Key Issues

From the Land and Water Subgroup:

Criteria for Priority Selection

In preparing for the February 12 meeting, we used this set of criteria to select the priorities:
- provides climate change resilience
- tangible achievement for Elrich Administration in first term
- tangible justice elements
- avoid budget-busters including through use of creative partnerships
- uses successful approaches modeled by other municipalities, corporations, non-profits

Clean Water Blueprint – these priorities are drawn from the Clean Water Blueprint, a 5-part strategy shared by the
Montgomery County Stormwater Partners Network with the Elrich Transition Team and DEP Director Ortiz in January.

Priorities

Forest and Tree programs

1. Support key role of Ag Reserve in Forest & Tree goals & programs including climate resilience, green and
just economic development
2. Fully staff Tree Montgomery including community outreach staff
3. Protect and restore Forested Stream Buffers
4. Revive Legacy Open Space in partnership with citizens.
5. Support Urban Forest Preservation along with urban tree protection and new plantings, including street trees.

Stormwater Solutions

1. Montgomery County to advocate for strong MS4 permit from the state.
2. Fully fund and staff DEP stormwater programs including RainScapes and watershed community outreach.
3. Honor DEP-Stormwater Partners Green Infrastructure Definition and Policy. The Green Infrastructure
Definition at the neighborhood or site scale is: stormwater solutions that “mimic nature, infiltrate,
evapotranspirate, and/or beneficially reuse water.
4. Provide Coordination between executive agencies (DOT, DEP, DGS), MNCPPC and WSSC. Set up
interagency work group to streamline stormwater efforts, improve coordination with citizens including
Stormwater Partners Network; improve communications, enable departments to work together proactively to
address stormwater challenges. Watts Branch restoration to avoid mid-river intake pipe is one such challenge.
5. Support a new Green Streets program: short-term: step-up DOT-DEP-Parks-Planning cooperation, &
inclusion of green street elements in the Complete Streets plan; medium-term: amend MC-DOT roadway
rehab and drainage practices to make green street, street trees the norm for all DOT programs -- including
roadway improvements and drainage maintenance and rehabilitation projects.

General Plan Support

1. General Plan update must support Climate Change mitigation and resilience; forest, farmland and open space
protection; and drinking water protection along with urban watershed restoration.
2. Support elements of existing General Plan that support our goals: the Agricultural Reserve and Low-Density
Residential Wedge, and our Parks system, including Regional, Conservation, and Stream Valley Parks.
3. Stop Sewer Sprawl: Support enforcement of existing General Plan guidelines, avoid sewer pipe extension
into Ag Reserve, low-density Residential Wedge areas.
4. Support full funding of Parks Stewardship and environmental planning staff – essential to: General Plan
support; interagency cooperation; achievement of drinking water, watershed, forest and tree program goals.
From the Climate Change Subgroup:

From Jim Driscoll, who will present key points, 3 minutes, first half-hour of the meeting: I want to preface my
comments by saying that, as you know, there are many climate and environmental groups with a breadth of
different priorities and though I believe that the points I make are shared by many groups, it is important to say
that no one speaker can speak for all groups on all issues.

We want to begin by thanking you, Marc, for your leadership on climate change. When we approached you, you
took the lead in declaring a climate emergency, committing the County to getting rid of 80% of all our
greenhouse gas emission by 2027 and mobilizing the County to reach that goal. We also look forward to
working with adam to achieve these goals.

The County's own Climate Mobilization Work Group created by your Resolution described what it would take
to reach our goal:

• “Nearly 100% of all vehicles - cars, buses and trucks -would be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) powered
by clean energy;
• Nearly all residents, businesses and government entities would utilize 100% clean energy as a result of
state-mandated renewable portfolio standards, voluntary purchases or on-site generation, with nearly all
buildings being net-zero;
• Significant percentages of buildings in the County would have solar and/or geothermal systems;
• Public transit use, biking and walking would become common modes of transportation on par with
personal vehicle use”;

These are striking descriptions of a decarbonized future and they highlight how we must focus our efforts. We
need to center our programs on the two major sources of GHG in Montgomery County -buildings and internal
combustion vehicles. In each area, as a first step, we urge the County to evaluate the already functioning
programs- how well are they achieving their intended purposes, where do they fall short, how can they be
redirected to reduce emissions most effectively.

