I put through as a resolution. Yes. This is an older one. Oh, the trail sign. Oh, trail signs for Yonkers Landing. We have one at the the bottom of uh Glenn Road where people usually hike up and park

and then the other one is actually at the Yonkers parking lot. Got it. Okay. All right. We'll work on closing that. Good. All right, Margie. anything to report from the council? Haven't No, not since we did the grant um with the resolution, but we haven't had a meeting through till next week. So, um nothing else. Okay. Report. Great. Thanks. Um

that we can talk that we can talk about, right? Okay. things are moving forward. Good. Um, that brings us to unfinished business. Uh, the first topic of which is Earth Day 2026.

Okay. It's getting close now. Okay. So, we're having our Earth Day event right here outside the town hall building on Saturday, April 25th from 11 to 3:00. Uh we have tons of environmental organizations who are going to be exhibiting. There's going to be a native plant sale going on. Oh.

Um that's with Blue Heron's Farm. Um and then there's games and crafts for kids, so it's advertised for the whole family. There's tons of things for people to do. We're going to have overflow parking across the street at the VFW. Um, the event is free, so there's no admission, but we ask that everyone bring a non-p perishable food item for the Sparta Community Food Pantry. And then we're really at the point now where we need to keep promoting it, tell everyone about the event, and we want to have as many people here as possible. Can we have some sort of graphic worked up for the native plant sale?

Yes. So, um, I talked to Erin and she said she confirmed she sent in all her paperwork. So, now she's going to get the plant list. So, we can do that so that it can be promoted. Yeah. That way we can And if you can keep sharing this on Facebook, maybe maybe do some more some more blasts or something. Facebook and they can get put it on the uh township website. Yes. Just gonna say that it's I think it just it said there's a a listing about the Earth Day event on the website. I think, right? Yeah. Yeah. But um maybe we can

I'm going to send you I'm also going to send you an updated um press release and if we could get that into Tap into Sparta and then maybe also put that on our website because that'll say it's it's just a longer version of what's already up there but a little bit more detail. Yeah. Um and then can we decide guys what we're going to do for the EC table? So we first need to decide who has a table. Who has Does anyone have a table, a tent, a tablecloth, that kind of stuff? Yeah, I think I brought tables last chair. Okay. So, would you be able to do that again? Sure. Tell me how many you need. Uh, I can bring chairs. I can bring a tablecloth. I know how big of a tent.

Um, they uh VFW has a tent that I've borrowed before that I'd be happy to set up. That would be great. I'll ask them if you want. You can ask. That would be perfect. Nobody else has one. Yeah, because the one I have for work is going to be at my my organization table. Yeah, you're wearing two hats on. Wearing two hats. Exactly. Yeah. And I got the pantry, so hopefully I won't need it there. Um yeah, I'll ask I'll ask the VFW. Perfect. Great. And we have enough staffing for the for our table, right?

Yes. So, that's what we need to decide. So, Courtney said she can come. You're going to be able to come, right? Alex, you can come. And then the three of us are gonna be bouncing from our table at the EC, but also our organization tables. Will you be able to make it? Um, it's April 25th, right? Yeah. That's I'm doing a college tour. Oh, of course you are. Of course you are. That's a good excuse. Okay. Yeah. No, great. Good. Good for you. I'm trying to figure out I wouldn't have to leave like like 10:30. I don't I would not be back in time now. Yeah. Well, tell your friends about it. Yeah, of course.

Let's do that. Um, so Neil, you can pick up You said the Anjack game. Yes. That they reserved. And then what else do we want to have at our table? So, Courtney pulled the boxes of everything we had last year. So, we have coloring books left. We have um different printouts from Anjac. We have some pencils to give away, but if we want specific any more flyers, we should ask Courtney to make the photo copies ahead of the event. And then also, we should decide if we want anything for like um New Jersey Salt Watch or anything along those lines.

