Meeting Minutes for the Environmental Service Committee of Texas State
University-San Marcos
September 3, 2008
Attendance
Committee Members Present:
• Hayat Qurunful, Chair, ASG Student Representative
• Melody R. Baker, ASG Student Representative
• Nick Maloukis, NAEP Student Representative
• Danielle Del Castillo Shelton, NAEP Student Representative
• Alberto Giordano, Geography Faculty Advisor
• Randy Simpson, Biology Faculty Advisor
• Tina Cade, Agriculture Faculty Advisor
• Nancy Nusbaum, Account Manager
• Nathan Lawrence
Guests
• Jonathan Davies - Funkotron
• Jason Sanders, Mario Garza, Zach Halfin, John Montoya – Compost Project
Agenda
 Account Manager Nancy Nusbaum
 Application from Dr. Bonner – Dept. of Biology
 Application for Funkotron River Clean Up
o Sponsors: Dr. Cade & Melody Baker
 Application for Compost Project
o Sponsors: Dr Cade & Mario Garza
Start of Meeting – 5:30PM
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Application for Funkotron River Clean Up - Sponsors: Dr. Cade & Melody Baker
o Clean up from Rio Vista Park to Stokes Park
o Seeking funding to supply food, t-shirts, supplies
o Benefit show for Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance at Tantra Coffee
House
o Outdoor center loaning 3 canoes to the effort
o T-Shirts – one color $2.50
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Application for Compost Project - Sponsors: Dr Cade & Mario Garza
o Educational composting project
o Collecting cardboard from food courts, weeds from the river, composting
at Muler Ranch outside town.
o Need composting bins with signage for collecting food waste and paper
product
o Will use compost on campus
o Divert waste from landfills and bring back to university
o Collect cardboard from Jones diner
o LBJ Lair food court – collect food waste daily and compost at the ranch
o Trailer Cost – need two more quotes on price
o The cost to take the trash off campus is increasing by 5%
 80% of the waste from Jones Diner is OCC
o What about contamination?
 Hand sorting
 Wax Cardboard?
o What about Signage? Does it need to be approved
o Project is modeled on Illinois State Program – San Marcos would be the
first in Texas to make an effort at diverting food waste
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Application from Dr. Bonner – Dept. of Biology
o Chair of Spring Lake Watershed Committee
o Invasive exotic plants - Chinese Tallow
 Highly invasive, 100,000 seeds per tree, allelopathy (kills other
trees/plants near by using its own chemicals)
 Seeds float down stream – making Aquarena the source for Tallow
all the way along the river
o Need the labor and the materials
o Must kill the seeds, make sure they’re not viable (compost?
o Facilities/Grounds will help to cut back the trees – they have the chain
saws and the chemical applicators license
o Workers will be paid time and a half
o It is a very specific procedure and we need to make sure we don’t get
poison in the lake
o How is it sustainable?
 Need control, manage, keep seedlings from coming up
o Where are all these trees?
 Can we get a map of where they are?
o Will the herbicide leech into the ground? Will we be able to revegetate
with the herbicide in place?
o Are there more stands up sink creek that would thwart efforts?
o What can we do besides use herbicide? Is there an organic way?
 Its approved by US Fish and Wildlife
 What about leeching?
 How sustainable is this? Do we need to keep applying herbicide?
o Herbicide breaks down quickly, so won’t remain in soil for a long time.
o What about re-vegetation? Check out the plant palate, ask Dr. Lemke and
Dr. Williamson
o Committee needs to make list of questions for Dr. Bronner to answer
 Phase two? What is the plan for re-vegetation?
 Allelopathic properties of the tallow? How long does it stay in the
soil and keep plants from growing?
 What about the matching funds?
 How long does the herbicide exist and what are the effects on
revegetation?
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Introduction of Danielle Del Castillo Shelton, NAEP Student Representative
o Holistic Management International – International organization that helps
other organizations make decisions
 Training course on how to make decisions
 Used by USDA, US Forest service
o Make presentation to committee about HMI
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Account Manager Nancy Nusbaum
o $67,000 per year 2008 and 2007
o All 2008 purchases have been put through
o Fiscal year = September 1 – August 31
o Does the money roll over?
 We’ll check on that….
 Need to request it w/n a certain period of time?
o Giordano wants to fund grad students and research
o ESC needs a PR budget
o Need Webmaster to get the ESC website up to snuff
 ESC app doesn’t work – needs to be updated
 Should we pay someone
River Clean Up Application - discussion
o Not in favor because there’s not enough time
o Motion to vote Hayat
 Unanimously opposed 7:0
Table other applications until next meeting
Dr. Macey’s GreenPrint proposal never purchased
o Need to get in touch with Macey to find out what happened
o We need to purchase the software for Geography.
Motion to Adjourn - 7:15 PM - Nic
o Second Dr. Cade
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