Good morning and welcome to an environment protection commission meeting this morning.

Let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation given by Commissioner Cameron Cepeda.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God indivisible with every feet and justice for all.

Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning with grateful hearts.

We thank you for the countless blessings that you've poured into our lives in this great nation, and we are humbled by your goodness and your grace.

And we especially thank you today for the bright and gifted young students in our schools for the wisdom and knowledge that you've placed within them.

We thank you for giving them insight, foresight, and creative minds that are already envisioning ways to protect our natural resources, our land, our environment, and the future that you've entrusted us with, all of us.

And Lord, today we ask you for a very special blessing over Kohana Paul Basu, who will be honored and recognized at this meeting.

Father, you placed extraordinary gifts and talents within her, and today we celebrate the fruit of her dedication.

And we ask you to watch over them and keep them safe.

And Lord, wrap your peace around every family member who's waiting for them at home.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Camus of Peter for doing the holy Pledge of Allegiance and invocation.

We have roll call, please.

No, Commissioner.

Move up approval.

Okay.

Good morning, Commissioners.

It's always my privilege to we do this annually, this environmental merit award winner, and each year they get better and better.

I am so impressed with our STEM and STEAM scientists that are coming through the high schools.

This year, Commissioners, we are pleased to present the EPC Scholastic Environmental Merit Award from the Hillsborough County Regional STEM Project that best exemplifies sound science and environmental stewardship principles.

The 2026 recipient is Kohana Pal Basu, a sophomore at Middleton High School.

And she is joined by her mother, Dr.

Muha.

I hope I'm gonna get this right.

Kohana is passionate about the environment and its impact on global health, particularly cancer.

The goal of her science project is to address the issue of arsenic contamination and groundwater.

I think I was just talking about that with Commissioner Woosteel.

She designed a protein that binds itself to arsenic in order to remove it from drinking water.

Kohana is also involved in the arts through dance and music, and she aspires to pursue a career in oncology in her future.

Today, Kohana receives an APC Environmental Merit Award certificate, an EPC gift pack, and a family of four membership to the Florida Aquarium.

We thank the aquarium for its annual support and generous donation of the m of for this membership, which they give every year.

The Giving Tree, which is giving all you can.

And I don't even need to give this to Kohana because she already knows.

What do you do with an idea?

So very impressive.

And to let you know, in south of us, they store a billion ground uh billion gallons of groundwater through aquafour storage and recovery.

Up here in the Tampa Bay area, we use a reservoir, which can lead to evapotranspiration, but there's arsenic naturally occurring in the ground.

And so when you have to bring that water up, you have to there's an arsenic interface.

So Kohana could go on to be another, you know, billionaire who gets this wonderful idea.

So I recommend you patent it.

But with that, I would say I'm so impressed.

So Kohana, if you and your parents could come up and say a few words.

Come on up, Mama Dad.

Um, I would like to say thank you so much to the EPC for recognizing my project and inviting me here today.

I would also like to thank um Dr.

Rutupona Samantha from Samantha Lab at USF for guiding me to this project and my teacher from Middleton High School, Miss Cool Carney, for her continuous support.

Um, my project focuses on designing a protein computationally that removes arsenic 3 plus from contaminated drinking water.

Arsenic contamination affects 220 million people globally and is considered the largest case of mass poisoning in history.

And not much has been done industrially to combat this issue yet.

I'm very excited to be presenting my work at ICEF in May, and I'm going, I'm hoping to come back at the regional STEM Fair to present my future findings.

In the future, I plan to conduct molecular dynamics to try to computationally validate my work and my protein.

And I also want to conduct an experiment in a lab to construct this protein in a wet lab.

And I also would love to present more details of my work to the EPC in the future.

Thank you so much again for recognizing my project.

Oh, thank you.

Young lady, you're going somewhere as you close one chapter and start a new one.

We wish you the best in your future endeavor.

We are very proud of you.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Any other commissioners?

Congratulations.

Amazing.

Thank you.

And now we'll have Commissioner Cohen to present a proclamation declare in May as American Wetlands Month.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Today we are acknowledging and supporting American Wetlands Month, which will take place next month in May, and has been celebrated nationally since 1991.