I was thinking maybe something more basic because I am going to be running around. Maybe just have I believe somewhere in my closet I have poster that says can you find which waterhed you live in something to that effect.

So I'll bring that and we can set that up and then we have something uh for the kids to mark to try to identify the different watersheds and where they live on a map of Sparta Township. And then there's another map of New Jersey, I guess, that puts it in perspective. So, the one that we were looking at before the meeting started. So, maybe are you doing that? You're running the table for Pollenkill. Pollen skill wershed or food shed alliance and pollen skill watershed. Yeah. So, what what will you be doing there? Will you be doing salt watch and and and that?

No, I'm not going to be doing salt watch, I don't think. I think that my um the person that I work with is going to go down to the stream, probably the wall kill or the pollen skill and uh gather some macro invertebrates. And so we'll have a bucket or two there of water and the kids can come along and they can scoop u a bucket and then they can find these u macro invertebbrates, put them in a petri dish and then look under the stereoscope. I try to identify them and then we have a chart that says whether or not this is a good if this particular species is an indicator of poor or good water quality. I think that will probably be the extent of it.

That's great. Thank you. And then Lena is going to bring the Envircape model, which is that watershed model that we've used in the past. So that'll be at a table next to ours. So we can just decide the ANJ game is definitely good. We don't have to go crazy, right? We could just have the Anjack game. We could do the watershed. We could have the handouts and then we can just interact with people too when they come and talk to them. Yeah. I mean, that's the main thing. So, how many um displays are we going to have so far? Oh, it's it's like 20. Oh, wow. Yeah. Good thing we have that out there now. Good weather. I could just see us in here.

Uh yeah, I reached out. I'm waiting for the paperwork back, but we're going to have food there as well. Um and then also we talked last time about like the the popcorn machine with biodiesel and all that too. So um at the next meeting I'll announce which food vendors are confirmed. I just want to wait to have all the paperwork before I announce that. But it's coming together. Um I just wanted to know also about the didn't we have a banner that we've used in the past that said environmental commission? Yes. Where would that be? Is that somewhere in town hall building? I would think, but ask Kim.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, reach out to Kim. I think she's from when we were at the junior from when we were at the middle school, right? Um when we closed out. I She had a tent, too, right? I think we stood in front of it and took a picture. We did in the past. Pretty sure. Yeah, I know we have one. I just don't know where it I remember putting it up and trying to secure it all the time and it was quite windy last year. Yeah, it was. Do we need any um like uh a stand for any posters or any of your water?

Well, that's the that's the advantage of setting up a canopy. If somebody I have we have a a canopy we can set up um because you can hook things to the back, but you also have to make sure doesn't blow away. So, we can weight it down. You know, you can put stakes in the ground at the base or you can actually um Kim did this um weight it down with water bottles, gallon jugs of water gallon jugs of of water. But that makes it, I think, look more festive. Um but it takes a watchful eye, you know, with the wind.

Yeah, the wind was whipping last year. So hopefully hopefully we don't have such a windy day. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Earth day. I don't think so. I think that's good.

Okay. Great. Uh next is data center moral ordinance. Uh this just came across my vision today this morning. Um Peberton Township. Uh this was from the Pineelands Alliance Facebook page. Uh Peterson Township adopted ordinance 10-1026 to prohibit the construction and operation of data centers. So they have a working ordinance that they uh have passed. And in addition to that, Logan Township, I think they're in the Pinelands too in the area introduced an ordinance uh banning them to in including converting warehouses to data centers. uh no data centers and no detention centers in Logan Township. Um that was uh introduced today last night at their uh council meeting. So we have another a working ordinance to use as a model now. So I'll dig that up and send to you team.

