ZTA 20-01 would allow 3 square miles of commercial solar in the Ag Reserve with scant protections for productive soils, water quality, forests or habitat. There are deep concerns about this provision - the Ag community is unanimous against it and a wide coalition of civic organizations and residents both up and down county have made their concerns known (much more here).  The council had decided in October to gather more stakeholder input, along with the "town hall" that took place virtually on 11/5, a working group is being convened to discuss possible changes to this provision. 

We are dedicated to getting solar right in Montgomery County and will be digging in to our role on this working group.

However, the make up of the group, seen below, could be improved by adding a representative of a Community Solar company that sells directly to consumers and moreover by adding representation of different types of farming (table crops, livestock, orchards, etc). 

As it says below, there are opportunities for the public to weigh in during this working group process between now and January. Please read on to see how you can continue to submit your concerns, and please stay tuned!

Farm Solar Stakeholder Workgroup
 
Task/Scope
Discuss any amendments to ZTA 20-01 and identify whether there are amendments that are agreeable to all participants; produce a memorandum or report by January 1, 2021 summarizing deliberations. 
 
Membership
Agriculture
Randy Stabler ( Ag Reserve Commodity Producer)
Doug Lechlider (Ag Reserve Commodity Producer)

Preservation
Caroline Taylor (MCA's Executive Director)
Lauren Greenberger (Sugarloaf Citizens Association) 

Environment
Doug Boucher (Solar Advocate)
Al Bartlett ( Montgomery County Sierra Club (in favor of the ZTA)) 

Industry
Leslie Elder (Coalition for Community Solar Access)
Frances Yuhas (Project Development at TurningPoint Energy)

 
Leadership
Workgroup members will elect two co-chairs to form agendas and lead the meetings. Council staff will assist the workgroup.
 
Meeting Schedule
All meetings will be held virtually (Zoom). Members of the public are welcome to attend and listen, but will be asked to RSVP by email to Carmen Kaarid ([email protected]) of Council President Katz’s office. 
 
November 17, 6:30-8:30pm
December 2, 6:30-8:30pm
December 10, 6:30-8:30pm
December 16, 6:30-8:30pm (if necessary)
 
Documents for Deliberations
Stakeholder workgroup documents will be posted to a Google Drive folder accessible to the public. Visit the Stakeholder Workgroup Google Drive >>
 
Public Comments
Members of the public are encouraged to provide recommended amendments and any supporting analysis for the workgroup to review by emailing County Council staff member Jeffrey Zyontz at [email protected]. Comments received by Mr. Zyontz will also be shared with the Joint Committee in the background memorandum for the meeting.
 
Staff Contacts
County Council staff: Jeffrey Zyontz, [email protected]
Councilmember Riemer’s office: Tommy Heyboer, [email protected]
Council President Katz’s office: Laurie Edberg, [email protected] 
Council President Katz’s office (for scheduling issues): Carmen Kaarid, [email protected] 

Frost kissed crops at Farm at Our House in Brookeville

We've remarked before on how farmers have stepped up in the pandemic to provide more and more local food to hungry neighbors as local becomes the new normal. This increased activity has not stopped despite the coming of winter. Farmers are using season extension structures, both low and high tunnels to keep snow off plants. As we round the calendar to a new year, the low temperatures only concentrate the sugars and improve the taste of winter veggies - broccoli, kale, collards and root veggies. 

MoCo Farms One Acre Farm and also Farm at Our House are offering winter shares of their CSA programs (Community Supported Agriculture). Many Farmers Markets continue all year round as well. 

MCA has been productively engaged with farmers, other civic orgs and solar industry representatives in a work group to amend ZTA 20-01. As currently written this proposal will allow 3 square miles of commercial solar arrays in the Agricultural Reserve with scant protections for productive soils, forests and water quality. (full fact sheet here)

A number of local environmental groups have been engaged to urge that solar siting in the county take protection of natural resources into account. Adding to the list, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The most recent copy of Bay Journal has an illuminating piece from long time land use expert Lee Epstein, the director of Lands programs at CBF.  It reads in part: 

This article is one of many documents in the google drive for the solar working group. Though only given 4 meetings to discuss possible amendments to the ZTA, the work group will continue to meet. In the absence of the County's infrastructure to host this virtual meeting and make it open to the public, MCA has stepped up to do so. Please stay tuned. 

​Noted water research scientist, Dr. Ahmed Kettab declared in April of this year that “Water for everyone is everyone’s business.” He and other world scientist were responding to dire climate change forecasts that predict that by 2030 water scarcity will affect 40% of the world’s populace. Currently 25% of global population is in severe water stress. By 2050 demand for water will increase by 40%.

Even though we know intuitively that the worlds water endlessly cycles and does not know boundaries of any sort - one could ask - what does all this  dire news mean to us? 