To give one example, how effective has the building benchmarking law been in encouraging commercial energy
efficiency and how could it be improved? How could we ensure timely release of building energy efficiency
scores so that tenants, contractors and the public have early access to information as the law required?

Evaluating what is in place now is a first step to developing the initiatives needed to reach our climate goals.
We name just a few.

On buildings. We strongly support the adoption of the 2018 International Green Construction Code for
commercial buildings. We hope that the next iteration of the IgCC will move nearer to net-zero energy design
for commercial buildings. All existing buildings must also be retrofitted where necessary, relying on a greatly
expanded CPACE program (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy). For residential buildings and
construction, we support Marc's commitment to exploring and implementing programs that establish renewable
energy requirements and RPACE.

On transportation. We urge accelerating the schedule for implementing bus rapid transit (brt) and including
dedicated lanes on all brt routes. We support experimenting with new transit models to connect transit hubs with
more residents and expanding electrification of buses. We must also develop programs to encourage the use of
electric vehicles.

On energy. We support the expansion of community solar and the exploration of community choice aggregation
so that all MOCO residents can purchase renewable energy more cheaply.
On financing programs. At present, the County collects more than $200 million from its energy tax. With a
fraction of that, Boulder has implemented nation-leading policies to support building conservation. We urge you
to direct some of that energy tax to eliminating GHG. Other sources of funding that need to be explored and
monitored are the Exelon merger proceeds and a regional energy tax that would be revenue neutral. The County
needs to motivate its residents both to adopt more energy efficiency purchases and conservation practices and to
move the county more rapidly to non-carbon fuels.

On administrative infrastructure. Ideally the county should conduct a comprehensive planning process aimed at
reducing GHG emissions. If this is not presently feasible, decision making for current and future programs need
to be data driven. We need to understand the likely impacts of GHG emissions of alternative climate proposals
as well as and co-benefits achieved by the programs (such as health benefits, cost savings-current and projected,
etc).

According to the recent IPCC and US National Climate Assessment reports, if you and the county can reach the
goal of 80% by '27 and help lead the nation to do the same, then Montgomery County will have played a crucial
role in addressing the existential challenge of our lives. There can be no higher, much less even remotely
competing, priority for DEP, Marc or the County.

We want to work with you to develop the bold initiatives that will be necessary to reach these challenging goals
you have set for the County.

From the Zero Waste sub group:

1) Incinerator Closure.

The nearly 400k tons of annual emissions from the County trash Incinerator impacts the health of our residents
and is the number one industrial producer of greenhouse gases and other toxic agents in the County. Close the
incinerator before the contract comes up for renewal on April 1, 2021. End our relationship with the Northeast
Maryland Waste Disposal Authority. Stop paying this third-party over half a million dollars a year to make
decisions for our county that are primarily in their interest, not ours. Hire a rail consultant to negotiate a contract
with CSX rail and a private landfill in Virginia such as Maplewood to receive residuals as we move toward zero
waste. This is a much safer option then burning and stops dumping nearly 200K tons of toxic ash on a
community of color near Richmond. The Teamsters Union is eager to work with the County to help transition
good jobs from incineration to Reuse/Repurpose Recycle jobs. On Monday, the Baltimore City Council
unanimously passed a Clean Air Ordinance that will effectively shut down the only other waste incinerator in
the State.

2) Food Scrap Composting.

Implement a Diversified County Composting System: The county needs to establish and implement a program
that composts food scraps at all levels. While composting of commercial and residential food scraps through a
large scale program needs to happen, there are many programs such as expanding the current backyard
composting program to allow for food scraps to be composted (in appropriate containers like the ones that DC is
testing for urban residential use) and community composting (which DC also has established) and medium scale
composting on farms, that need to be established. Many residents are already composting food scraps. While the
county transitions to larger scale programs, they need to utilize best practices to implement training programs
for residents to compost properly and offer appropriate containers. The county also needs to identify and secure
food scrap composting services for large scale composting.