Well the the the uh data centers use an incredible amount of electricity and water. And water. Yes, that's the reason we uh are very protective of our water up here since we're 70% of the And they're loud, too. And they're loud. You see what's going on in Vineland right now. Oh, really? Yeah. There's many, many complaints going on there now. the warehouse they're putting in

or data center rather. Sorry. Next is uh water bottling facility ordinance. I haven't looked into this any any further. Have you I haven't had a chance a busy couple weeks. Oh, okay. Sorry. I

mean, I think the status remains the same. I think they're, you know, date I said last time, same date. Um, they're having their hearing over there. Margie, I don't know if if you know about this, but um over in Andover, about a half mile from the Sparta border, they're thinking about putting in um basically a water extraction facility where where they're going to like basically pump water out of the ground out of Artisian wells into big tanker trucks uh to the tune of it was 100,000 gallons a day and it's for water bottling. Um, so just something that I had brought up last week. Um, just something that I don't think would be a good thing in Sparta. And being that it's which is why I brought the ordinance part of it, but also being that it's so close to the Sparta border, um, I don't know how it's going to affect, you know, our, uh, water availability either.

Where is this going? Right by the Sparta, the old uh Andover subaccute um over off Lime Crest Road there. That's still uh that's still a subaccute. The the nursing home. Yeah, nursing home. Yeah, right over there. Where Pataski? Not that. That's where the readym mix is going. Right. Right. But right by there, they want to draw water out of the That's I believe that's part of the aquifer. That's the Germany flats out. Germany flats. Right. and who some a private company wants to do that. Yeah. Corporation. Um hasn't been passed yet. They're having a hearing I think on the 21st. I said I didn't write it down in my planner here, but um

in Andover. It's in Andover. Yeah.

Yeah. 3.1 million gallons a month, right? Yeah, I don't know how, you know, in the scheme of things, how much that is for aquifer that's already in deficit. Yeah. And we were told it wasn't in deficit. I've been told both things. It is and it isn't, but it is.

So, there's an application in Yes. I can I don't know if I sent you the documents. I sent it to the E environmental commission. I'm not sure if you were on that email or not, but I can send I probably am. Okay, let me look. I I missed it.

And they have all the plans that it shows the location. Um all the information is there. Um, next is new business, unless anybody has any more unfinished business. Um, the ecology education grants for bats. Um, Barbara is managing that and she's not here. So, we can table it again because that's a a grant application that doesn't need to be in I thought it had to be in in April.

No, wait a minute. We already did. We put it We did. It's already in. It's Yeah, I was going to say because we put it through the resolution. That's right. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes. Yes. Much thanks. Um, so okay, that's but check with the make sure. Was it actually submitted though or Yeah, that's what I'm I don't know because we she had a draft that we all read, but I don't know if anyone actually clicked submit. Let's find that out. I don't know. I'll find out. Okay. Is this sustainable jersey? I believe um Jack. Oh, this is Anjack. Yeah. For a $1,500 grant.

Yeah. Okay.

All right. Winter salt week engineering solutions. You have anything? That was uh Rob and Barbara were working on something. Winter Salt Week Engineering Solutions. Yeah. They said they were coming up with a a document for us to respond to. Oh, I didn't catch that. Yeah, they said that last time. Oh, that's nice. Based on the video, I guess so. Yeah. Okay, good.

Chris, don't I seem to remember something in the last couple years about uh talking to Jim Zep about uh salt spreading management uh technologies? Didn't do you remember that? Yes. Yes, we did go in and we did talk to him. Kim and I. And what was uh what came of that?

Um this was in relation to us um getting certifi bronze certification for um road salt management. And um uh he and Michelle supplied us with all of the uh answers to the questions and how they checked um their equipment and and and everything. But I think um if not this year um maybe at the end of this year it would be a good idea to go in and um talk to him about um the road salulting situation here in Sparta so that I have a he can update us. Um I remember at a hearing uh I was watching a town council meeting and he said that um their salt management was going well and he said it was because of also part of it was is that new something they were doing he implied that they were doing something a little different. So I'm curious to find out, you know, what that is and how it's been helpful to them and also we can share any information with him that we've learned from watching the uh winter salt week series that they put out every year, which this uh engineering solutions was one of those uh programs that they put out in January. So um yeah, that's something that would be good to do. Definitely. Yeah, I'd like to go back and review what we submitted for that sustainable jersey. Um Um Okay. Uh next topic for new business

