Travis County Commissioners Court
February 7, 2006
Citizens Communication
Are the representatives here from the -- u.s. Agriculture department and -- okay. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda.
>> thank you. And we do have -- presented an emergency situation in southwest Travis County. We may go over the three minute limit a little bit but this is a sort of an introduction to the problem. And there will be follow-up action over the next few weeks. Yes, sir, if you would give us your full name.
>> yes, my name is george nash, with the united states department of agriculture, animal and plant health inspection service, plant protection and quarantine division. Our office is here in Austin, at 903 san jacinto, suite 270. We have routinely trapped Texas for the presence of gypsy moths every year in cooperation with the Texas department of agriculture. This year it was Travis County's turn to be trapped. There were over 1,000 traps placed in the county. We did detect one asian gypsy moth in Travis County. The detection was three miles west of the oak hill y on highway 290 west. The map that you have here is a depiction of where the trap is located. The yellow square around the map is the one square mile eradication area that usda is proposing to keep this exotic pest getting introduced into Texas. The only other place in the nation that these moths were trapped besides travis counted is california. A very brief background the european strain of gypsy moth is established in the northeast, states like pennsylvania, highway, new jersey, new york. This is an asian variety. The major difference between the two, the european female that is established in the northeast, she is incapable of flight. When she emerges from her pupae and becomes an adult she cannot fly. Asian moths can fly up to 20 kilometers, 13 miles annually. U.s.d.a. Takes this position of a one mile treatment zone, it's been done in idaho, oregon, washington state within the last four years. The one square mile of application of either b.t., the preferred control, or mating disruption has been effective in the other three states and this exotic pest has not been able to establish.
>> you used an initial there, v.t.?
>> b.t.
>> bacillus --
>> you want to translate that.
>> it is a naturally occurring soil bacteria I can't. If you listen to john drumgold on klbj he has recommended that particular compound in the past for many of the native pests in Texas. Gypsy moth feeds primarily on oaks, live oak, red oak, burrel, pin oak. I have asked the Texas forest service to go out into the one square mile, tell us what species were out there. The area is 90% live oak or cedar. Unfortunately, gypsy moth does not feed on cedar. It will feed all of the oak species that are present as well as several of the other deciduous, the trees that lose their leaves, those species in the area.
>> mr. Nash, can you describe the proposed action plan for us?
>> we will be bringing a crew in this week. We met with Commissioner Daugherty and his staff as well as the Travis County emergency management board, Texas department of agriculture, Texas emergency management board, Travis County natural resources group, the Travis County extension yesterday. We will actually be going door to door to all of the residences in the one square mile. We will provide them with an information packet similar to what I have presented to the Commissioners. We will ask them to voluntarily allow us to conduct the treatment on their property at no cost to them. If we go with b.t. It will require three treatments starting approximately March 12th. If we go with the mating disruption, it will require one treatment, the last week of April. We intend to hold an open house public information forum at the Austin community college pinnacle campus just outside the spray block, Saturday the 18th of February from 10:00 a.m. To noon. We will advertise that meeting in the Austin american-statesman all of next week, Monday through Saturday. The intent here is to try to get in and conduct the treatment without having to impose any significant quarantine measures on Travis County.
>> and should those who live outside the one-mile square area, be concerned about this problem? Also?
>> they -- the traffic data that -- trapping date that that we have, only positive trap find. We will not conduct any treatment out of the one square mile. We are going to provide educational material to people interested county-wide in case they want to look at the pest on their own. We have consulted with the u.s. Fish and wildlife for any endangered species in the control block. The reason we are recommending b.t. And mating disruption which is simply the scent of a female gypsy moth, not actually an insecticide at all, because black cheeked warbler and vireo are expected to be within the block during treatment. We have also consulted with Texas park and wildlife there are no state listed endangered species in the one mile treatment area as well. We are also going to conduct -- being done right now in washington d.c., an environmental assessment. So that all of the national environmental policy act requirements are met. That is one of the reasons we're going door to door to make sure all of the people in the one mile that are going to be impacted by the control are aware of it and have ample opportunity to comment. We do not expect any impacts on anyone outside of the one square mile block.
>> our friends at the Austin city council will be meeting this Thursday. Are you going to have the same opportunity to do this kind of announcement at their meeting? Because they also -- they probably have higher ratings that we do, but it is something that would get the attention of the environmental community on channel 6.
>> if they are willing to invite me, I would be more than willing to attend.
>> they also have a citizens communication opportunity.