3)Unit Pricing.
Implement a ‘Pay As You Throw’ system countywide. Based on proven results in Massachusetts, Connecticut
and other municipalities around the country this should cut our trash volume in half almost
immediately. Carroll County is currently doing a pilot showing 50% reduction in waste after the first
week. Contrary to popular myths, residents are quickly won over by the incentive to save by not putting
recyclables in their trash. Using bags rather than bins sets an example in neighborhoods. Residents see exactly
what their neighbors are doing. This can be done in multi-family buildings equally well. A uniform county-
wide program would significantly reduce non-compliance due to residents’ confusion over conflicting messages
on what they can and cannot do with their trash.

Removing food scraps would reduce our trash volume by 35% or about 200K tons annually. PAYT could
further reduce trash by 300K tons. A Zero Waste plan would create jobs, reduce pollution of air and water,
reduce morbidity in our residents and likely cost less than the very expensive waste incinerator ($22M per year).

From Safe Grow Montgomery:

Safe Grow Montgomery is a non-profit organization in Montgomery County. We work to end exposure to
non-essential lawn pesticides in Montgomery County. We have partnered with over 40 local environmental and
health advocacy groups (MoCo Sierra Club; Conservation Montgomery; Beyond Pesticides; Clean Water
Action; MarylandPIRG, Audubon Society; Mom's Organic Market; Casa de Maryland; CPSR, and more) to
form a coalition that advocated for and achieved the passage of the Healthy Lawns Act 52-14 in 2015. The law
mandates a county-wide education campaign as well as restricted use of cosmetic lawn pesticides on
playgrounds and Parks, and a pilot project of pesticide-free playing fields by 2019. Regardless of the pending
appellate court decision involving the private lawn restrictions, the public/county/Parks/education mandates in
Law 52-14 still are in tact and must be enforced. Over 4,000 residents emailed, wrote letters, called, and spoke
at County Council meetings in support of this law, which was the first of its kind in the country, but thanks to
our leadership, not the last.

Our top 3 priorities are as follows:

1. Ensure MoCo Parks adheres to Law 52-14 (only the private property provision is held up in court-- the
public property/parks/education mandate are NOT impacted by any court ruling)- and expands its pesticide-free
parks to more than 10/420 (4%) parks in our county; ensure Parks ends use of Roundup & neonics. Parks needs
to be more accountable and transparent to Council and residents about its pesticide usage and truly follow IPM
rather than relying on pesticides for non-noxious weed removal.

2. Expand the Education efforts led by DEP and mandated by the law: more workshops, implement wider
outreach effort as stated in the law (mailers, radio and TV public service announcements, Ride-On buses,
etc.); ensure pamphlets are in hardware stores; continue to add signage in Parks promoting the pesticide-free
parks it maintains to increase public awareness.

3. Stop any county reimbursements to HOAs for the cosmetic use of lawn pesticides as part of their
maintenance of county roads/sidewalk borders/rights of way. Reimbursement to HOAs for routine lawn
pesticide applications perpetuate toxic pesticide use within these communities and runs in direct contradiction to
the county's effort to reduce lawn pesticide use. Instead, the money should be redirected to educate HOAs
on how to go pesticide-free to protect residents (esp. children) & pets.

Submissions from individuals.