is the Environmental Commission checklist of concerns for applications. Um Rob sent something out uh today, but he's working on this. Oh, that's great. And I think this is this is what I meant. This was something that they were working on, him and um Barbara, but he said at the last meeting, I believe that they were part of that would be a consideration of winter road salting, like what should be done? Here's a checklist. Normally, we look only at three seasons. And this would be a concern for winter as well. I think that's how it was discussed, but we can confirm when he comes back.

Okay. Oh, one thing I forgot about data centers is there there was a um webinar that happened uh started at 7 tonight that Jack and of course it did environmental justice uh something I can't remember the full name uh running tonight but there it's going to be recorded so Oh, so we can log on to it? Yeah, we you could get get on it tonight, but uh if we probably not, but uh yeah, you can you'll be able to see the recording. I'll I'll share that.

Okay. Oh, thank you for sharing that.

I I have some new well new business. I don't know.

Oh, good. Um just a thought and I remember I brought this up last year because I just got back from Colorado and again they've I remember telling that um in Breenidge they have you cannot buy a plastic bottle of any liquid at all on the mountains in the grocery stores anywhere everything. If you get tea or coffee up on up skiing, they give you a cup and a saucer and you return it. If you go to buy water, it's in a camp. um makes a little more difficult to carry it on you, but that you get a backpack or you'll you see people with more with backpacks that they can drink and you can get um instead of buying a little B uh can, which I've not seen the cans of Gatorade anywhere else. You can buy a little can of Gatorade or for $5, or you can buy for $3, you get a cup of like a 16 ounce, maybe even bigger than that. plastic cup that you can refill with Gatorade as many times and then you leave the cup there. This is how they're controlling all their plastics and whatnot. And that was the new thing added this year over last year. And like I said, and it's not all I don't think it's all in Summit County. It's just in Breenidge.

So, it's a local township town ordinance town or Yeah. Never even seen these aluminum or whatever they the bottles that uh around here that you can I've seen uh something called liquid death. Liquid death. Yes. But these are screw top. Liquid death is pop top. Yeah. Those are 16. But they're all like every so you know the different sodas and everything are in cans out there. Yeah. That you can drink and screw top.

Also, why can't we recycle medicine bottles? They're all about the same size. Return them. Why can't they re clean them and recycle them? That would be huge. The amount of medication that people are taking when that they're not really they're not really a plastic that's recycled though, I don't think. Right. But they're reusable. No, but they're reusable. Why not? Why couldn't we sterilize? They could That would be a great company to start. Yeah. Yeah. How how could we get that started and help our businesses to comply with something like that in Sparta, you know, light the flame?

Well, when we've got you don't have individual well, you have one individual pharmacy, but then the rest of them are corporate. Who knows? But and but in terms of um going in and buying uh beverage and buying beverages in and Instead of even the the pla the like coffee cups, there's microplastics on the inside of the coffee cup. Mhm. That we've been lining ingesting. Ingesting So, how did they do it? You don't get takeaway cups of coffee. But how did Bracken Ridge make it happen? I don't know. That's the next time you go skiing,

attend attend a council meeting or an EC. There wasn't one, unfortunately. But actually, I could I have I have somebody that that I know that lives there that I could find out. Yeah. Yeah, that would be that lives there permanently. That would be nice to know how they started that. I can't imagine trying to get that going here, but you never know. No, they got it going in Colorado. Maybe they could start it at the schools. Baby, there's a chance. There's a chance. Mhm. That's That's pretty That's all I have.