Wetlands are essential for a healthy and productive Tampa Bay.

Since the inception of the EPC wetlands division, staff have protected these valuable ecosystems for Hillsbrook County residents.

With this American Wetlands Month Proclamation, we encourage all residents and visitors to help support the EPC's mission to safeguard the county's wetland habitats and its overall ecosystem.

The proclamation reads whereas wetlands are critical for protecting the quality of Hillsbrook County's aquifer, creeks, lakes, rivers, and springs, in addition to sustaining the region's ecosystem and maintaining flood control.

And whereas wetlands are essential for a healthy and productive Tampa Bay, stabilizing shorelines, providing nurseries for fish and rookeries for birds, and serving as an important habitat for numerous estuary species.

And whereas the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsbrook County promotes public awareness of the county's valuable wetlands, often referred to as nature's kidneys.

And whereas the Environmental Protection Commission supports efforts to safeguard and conserve local wetlands, illustrating the organization's mission to protect the county's natural resources and quality of life.

And whereas since the inception of the Environmental Protection Commission's wetland program, wetland impacts have been mitigated through creation, enhancement, and preservation thereof by achieving zero net loss.

And whereas the EPC appreciates residents and numerous organizations and agencies for their stewardship in the conservation of the county's wetlands habitats, and whereas American Wetlands Month is an opportunity for residents, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland conservation standards and the benefits from these rich environmental resources.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsbrook County, Florida, does hereby declare May 2026 as American Wetlands Month in Hillsborough County and encourages all residents and visitors to help support the Environmental Protection Commission in our mission to safeguard the county's wetland habitats and its overall ecosystem executed the 16th day of April 2026.

Thank you, Commissioner Coyne.

And I think we're going to take a picture with the proclamation.

Okay.

So moved.

Yes.

Motion carries seven to zero.

Thank you.

Okay, Janet, we had to regular agenda now.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Happy Thursday.

Happy Thursday.

Um it is such a pleasure today.

We we are, I'm supporting USF, got my bull's color on, got my pen on, but USF is a premier university.

And our presentations today are by some of the top-notch scientists.

Um the first one that I will be, and I would like the the board to know that I think in 2016 or 2017, the current governor established a chief scientist for the state.

And the first one was Tom Fraser, who uh couldn't be here today.

I had he was invited, and we work very closely together.

And the second one is Mark Rains, and he is currently at the both of them are from USF, and we have a lot of premier universities in the state, but USF is really top notch for environmental science.

So with that, I'm going to introduce our first speaker, and I'd like to just introduce his guests with him.

We have Cheryl Gilbert who works very closely with Dr.

Markowski.

And I wanted to introduce Howard Rutherford.

He is amazing.

He is assistant vice president for development at USF.

And I met him through the College of Marine Science when my late husband had a and he still has a fellowship there.

So he does some amazing work so that these students have the ability to be able to afford and go through the USF program and come out with some great science on the other side.

So thank you so much for being here today.

So with that, I'm gonna ask uh Dr.

Steven Rurkowski to come up to the podium.

I'm gonna give you just a brief bio about him.

Um he is the downtown partnership and Peter Betzer, endowed chair of biological oceanography at USS College of Marine Science.

He is a fishery biologist and marine ecologist involved in understanding the impacts of human activities on the sustainable ocean of ecosystems.

Dr.

Murkowski formerly served as chief scientist of the National Marine Fisheries Service and has a long record of achievement in providing scientific information necessary for sustainable use of living marine resources.

He is the recipient of the American Fisheries Society's Award of Excellence, the Department of Commerce's gold medal, the senior executive service meritorious rank award, and as an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among many other professional awards.

So Dr.

Merkowski, it's so great to have you here today, and I can't wait to hear your presentation.

His presentation today, Commissioners, is 9A, and I will let him tell you what it is, but it has to do with marine life and pollution and toxicology.

Good morning.

Yeah, thank you all very much for inviting us to participate today.

You know, uh every time I hear uh like the bio being read, the older I get, the more it sounds like an obituary.

So I I you know it will not be that today.