Note: There maybe overlap with subgroup priorities or there may be areas of disagreement.
From Ken Bawer
• stopping sewer sprawl
• stormwater management
• acquisition and protection of natural areas for parkland (including control of non-native invasives)

From Heather Bruskin:

• Expand food waste composting capacity

• Increase capacity of local food production at residential, community, and commercial level
• Implement Closed Loop strategies in our local food production, consumption, and waste systems,
including local, sustainable procurement by publicly funded institutions

From Hank Cole:

Communities and the environment, protecting existing communities

• Require total transparency for all proceedings on land use, development, power plants, etc--from the
initiation of all proposals. For example, concerned residents should be provided with copies of all
documents, and allowed to attend in all meetings involving the proposal.
• Technical support for communities facing issues with potential adverse environmental impacts in order
to even the playing field
• between corporate developers etc. and communities. Example, Technical Assistance
Grant.
• Where communities express concern that a proposed development will adversely impact public health
(and environment), DEP should conduct its own analysis and not merely depend on studies submitted by
applicants. In making its recommendations on issues with potential health impacts DEP should exercise
a precautionary approach.

From Jim Driscoll:

BACKGOUND: Of the 11.3 MMT CO2e MOCO currently measures, 5.7 MMTm including methane, comes
buildings, about equally divided between commercial and residential, and 4 MMT from internal combustion
vehicles (cars and trucks). Just under 2 MMT comes from generating electricity, but that is contained within the
totals above for buildings. We also emit another 10 MMT from personal consumption, but do not measure it.
The largest categories within consumption at 1 MMT each are eating meat and flying jets.

MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS: SET BOLD GOALS, SUPPORT EXISTING INITIATIVES AND

ESTABLISH COUNTY-COMMUNITY WORK GROUPS. For each source, the County should follow the lead
of its own Climate Mobilization Work Group Report and set the bold goal of eliminating nearly all GHG by '27,
support existing initiatives and set up a joint County-community Work Group to develop additional initiatives.
There are already policy initiatives under consideration by County staff and community activists in each area.
We should focus on getting these implemented and increased to scale.

▪ ALL BUILDINGS NET ZERO AND EXISTING ONES RETROFITTED BY '27. We can follow existing
models such as DC, Boston and NYC. This spring, the County should approve the 2018 International Green
Construction Code (IGCC) for commercial buildings. We need increased CPACE funding from private
sources to support this installation of renewable energy and retrofitting—Commercial Property Assessed
Clean Energy. For residences, Marc has already proposed requirements for renewables on new residences
and RPACE funding. We need to develop standards for residences.
▪ ALL ELECTRICITY RENEWABLE. Insure that all electricity be renewable, either generated or purchased
from the grid, and develop supporting programs beginning with Community Choice Aggregation following
the successful model in Takoma Park and expanding to the stronger “opt out” version when the Legislature
gives that authority. MCFACS has a program underway. MOCO must also eliminate use of natural gas by
'27.
▪ ALL VEHICLES ELECTRIC BY '27. We can beginning by greatly expanding installation of charging
stations, requiring prewiring for charging stations and group purchasing of vehicles by the County and other
institutions. BRT should be accelerated, improved and expanded—with electric buses.
▪ REDUCE PERSONAL CONSUMPTION. Beginning with meat and jets. Marc has already committed to set
up this Working Group during the campaign.

From Susan Eisendrath:

• As per the Climate Mobilization Working Group Report recommendations, hire consultants or establish
staff devoted to thoroughly evaluating the main drivers of GHG emissions in the county and prioritizing
existing county programs (taking into consideration costs compared to GHG emissions reduced) that
need to be continued and expanded in order to reduce emissions and also identify any best
practice/model programs that need to be added. The main areas that have already been identified by the
Climate Protection Plan are buildings (existing and new) and transportation. Existing programs such as
the building benchmarking program, need to be expanded and others programs need to be established for
new buildings (the current 2012 IGCC needs to be updated to the 2018 version). Clear objectives,
metrics and evaluation indicators need to be established within departments and divisions and more
importantly across agencies/divisions/departments (e.g., DEP, DGS, DPS, MCPS, M-NCPPC, County
Stats, etc.) so that the co-benefits and multiple environmental values can be established and
implemented and evaluated countywide.