Closer to home, the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, ICPRB, released its report: Demand and Resource Availability for the Year 2050. It is a sobering read that details the potential impact of climate change and increased water demand on the Washington Metropolitan Area water supply. It was conducted on behalf of the Fairfax County Water Authority, WSSC and the US Army Corps of Engineers, Water Aqueduct Division.
The ICPRB has known for some time that our region’s water supply will be faced with significant challenges in meeting demand during projected periods of drought. They are diligently working to address this. The system of existing reservoirs will be called to use more frequently and will not provide enough water in times of stress and so 4 new proposed reservoirs are in the works:
Travilah Quarry in Potomac and Luck Stone Quarry B in Loudon County and the Vulcan and Milston Quarries. 

The ICPRB reports warns that even with the addition of these new quarries which will add 13 billion gallons of water storage capacity, coupled with water restrictions and demand management we may not be able to meet our water needs during the predicted future periods of extreme drought. The report also warns that without the addition of the 7.8 million gallon Travilah Quarry the WMA may experience periodic failures by 2040. 

And yet, despite this dire forecast for our region, we continue to practice business as usual, no where more so than in the siting of development which has an impact on both the speed aquifers are recharged and the quality of the water in our streams. The Friends of Ten Mile Creek are leading the charge to enforce impervious caps in the fragile Ten Mile Creek watershed where the build out of Clarksburg is continuing without regard for the master plan.  The Thrive 2050 plan that will chart the County's land use for the coming generation also needs to be taking this water- strapped reality into account. For our part at MCA we, are reforesting stream buffers to clean water before it reached the reservoir through our Re-Leaf the Reserve program. 

Learn More:
-The case of the communicating wells - a Poolesville Story
- All about the federally designated sole source aquifer that much of the Reserve relies upon for well water. 
-Journal of Nature Communications - Impacts of Climate Change on Groundwater
-USGS - Impacts of Climate Variation on Groundwater
​-Journal of Hydrology - Groundwater Impacts and Adaptation

Landmark new reporting shows that we won't able to count on food from the South and West coast for much longer. Enter the Ag Reserve. 

A new exhaustive study from Pro Publica has yielded the next in a series of alarming maps about climate change. This time, interactive maps and charts show where the threats of climate change will be felt most acutely in the near term - as soon as 2040. 

Of note - the map that shows the shift in table crop production. Away from the South and California, areas we have relied on for out of season produce and vegetables, and toward our own backyard in the mid-Atlantic.  (Purple means decline in yields, green means increase - darker= higher decline or gain). 

If the flavor, transportation costs, carbon savings and economic benefits of local food were not enough, climate change is making food trucked in from elsewhere simply unavailable - and we need to be ready. ​

Montgomery County had the foresight to protect 1/3 of it's land mass for agriculture 40 years ago and the fortitude to maintain the primacy of farming in the zone since then. MCA has matched new and expanding farmers with over 500 acres of land in Montgomery County to grow the next generation of farmers through our Land Link program.  We need each and every new table crop operation we can get growing to add to the generations of expertise and production our legacy farmers offer if the Ag Reserve is going to fulfill its promise of bountiful local food production. 

Yet, at this time where the food growing potential (and water quality protection, more dire projections here)  of the Reserve is more important than ever, the singular purpose of the Agriculture Reserve is being questioned. ZTA 20-01 would allow 3 square miles of commercial solar arrays with no real protections for forests, productive soils or water quality. What's more - the economic impact won't even be studied as part of this proposal - even though landowners report offers for their land 10-20 times what farmers are paying and some farmers are reporting  the loss  of lease contracts as the result of this ZTA even being proposed.  (60% of Reserve farming is done on leased land). 

The Reserve has a role to play in meeting carbon mitigation goals, including reforestation efforts and scaling up regenerative agriculture practices. But as the threats of warming become more and more concrete, this area set aside for Agriculture is a strategic investment in just that - growing our food in a rapidly warming world. 

The Planning Board hearing for the proposed Pulte Development "Creekside at Cabin Branch" is now scheduled for December 3, 2020. This hearing will determine the development plans that Pulte has put forward. Your letters and support for the preservation of the Ten Mile Creek Watershed are truly needed if we have any chance of reducing this poorly conceived development.Our concerns are the following:

• According to the county Master Plan, impervious levels (the amount of pavement that allows runoff into streams) in this fragile headwaters area of the watershed can not go above 5% impervious surface without serious degradation of Ten Mile Creek and the reservoir. An investigation of the project shows impervious levels will reach between 7-12%.
• The 5% cap enshrined in the Master Plan is based on decades of water quality monitoring. Development projects in this fragile area must be curtailed to preserve our drinking water supply. Pulte's "Creekside" project must be reduced in scale by 50% and remove the two portions that plunge deeply into the watershed.
• Adjacent Cabin Branch Creek also feeds the reservoir and has impaired water quality as the result of a massive development. We have the opportunity to avoid this mistake in the County's most fragile watershed.