Um so thank you all very much for uh allowing us to present today uh on our project, which is funded by EPC, and I wanted to frame it in the context of a larger set of projects that we've been conducting since 2020, uh looking at uh both uh uh contaminants of emerging concern and also can't contaminants of known concern in the bay.

And our work uh today I'll I'll focus on Hillsborough Bay and McKay Bay, uh, which are uh obviously important to you all in terms of um uh pollution related studies, and so a number of my colleagues are here as well today.

Let me see.

Yes.

So in terms of uh contaminants of emerging concern and and known concern, the CECs are are things that I'm sure you're well aware of, uh PFAS compounds, which you know are certainly in the news these days and very important, but they also include a wide variety of other uh emerging concern chemicals, and they include pharmaceuticals.

Um we found lots and lots of different pharmaceuticals that work their way you know through the wastewater treatment system and into the bay, um phthalates, which are plasticizers, uh personal care products, um, UV filters and flame retardants among a variety of other things as well.

And they're they're contrasted with the what we know to be pollutants of uh known concern, including banned pesticides like DDT, PCBs, um radionucleides, which are actually an issue in Tampa Bay, um uh PAHs, which are basically oil pollution and toxic metals like mercury.

So um uh a whole variety of things that we're trying to actually assess.

So, in terms of um contaminants of known concern and debate, it's quite interesting because since 1985, um the uh uh National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been monitoring Tampa Bay in terms of these known pollutants, and they have six sites, including at the um seaplane base at this at the tip of Davis Island, that's one of their sites.

And if you look at these graphics, um they depict um things like uh banned pesticides, uh DDT and its uh and its uh uh derivative products uh and and PCBs, and you can see the trends are going down.

So the question is are we um going down in the things that we know about and coming up in the things that we know very little about?

And and that of course is the the central theme of our research.

Um so, in terms of um the projects that we've undertaken that kind of frame what we're doing with you.

Um we've had four previously funded projects in the bay, and it's uh under an umbrella that we're calling the Tampa Bay Surveillance Project.

Um we also have um money that has come in uh through congressional funding, um, also through the um uh National Sea Grant Program through South Carolina, and of course what we're we're doing here.

The C grant project focuses primarily on barnacles, which as it turns out are a great monitor.

You know, uh they're everywhere, they're ubiquitous, um, they grow really quickly, and so if we can monitor these things, we can actually figure out um what's going on in in near real time.

And so we've got a whole series of barnacle monitors out in the bay.

And then we also have this project called Tampa Bay Reach, which is primarily sampling uh recreational fishers.

And recreational fishers include not only the people that are out for sport, but people that are subsistence fishing in the bay.

And that's a very significant factor in people's um uh balance of uh uh food insecurity.

And so the more we sample people, the more we find out about how how much people are eating out of the bay, which is a concern, right?

Um so, in terms of the objectives of the uh project that you all funded, we're obviously evaluating uh concentrations of pollutants of PFAS and uh uh polychlorinated by phenols and other things uh in selected sediments and recreational uh caught fishes, both and invertebrates, both in McKay Bay and the and its tributary, the Palm River.

Um you all uh funded a study in 2014 to look at contaminants uh in the sediments of uh McKay Bay, and so that's one of the studies that we're going to replicate so we can see if there's any trajectory.

And then um we also want to establish a baseline for patterns of sport fishing effort and actually subsistence uh consumption of oysters in McKay Bay as well, and so that's part of what we're doing.

Um it's a really interesting area, and if you look at the map here, you can see the areas where you've actually done some work in sediments before.

Um we've done some sampling of fishes in the region.

I point out a couple of places, um, the Tampa Bay Fire and Rescue site uh as well as the uh Tampa Bay Police Department's gun range, which are there.

Um very interesting areas in terms of the potential pollutants that we're looking for.

Um and if you look at this um inset, this is from the um uh Florida DEP.

So they've isolated basically in that square.

That's the place where there were um uh uh the fire and rescue were basically setting fires and putting them out with A triple F, which is aqueous uh firefighting foam.

And so this is an area of concern and and and uh uh A triple F has a high uh level of P uh PAH uh sorry um uh high level of a number of the chemicals that are concerned to us.

