FAIRMONT– The second Fairmont Energy and Environment Resilience planning committee meeting took place on Thursday. While a variety of topics were discussed, water quality was once again the frontrunner of the conversation.

Since last month’s meeting, Region Nine facilitator, Samuel Sharp, said he had met with Fairmont’s Public Works Director, Matthew York, to gather some data and that they discussed some matters including the distribution of the electric load capacity, as well as some ongoing projects like the water filtration system, Curly Leaf Pondweed and Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) tree removal.

Sharp said they also plan to meet with Miles Heidi, the electric distribution superintendent, in early June.

The main thing the group is working on right now is identifying questions for a community survey as the plan is to put it out to the community during the second week of June.

“We drafted out a survey based on the conversation last month and based on some of our own inner-workings,” Sharp said.

The goal of the survey is to hear from residents about the community’s resilience in response to changing weather patterns and new energy opportunities to ensure a high standard of living. Once survey results are gathered, there will be a community meeting to go over findings and identify high priority projects.

Those present got a sample survey to look through and Hannah Neusch, Water Resource Technician for the city, said she would like to see some more questions specifically about water quality.

“I think it might be nice to know if people are using rain barrels… and if they’re doing above and beyond what your average person is doing to offset environmental impacts. It would be good to know where people are at on that,” she said.

Community Development Director, Pat Oman, said from what he’s heard the city hasn’t experienced a water quantity issue, or even a water quality issue, but that it’s trying to be prevented with some mitigation measurers.

“The fact is that this city is very different from other cities. Most cities have a wellhead protection plan where they would know what the quality of their well water is. We don’t have any idea I think with what’s underground. We know what the quality of the water in our lakes is. What would happen if something were to occur, even for a short time, that created a problem with our lakes?” Oman said.

He pointed out that there is just one well in the city that doesn’t get used. He said if the city does experience water quantity problems, there is no plan.

Neusch added that there is a maximum amount of water that can be drawn per day from the lakes. She said if Fairmont is focused on growth, and does grow, more water will be needed.

Circling back to water quality, Committee Member Angie Grafstrom said, “We need to somehow get people thinking about how the quality of our lake water affects the quality of our drinking water. I don’t think that everyone understands that.”

She added that when talking about shore management, the quality of the drinking water is also being discussed. She said she would like to make that connection for people in the survey.

The group talked more about using the survey as an opportunity to educate the public.

“I think the thing we need to focus on is, if it’s educating people, fine, but what is the purpose of the survey. What do we want out of it?” Asked Economic Development Coordinator, Ned Koppen.

Grafstrom said she thought the survey needed to do both. She acknowledged seeing comments made on social media in Fairmont about the quality of the drinking water that either contained half truths or were completely wrong.

“I think we’re trying to strike a balance between understanding where the community’s at and how they’re feeling on certain topics and also within the plan for providing educational pieces to help fill in the gaps,” Sharp said.

In addition to water quality, the group also talked about questions about preparedness when it comes to extreme weather. City Councilor James Kotewa, who was the emergency management director for the city for a number of years, said that there are some things in place but that a lot is handled by the county.

“Most people don’t know about Code Red,” he said.

Grafstrom asked if there is an alert system that the city can utilize about power outages or water shortages.

“I certainly think that the city needs to be using that,” she said.

Sharp said he thinks it would be good to hear from other people in the community about what and how they would like to be alerted about dangerous weather or outages.

Grafstrom added that in addition to an alert system, she thinks that the city could post on its Facebook page to let people know that an issue, such as a power outage, is being addressed.

Oman said that the city has been wanting to work on better communicating with the public and is currently working on putting out a quarterly newsletter.

In closing the discussion, Sharp said that all of the feedback was very valuable and that next they will incorporate the input into the survey. At the next meeting on June 26, the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERT) and the Great Plains Institute will come to present. He suggested that some additional members from the county or youth representatives be present.