• One of the well researched strategies to reduce GHG emissions that also has co-benefits for promoting
health, is to adopt a plant-rich diet. Although this is typically categorized as a "personal consumption"
strategy, recently there have been a variety of studies within the food industry that reveal that this sector
is moving more and more toward "plant forward" (less meat and more vegetables) menus, so this
approach needs to be explored as a strategy to integrate into more county programs. ("The most
conservative estimates suggest that raising livestock accounts for nearly 15 percent of global greenhouse
gases emitted each year; the most comprehensive assessments of direct and indirect emissions say more
than 50 percent." "Business-as-usual emissions could be reduced by as much as 70 percent through
adopting a vegan diet and 63 percent for a vegetarian (which includes cheese, milk, and eggs)." )

• Plan, implement, staff and adequately fund a Montgomery County Zero Waste Program that includes
composting of food scraps at all levels (diversified), integrating compost use into county (including
parks), residential, and commercial programs, and a robust food waste reduction program that includes a
residential education component and rescue and redistribution of food to people in need of supplemental
foods. Review and align policies, zoning and codes to align with Zero Waste Programmatic goals and
objectives. ("35% food in high-income economies is thrown out by consumers" )

• Plan, implement, staff and adequately fund a program designed to provide research and
recommendations based on best practices for individual and community behavioral change for all county
programs related to sustainability, environmental health and protection, climate change/GHG emissions
reduction, resiliency and adaptation. Review and align programmatic goals and objectives and tailor
them to address equity issues (for low income and people of varying ethnic backgrounds). A major goal
of such a program would be to support cultural transformation for sustainable community development.
(Although this is a relatively new area of government programming support, many of the strategies and
 examples come from public health community based programs. Here's an example of a resource related
to this strategy and approach http://www.cbsm.com/pages/guide/fostering-sustainable-behavior/)

From Michal Freedman:

• The need to use data and analysis to select the elements of a climate plan that will be effective in
reducing GHG emission to a level commensurate with county goals.
• The need to adopt construction codes/requirements for new commercial and residential buildings that
ensure a speedy transition to net zero buildings.
• The need to dramatically cut emissions from existing buildings, including especially multifamily
buildings, by benchmarking and audits, peer networks that encourage best practices, education on
performance and financing, incentives and mandates.

From Lauren Greenberger:

• Incinerator: Regardless of volume of trash, closing the incinerator is safer for our health and our
environment AND diverting our current trash to landfill. Achieving zero waste (or almost) should not be
a prerequisite for closing the incinerator.
• GHG Reduction: The county needs a mandated comprehensive plan. Doing it piecemeal opens the door
to profiteers for quick money such as massive solar fields on agricultural land rather than protecting the
environmental value of that land and mandating solar on all built and brown-space facilities. Tree
planting and regenerative agriculture are more complicated and will require county incentives but
ultimately contribute to a stronger overall county plan.
• Zoning Text Amendments: As you paraphrased, we applaud farmers producing value added products on
their land but ONLY if they grow those agricultural products on their land also. Breweries built on
agricultural land without growing the crop will kill the ag reserve.

From Caren Madsen:

#1 priority: Add the Clean Water Blueprint in CE transition documents and online. It’s unacceptable for
a) clean water to have been omitted from the 3 metrics provided for the green transition team to consider, and b)
for the Clean Water Blueprint not to have been accepted right away as an important part of transition planning.
Clean water was a stated priority in County Executive Elrich’s campaign messaging and saving Ten Mile Creek
was stated as one of his accomplishments. This was frequently cited throughout the campaign and on the
website as well.
Additional priorities:
• Tree protection: We need more teeth in our county tree laws. We did our best to get tree legislation
passed in 2013, but sadly, it does nothing to protect or preserve mature trees and mature canopy. We
need more than legislation that authorizes tree planting after the older environmental work horses have
been demolished for development. We can do better than a tree re-planting plan. Other jurisdictions
have tree preservation laws in place.
• County agencies and M-NCPPC: We need less stove-piping and more collaboration between county
agencies. The County Executive has the capacity and authority to set the stage for this. The Executive
can require agencies to meet regularly and establish protocols for collaboration on environmental issues.
• Diversity: The administration can work toward more engagement and community education and
outreach with the Latino community and other diverse communities to end environmental elitism in
Montgomery County.