And if you see on the right hand side there, there's a wetland.

And so one of that's one of the areas where we really want to sample to see if um we've got runoff from that site, you know, particularly for um you know some of these uh more problematic chemicals.

Um there are other uh pollution uh sources that we're tracking in in Tampa Bay.

Um we got access to Mc McDill to uh actually sample the fishes around uh uh the estuary there.

And if you if you look at that map, over on the the right-hand side of the McDill map, there's a tributary that runs through there, and so that's that's an area of of high concentrations of red fish in Snook, for example, in an area that we've sampled.

And as well on the right-hand uh picture, um that is the discharge from the uh Howard Current uh plant, and and that's discharging about 50 million gallons a day between those two pilings, right?

So we've got our barnacles set up there, we've cut recreational fishes right next to it.

So we're really trying to track you know what might be coming from these sources.

Um so in terms of um the PFAS results that we've got so far, um, if you look at the uh graph on the right, um the color coding of all those little dots are the concentrations of PFAS that we've got.

Uh and the redder the dot, the higher the concentrations, and you can see those red dots lined up around McDill.

Um it's a very um, it's a very polluted site in terms of uh relative concentrations of PFAS.

And interestingly, um the drinking water standard for PFAS is around four parts per trillion, and we've um actually sampled them up to 34,000 parts per trillion in some of the fish in the bay.

Um as you can see that as you get closer to the mouth of the bay, the um pollutant levels go down.

Um that's partly uh, I'm sure about uh because of flushing and partly because um we probably don't have as many industrial chemicals being you know uh from the more agricultural and residential parts of the bay.

And so this is obviously a source of uh important input in terms of actually what we're doing.

Um if you look at the picture on the right, we've actually got some results from the area that we're talking about in McKay Bay, and um that's a relatively high level.

Um it's primarily um speckled trout that we've been sampling in there, and so uh all the more reason for us to pursue more uh sampling from the region.

Um so as far as part of our project, we have four uh major objectives collect and analyze uh ten of each of these target species for an entire year quarterly.

Uh and uh and to do that, we're using local charter vessels which are happy to do the work for us to replicate your sediment sampling to collect and analyze oyster samples from uh a number of the uh naturally occurring oyster reefs that we found in in McKay Bay, and then we're doing a roving intercept survey to actually understand more about the demographics and the frequency of consumption of of fishes that people have taken from the bay.

So, in terms of our fissure surveys, we um we've been doing these um for nearly a year now.

Uh and we have a number of sites that we've actually sampled uh previously in the larger Hillsborough Bay.

Um we're trying to sample boat ramps, bridges, seawalls, and shore fishing, uh, and a number of those locations occur in the bay.

Um so um, this is uh a blow-up map of uh of uh McKay Bay in particular.

Um those red dots represent uh areas where we've identified naturally occurring oyster beds, and we've we've been sampling the one that's in the green there.

So you can see it's uh a uh very shallow area, particularly at low tide, and we've got a barnacle plate up against um where the Tampa uh police department has their gun range.

Uh so uh some more shots from uh McKay Bay, um, certainly uh a lot of uh potential inputs in the in that in that region.

So one of the um last things I wanted to talk about was um in terms of the intercept surveys that we've done, um so we've asked them a whole series of questions about their fishing activities, and and some of the important questions are how many times in the past month did you actually go fishing?

Uh how many uh days a month do you eat fish in general?

How many days a month do you eat fish from Tampa Bay?

And the results are quite striking.

If you look at these graphics, I mean some people are reporting that they fish 30 days a month in Tampa Bay.

I mean, those are uh you know, people exaggerate a little bit, but but that you know there are some very active you know, people that fish.

And even if you look at the uh number of meals that they consume both in general and from Tampa Bay, these are the people particularly at the extreme here that are most at risk if they're um uh eating uh even marginally contaminated fish because of the meal frequency.

And so we we can base uh risk assessment on frequency, meal size, and you know, obviously the concentration of the pollutants, and so that's where we're headed.

It's pretty amazing, you know, when you see how many people are so um uh this is so ingrained, and I think we underestimate you know just how many people are out there fishing on a daily basis.

Um so uh where do we want to take this study?