>> we need 100% of those that live in the affected area.
>> yes, sir.
>> and if we do not get 100% voluntary cooperation, what is the next step?
>> the next step would be for either the state department of agriculture to implement quarantine on the one square mile block or for the united states department of agriculture to declare an extraordinary emergency that actually takes the consent of the secretary of agriculture and it would be determined that that -- at that level that the secretary of agriculture's level, what geographic area would be quarantined. The reason that we are trying to get the 100% cooperation is to try to prevent establishment of a quarantine in Travis County.
>> okay. I do think that we ought to try to come up with a simple description of the affected area so we can make that available to the public. And then the county's contact person would be -- is the extension service or Travis County extension service, do you know that number offhand, pete? We would like to because I expect people who may see the map on television to wonder whether they live inside or outside the affected area. We will try to have a simple description of that that we can share with the public. Mr. Nash will be here with us I guess a few weeks now?
>> I can come back as often as you need me to.
>> okay.
>> so the door to door campaign will start --
>> no later than this Thursday.
>> and then there will be a meeting at the a.c.c. Summit campus on March 12th.
>> March 18th. Excuse me, February 18th.
>> February 18th. That's a Saturday, from 10:00 to noon. And like I said, it's three miles west of the oak hill y on highway 290. It's where the trap is located.
>> okay.
>> I know some of our radio stations take actually a feed through their stations that are not physically here, so okay l.b.j. If you are listening to, there please see if you can get this on your newscast.
>> this was called to our attention yesterday so we are still putting information together. Residents with questions can contact I guess any member of the court and we can get you the relevant information. But beginning Thursday of this week somebody from the usda and the Texas department of agriculture, also?
>> yes, sir. The -- one of the documents that I have handed out to you is the consent form that we need from the general public. There are telephone numbers on there for the public to call for u.s.d.a. And t.d.a. After I sent that out t.d.a. Is going to change their contact person, we will revise that letter and it will go out with the correct name and number on it this Thursday.
>> okay. If we get phone calls, seems to me to make sense to print up some of these front and back and be ready for distribution. But if you are concerned about this, think that you may be affected, if you will contact any members of the Commissioners court, we will make sure to send you a copy of this and try to help you determine how you may be affected and what follow-up steps you can take. Please plan to attend that meeting at the summit, though. If you live in -- in southwest Travis County. I?m still not sure exactly where it is, but we will have that to share with people who call in. And, john?
>> yes, judge. John kuhl, environmental officer. I did not meet you yesterday but I?m glad that you are here. My staff is committed to helping with this process and -- within the natural resources group. And we -- we plan, you know, distilling the information to get simple fact sheet out. We are planning actually to bring it back to the agenda within a week or so. So that we can have, you know, a more crystallized plan and set of informational handouts and so forth and more than likely, I mean, it sounds like something that merits at least link on our website as well. That's kind of our plan.
>> an alert on the front page of the website.
>> right.
>> this I take it is a serious matter that we need to get on as quickly as possible.
>> yes, sir, as I said, if we are going to go with bt which is the first choice, we would need to start aerial applications on March 12th. We are about 33 days out. From when that could be effectively done.
>> I take it that the worst thing that could happen would be for this to spread to other areas.
>> the goal is to get on it immediately and stop it.
>> that's the plan.
>> judge, one thing that we talked about yesterday with george, the likelihood of getting 100% -- I mean, you couldn't get 100% of Travis County if you told them that you were going to get them a thousand dollars each, somebody would want 2,000. So this is not going to happen specially given the fact that it's a chemical that's being applied, but I think that we -- that we need to be aware that it very well go to plan b, george couldn't very well, you know, make that call because the -- you know, his higher ups say no you have to go through this process. But there's -- there's probably never been anything that you all have done where you've had 100% buy-in. So given that that is likely and so I asked the question yesterday in the event that you go out and the first couple of days you -- you get to -- to 200 people and -- and 40 of those people, I mean, you know, 20%, whatever you want to call it, is telling you know, I?m not going to be supportive of that, well then I think that that's the news that george then needs to take to -- to the feds, I mean, to the big office and say okay we are not going to get buy-in here. Now this is what we need, this is what we need to do. I don't know that people can explain all of that door to door, so given that this is most likely something that's going to be the case, we need to -- I would like for the court to understand that that probably is going to be what happens in this situation.