From Amy Maron:

 • In the Montgomery County Strategic Plan to Advance Composting, Composting, and Food Scraps
Diversion in Montgomery County, “DEP should consider the feasibility of conducting a pilot program to
provide single-family residential curbside recycling collection of food scraps and other organic material,
leveraging existing collection services, and available capacity at its facilities for operational and cost
efficiencies.” (page 9). Assign staff to identify a community that is willing to participate and have DEP
revise one of the contracts of the 3 private waste haulers (Ecology, Republic, and Unity) to implement
the pilot program.
• Implement a “Pay-as-you-Throw” program for all single-family households as the centerpiece of a
comprehensive Zero Waste plan. Instead of all homeowners paying the same amount for trash pickup,
residents pay based on the amount of waste they throw away that cannot otherwise be reused or
recycled. This creates a financial disincentive to create waste.
• Withdraw the county from the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority-- which has a conflict of
interest because it operates the Dickerson Resource Recovery (incinerator) Facility (NMWDA)--as soon
as feasibly possible, as a condition for closing the incinerator when its contract expires in 2021. This
would allow the county to make its own decisions regarding solid waste management.

From Kathy Michels:

• Climate change, clean water and general environmental health: I would like to re-emphasize the
value and importance of vegetative greening of the built environment for both climate change, water
quality and general environmental health. We need to emphasize in all our discussions "urban greening"
and retention of all sorts of outdoor greenery including trees, vines, shrubs, perennials etc in our BUILT
environments both urban and suburban. Even in agriculture - attention to diversity vs monoculture and
integration with natural ecosystems.

• Climate Change, clean water and general environmental health: I just want to keep the issue
of plastic/ microplastics pollution (which includes synthetic rubber from tire wear particles) in
everybody's minds as a current if invisible problem that cuts across a number of our issues (water
quality, climate change and environmental health in general. It’s like a network of mining tunnels
undermining the foundation of a city but - the opening to that tunnel hidden by a rock. Roll that rock
away and see what's going on....

For a recent example of what we find out if we just look (and we have NOT looked much locally):

Microplastics hit home: Tennessee River among worst in the world

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2019/02/08/microplastics-in-water-tennessee-river/2793976002/
“There also isn’t as much studied on the impacts of microplastics on river wildlife as compared to ocean wildlife, but we would expect to see
similar problems. Most of the concerns relate to animals ingesting the microplastics,”
“Plastic is thought to serve as a sort of magnet for pollutants, and may bind to pollutants readily. In this case, ingesting microplastics may
harm an animal if it carries toxins into the animal’s body.”......
....KUB’s treatment plants have to meet strict criteria for solids removal, but that the EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and
Conservation don’t have specific guidance or regulations for sampling or analyzing microplastic levels

From Dolores Milmoe:

• Water quality including protection of the Piedmont Sole Source Aquifer

• Reforestation and Afforestation county wide
• Protection of the Ag Reserve and County environmental assets in the General Plan

From Herb Simmons:

Herb is part of the climate change subgroup. Climate subgroup will have their issues ready after 2 pm today
when they meet.
 • to initiate ASAP a comprehensive process to create an emergency climate action plan to chart the way to
a net zero greenhouse gas county.
• To immediately institute a “climate test’ that would require every major County planning, regulatory
and budget decision to be analyzed to ensure it advances the county’s climate goals.
• To arrange a comprehensive educational outreach program to county employees and the public
discussing why the county declared an emergency, what actions it should take to address the emergency
and what role residents and employees can play in this effort.

From Walter Weiss:

• The International Green Construction Code for commercial buildings was adopted by MC in 2017. Like
all construction codes, the IgCC is updated periodically, and is now being reviewed by DPS. We hope
that the next iteration of the IgCC will move nearer to net-zero energy design for commercial buildings.

From Woody Woodruff:

• Transportation - inability to move around the county
• Infrastructure Management (prolonging the useable life of existing assets including tree canopy and
open space as well as the built environment)
• Maintaining the integrity of the Agricultural Reserve