Speaking of microlastics, I kind of jog my memory. Um when I last looked at the water test for I think I'm in the upper upper like Mohawk system, it did have some forever chemicals in it, a non-negligible amount. And I know I vaguely I vaguely recall something getting passed at the state level where towns had to comply with removing um the forever chemicals. Does anyone know if Sparta where Sparta is with that or has any movement happened with that? Call the engineer. Okay.

Down at Lake Mohawk Country Club. That's the first place to start. Sabine, how about the township? Yeah. Is there starts there because they're they maintain the water? Like Mohawk and Upper Lake. That's Lake Mohawk. I'm talking like the the water system like coming out of the tap though. Yeah. Like Oh, you're talking about the tap, not the lake itself. Oh, I'm sorry. The the tap. Oh, yeah.

So, I do know that. Yeah, you're right. That's not That's I do know they are in the process of redoing some of the water tanks and if you buy a house now and they check it's like my neighbor just sold the house, re re bought a house, redid it to resell it and found out that the two neighbors were connected the water pipe to the to the street. They had to separate them and they had the people that were building the house had to put in new pipes because they were leaded and

so they had to put in new pipes. That was lead. Um and and um what's it called? Um I mean not where the lime we get lime anyway here. It's almost impossible not to because of all the minds, but um I can't think of the name right off the top of my head, but they're putting in they're putting in new pipes. So, that's that's in throughout the town. That's that's a given. That's a law you have to do now.

But they're also treating the actual water tanks themselves around town and fixing them. I wonder what kind of if there's any PAS remediation that goes on or any kind of filtration. Uh I know that there's some there uh there's some requirements and I just read something today also about um how they've actually been able to reduce the amount of P pas and POS uh in water in New Jersey. I I can't remember where it was. I'll have to look that up again. But yeah, I'd be interested.

There's certain water filters that take it out. I think it's third like ranked by numbers and there's certain one that will filter them out, but if it's below that number, it it won't. So, if you're out, you know, at home, if you check, if you do have a filter like on your refrigerator or whatnot, you can check to see if they check online to see what that number is and then see if your filter um is adequate. There are some new um whole house filters that can you can install now too. Um my nephew who's an engineer was telling me about them for POS. For chemicals for POS

I believe for POS too but definitely for chemicals. I had heard from someone here that we might need to install a filtration system that removes puss and it was very expensive. Yes. Yes. I got I got a quote for one at my house was $2,000. Okay. That was like a whole It be like a whole house filter. So every tap would not have every tap not just your kitchen. Not just the kitchen. Every tap in the house would be POS. That takes out the POS. Yeah. Well, reverse osmosis does that, right? Does that take Is that what you were looking at?

I don't know. I forget exactly what it was. This was back around the Christmas time. Um, it was uh basically an addition to my water softener. It' be like next to my water softener. I don't I'm not sure if it was reverse osmosis or not. I think the reverse osmosis ones usually go like under your sink and and they and they like to so your so your kitchen sink would be I think you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, isn't it crazy that we put salt in our water softeners, too? You don't drink that water, do you? Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was only for hot water. You can for all all water.

Tastes good. It tastes salty. Does it? Well, that's why I have on my sink. On my kitchen sink. You can specify where You can specify. Yeah,

interesting stuff. I know that there I just got an email today from um one of my volunteers and he was asked to uh do an event on Earth Day that was measuring um microlastics. They're having a microlastic event and they want everybody to they'll show you how to do it. They want to find out how many microlastics. They didn't say POS, but some I don't know what the gauge is on it. Um but um I think that I attended a webinar a couple years ago and they have been doing this down at the shore. So I asked him to find out if it we could do something up here in freshwater systems either uh lakes probably a lake shore or even a river uh Eddie to get an idea of the amount of uh the concentration of microlastics in our surface water. And you could do this also of course you could do it for your tap water you know um and um then we could you know see if that's an uh is above the acceptable healthy limit um for our surface waters.