>> right. Several issues there, it's classified as biological, it's not technically a chemcal. The pheremone is just that, not even classified as an insecticide. We will not refer to either of these as a chemical application. Secondly, based on the comments that I received from y'all at the meeting yesterday, as you recall I encouraged you to e-mail me your concerns that we would not get 100% cooperation. I have already forwarded that information up the chain this morning prior to attending this meeting. That you the it was the consensus -- that it was the consensus I felt of the Travis County government agencies yesterday that 100% cooperation was not attainable. I have already sent that to my regional office as well as to my regional director before I attended the meeting this morning.
>> this is 100% of all occupied homes within the area?
>> it's 100% of all landowners and unfortunately that's going to have to include all of the absentee folks. We are estimating right now that we are probably looking at 20% absentee off of the preliminary data that we have gotten. Those people we will do mailouts to, that will start no later than Monday morning. They will all go out next day mail receipt return through the postal service.
>> we chatted yesterday it was too late to get it on the agenda. We thought it would be a good idea to cover it during citizens communication, especially since action needs to be taken on Thursday of this week. We are certainly available to help in any way we can. Including staying out of your with way if we need to, but we look forward to working with you.
>> I appreciate your support. Like I said, we will start no later than Thursday morning. We will start with the businesses on 290 first. And then once we get all of those contacted then we will move out to the individual properties and the homeowners.
>> let me ask you one question from you conclude. When you begin the process, how long will it take you to get to the end result of the process, normally in a window model or an average beginning to deal with this --
>> several steps in the process. We feel that we can complete the door to door in this area because it's not very heavily populated in well under a week. To give you an example, we did a similar process and -- in dallas/fort worth, right in the center of town, we contacted 800 properties in less than 14 days door to door. The applications b.t. Will require three treatments seven days a part. Seven days apart. If we start March 12th, follow up March 19th, final March 26th. Mating digs ruption only requires one treatment. If we started to apply that April 24th, just to throw a date out, we would be done that day. All of this control work will be done at no cost to the landowners or to the county.
>> okay. Thank for you that explanation.
>> the information packet is about -- about 30 pages?
>> yes, sir. I know that you wanted me to condense that down yesterday, but it's just to the point where it's easier for me to give you as much as I can up front and answer your questions than have to try to come back and provide you with more information.
>> I was about to say this answers most questions, but for those who don't want to read this much we are trying to put together a shorter version of the same information. But the door to door is meant to be more than a casual conversation. It is to alert people as to the problem and if they have questions they will be able to get those questions answered there, too, right?
>> yes, sir. We will spend the appropriate amount of time to answer any questions or concerns that they have during the door to door process. We will also offer them the opportunity to read the packet and comma additional comments at the open house on February 18th.
>> okay. We will try to help you work through this.
>> thank you, sir.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> george, could you give us a number to reach you? Some people may need to reach you.
>> 916-5241. I will be going outdoor to door, briefing my crew tomorrow, I have a cell phone, my secretary can always forward the calls.
>> but this 916 number, somebody could say I watched that on the Commissioners court, didn't really understand it, what number could I call somebody immediately.
>> uh-huh, we intend to have a person come in next Monday after the majority of the door to door work is done over the weekend to do nothing but answer the phone and answer questions at that number.
>> great.
>> okay.
>> thank you, george.
>> thank you very much.
>> now, mr. Schnieder we bumped you due to the fact that mr. Nash we asked him to come down make a special appearance to alert our residents, but kenneth schnieder is next.