Um so hopefully he'll get back to me. Interesting. Yes. It said it only took 10 minutes to do this with your water. It's not an extensive thing. You just go out and I guess you they give you something and you maybe a grid and you look for things with a hand lens. I'm just imagining this. I have no idea. It's great.

All right. Oh, the the uh Anj environmental commission training sessions are all uh online now. I think two ang views believe they were from maybe two weeks ago. I remember I I went to one but I couldn't attend the other two. Um so we can all watch those. Okay.

I wanted to just announce um one other new recycling opportunity. So, in Sussex County, there is a new company called Help Cy, hsy. Um, the website is helps.com and you can go online, you enter the zip code and they now have a new free curbside uh textile recycling program. So, they'll come to your house and they can pick up any type of textiles. Um, this would be clothing, shoes, stuffed animals, bags, luggage, um, hats, blankets, coats. This does not have to all be good quality material that would go to someone else. They collect everything. They sort out what is recyclable and what would be donated. They um, their company says that they avoid 95% of those materials from going into the landfill. But what's great is that there are not only the bins that you could drop your your supplies in, but they will come to your house and pick it up from your your driveway for free. So, it's for free clothing um pickup and all those types of materials are recyclable so they don't end up in the landfill. If you go on the website, enter your zip code, there are certain dates that they are available to come pick up your stuff, but it's at no cost to you. So, this is something we should promote because this is great, especially for stuffed animals and luggage and things that people don't normally think of being recyclable.

And what do they do with it, I wonder? I think they break it down um into the textile material. Yeah, the fibers. The fibers. Mhm. That's maybe we could have a flyer or some information. Excuse me. Yeah. At um the Earth Day. Yeah. This is the flyer um that the recycling coordinator gave me, but we can maybe put this on the Facebook page and this would be great to promote. Yeah, we could put this uh we could put the flyer on our table at Earth Day, but they just determined that this is viable for Sussex County. They were doing it elsewhere, but they think that there's enough of a market to do it up here as well. So, that's great. That's wonderful. Yeah.

I know a lot of like the um the bins that are around donate here. The old I think the there's maybe one or two that actually take the clothing and donate it. the rest of them, a lot of it gets shredded and or used as rags or sent to sent overseas somewhere. Yeah. And the biggest misconception with clothing recycling is that it always has to be really high quality material that someone else can wear, but like you're saying, it doesn't all get used. So, just to keep it out of the landfill is is critical.

And I have actually a rug at home that I bought that was made from, and this was years ago, from plastics. Well, a lot of carpeting is is plastic. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Most of them. And this is years ago. Just a little like a floor, a mat, a doormat. Yeah. Everything's made from plastic. So, would they take they wouldn't take it over if it's plastic? It'd have to be a f a textiles or textile. So, there's like eight different things listed on the flyer, but the recycling coordinator told me that there's like hundreds of categories listed online. So go on the website, okay, helpsy.com and it'll have the full list of what they'll take.

Do they do don't they do textiles something with textiles at Kumua? Yeah, schuma. Yeah, I thought so. Yep, they take it as well. But they don't do this. Do they do this extent of uh uh yeah I think this is more material than um they take at schkuma but also the curbside pickup aspect is a big benefit of the that would ensure more participation could and the forever shop right and stop and the grocery bags.

That's great. Thanks for that, Chris. Yeah, thank you. Anybody else have anything under new business, old business, or anything that comes to mind? If not, how about one more thing? Uh, the North Jersey Rivers Conference. You can mark your calendars. It's going to be October 16th, which is a Friday. So, it's months in advance, but we're already planning. Chris and I are both on the committee, so it's coming together. It's going to be a nice event. North Jersey. North Jersey. And that's at Centinary University October 16th. Yes.

Great. Thanks. Hey. Right. There's nothing else. Can I have a motion for adjournment? I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Thanks, Christine. Can I have a second? I will second. Thanks, Margie. All in favor? I I Thank you. meeting is adjourned at 7:59. Thank you. Thank you all for having me back. Yes, great to have