>> kenneth snyder, north ridge acres. [indiscernible] jacked our rates up again, $65, 2,000-gallons of water. He said that -- that the commercial rates I?m at a commercial rate because I sell puppies out of my house. They charge me a commercial rate. Next month I won't have any water. My water bill this month was $90. For -- for 9,000 gallons of water. Our water bills is higher than our electric bills. I don't know how we can live out there. A lot of families out there right now with no matter. 30 families sitting out there with no water. Now that means 30, 40, 50, more people living without water. But -- we need water and sewer so bad out there, but dan worked so hard to get this water and stuff out there. Here it is two years so -- I am putting my place up for sale, get out of the area, leave the neighborhood. My property rights is violation -- violated. We never can't do anything on our property. I just got fined for, a -- fined for having a car in the driveway, in the yard, 8-foot fence all the way around it. Williamson county came out there and give me a fine. Environmental detention or whatever you want to call it. It's all right. Sewer running down the streets, ditches out there look like rivers, it's all right, that's no problem. We called them out there to help us for problems like this here. There's no problem there. But you have a car in the driveway, they say that's an environmental problem. It's a health risk to have a car sitting in the driveway. People out there is low income area. They have cars in the yard, sure. We use those -- I taken work out of my house. Try to make any dime that I can just to pay the taxes on it. Trying to raise the taxes out there and like I tried to tell them at the police station, I said, how are you going to raise taxes out here on people when they put auction block later on. But ain't going to work anymore out there until we get water and sewer out there. That land ain't going to be worth a dime any more than it is right now. Developers going out there buying land right and left for 50 and $60,000. Hoping later on, they can sell for it 152,000. You can't get no money out of your land because it ain't worth nothing. People setting up there with hot houses because they can't get sewer. Using hot houses. It's a colonial neighborhood just about 10 miles down the road. They come out here and want to fine us because we have got a car in the yard barely making ends meet. Buy a car, fix them up, sell them, use them for parts whatever. You have to have a fort, board it off, fences everything else just to be able to live in your home that you worked and worked and worked and tried to pay for to buy. Everybody's dream is to have a house, but I think everybody's dream, the environmental people and everything, I think their dream is put everybody in apartments. The only one that's can have the house is the rich. Lawyers, doctors, they are the only one that's can be able to live to afford in a house. Two or three thousand dollars a year taxes, every Thursday at the courthouse on account of the taxes so high, somebody trying to make a living out of his home where he can be able to pay his taxes, live like human beings, make an honest living, not dealing in drugs, stealing, robbing, killing, you complaint do it anymore. Everything is to durn high. The Commissioners court, cities, counties, everybody, every time you turn around a new law, new law, new law. The health department used to going out to talk to people everything. Now a new environmental department. More and more money for taxes it's going up and up and up where people can't afford to pay it. Their families, thank god I ain't got no kid. But people with kids out there and everything, going out there and robbing banks and everything, they have to live some way. They ain't going to let them kids starve. We live in colonial, unincorporated area, a $300 ticket, give me wife a $300 ticket because we have got a car sitting in the card. I don't understand this here. It was on tv the other day about the city of Austin. I can almost understand a little bit on the city of Austin because it's -- they have all of the facilities here and everything. We ain't got nothing out there. They don't drop these taxes home ain't nobody going to have a home unless the rich. Ridiculous, too many laws. I?m going to the supreme court to fight this here. I probably won't be able to. I?m going to have to give my place away to get out from under all this here mess. It's a risk living out there. It really is.
>> mr. Schnieder, I want to make sure that the ticket that you got was from the Williamson county health department not the Travis County.
>> no it wasn't the health department environmental detention or whatever.
>> was that in Williamson county.
>> it's in Williamson county.
>> I?m making sure in terms of what are things that we have gotten. I would appreciate getting an update from whenever in terms of the -- of the -- the program to get these folks permanently on water and wastewater. I know dan smith --
>> I feel so sorry for dan.
>> we have funded that mr. Snyder, I would like to -- an update whenever that is back.
>> I fought that for 20 years, trying to get help out there and everything. I told the judge I wasn't coming up here no more. Two years now and everything. Probably won't be anymore because I?m going to put my house up sale and get out. Move into another county where we can live like human beings, don't have to live like livestock.
>> it's --
>> taxes ridiculous anyway.
>> mr. Snyder, it's good to see you up and about. I know that you have been ill. It really is good to hear your voice again. It's been a little missed around here for a while. Continues that have gotten kind of straightened out. With this history I know that there are continuing issues, but still good to hear you and see you up and about. I wish you well.
>> I?ve had two heart attacks already. I don't know if I?m going to live much longer, but I don't think that I will ever see anything done out there. I feel sorry for dan. He worked so hard on this thing. But -- but it's got a lot of -- this king, I can't understand how king can do the things that he's been doing to people out there. Raped out there for so many years, he's got it on there for improvements. The only thing that's going to improve is king's pocket. He ain't done nothing out there. In five years, six years since he had the place. It's -- I don't understand it. I will be glad when the city does put the water in there and then work on the sewer everything. Live like human beings. I worked four jobs when I first started out, I bought that house. I thought that I have something to make a living off of, pay my taxes, make an honest living everything, then I have to board the place up like a fortress because you want to have a car in the yard. Environmental deal for the cars, they have inspection iferg, we don't pass, you can't get your car inspected it's not any good.
>> thank you.
>> new cars everything.
>> I don't think there's that much pollution around anyway. [indiscernible] worse.
>> consent items are next.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 10:44 AM