Obviously, the the results we're gonna get from the uh the part of this study that you've uh funded are really important to us.

Um we'd like to know uh the mass balance of these pollutants coming into the bay and leaving the bay.

And in terms of you know where pollutants come from, atmospheric deposition, uh land-based runoff, you know, and we're trying to contrast the wet season and the dry season because if we see uh a lot more in the wet season, that means uh what we're seeing is primarily land-based runoff.

Um wastewater outfalls, obviously, you know, we're tracking you know where the major ones are in Tampa Bay, and groundwater intrusion.

And as it as it turns out, there's a substantial amount of groundwater intrusion that comes into Tampa Bay because the aquifers are so shallow.

And so if we can actually figure out you know, the you know, the the totality of of what's coming and going, we can also do some studies about uh understanding how pollutants exit the bay, because some of these these pollutants obviously do.

And so we're doing using some particle tracking uh simulation modeling that that we do at the university.

And we also uh want to understand food web and and those kind of contaminants because many of the of these pollutants, and in particular PFAS will biomagnify, right?

And so the higher the trophic level of the predator, the higher the level, and that's what we're seeing in the fish, for example.

You know, they're eating lower trophic levels, and it just accumulates.

And so uh I just wanted to show you what we mean by particle tracking.

This was a part a series of particle tracking scenes that we did from the piney point um uh you know, when we had 200 million gallons of of water coming out of Piney Point, and you can see how that proliferated through the bay.

So we can do that with all the wastewater treatment outfalls, for example, or you know, uh actually the that that southern rim of McDill and see where it carries on to the bay.

And so that's that's one of our future studies.

So with that, um, I thank you very much for number one your attention here today, but also uh your support for project.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

I was just gonna say thank you, Dr.

Murkowski.

That was an amazing uh presentation.

I know Andy Fish is he's a big angler, he's out there all the time, so and there are a lot of people on the bank.

No, no.

And also thank you for the excellent presentation and learning more about the pollution and contamination in the water.

And this time I turn to Commissioner Woolstool.

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh that was that was excellent.

Thank you, and thank you for what you've done on your um past work.

Um, not to sound like an alarmist or a tree hugger, but um yeah, I sit on I said on Tampa Bay water with Commissioner Cohen, and we're dealing with PFAS at the four parts per trillion level.

And umce I got my first briefing on that, I just started consuming and I went down the the rabbit hole and we had these pie graphs of things to warn people to stay away from and and that was literally everything pizza boxes, uh, women's makeup is um I saw that you had phthalates on your first slide there.

It's um women's makeup, uh, mascara, foundation, lip gloss, um you name it.

It's filled with these different um parabens and phthalates, it disrupts menstrual cycles, it reduces their ability to have um reserve eggs, uh it reduces sperm count in men.

Um once it gets into their blood.

I mean, it goes on and on, and I mean the the reality is is that it's it's like we're we're quietly and visibly poisoning everyone and everything, and um as it gets into our water, which we've heard before, um and in past meetings, I brought a study from um from some professors of FIU that found that there's a uh a large amount of opioids of medication getting into fish as well, as well as all of these um um microplastics, and uh it's not just us that eat these, it's it's other animals, and it gets into groundwater, as you said, and then they use that as drinking water.

It disrupts the reproductive cycles of animals as well as it gets into them, the same as it does humans, and it's it's a really concerning issue that I believe that um society should be taking way more serious in my opinion.

So thank you for what you're doing, and um, I'll continue to support you guys however we can within our means.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Cohen.

Thank you, Commissioner Wastall.

The um certainly serving on Tampa Bay water and being exposed to the PFAS litigation has been a real eye-opener for both of us, uh, I think.

Um we did at Tampa Bay Water recover about 24 million dollars recently to be used for PFAS remediation, and luckily it it seems as though our drinking water supplies are not in the same shape as the fisheries.

But I I do s suggest to you that perhaps some of that money might be available for these types of of projects to to look at the fisheries and see what can be done to spend some money on cleanup.

I I don't I don't know I I don't think we're done recovering funds uh through some of this litigation that we're engaged in.

And uh we got in early at Tampa Bay Water, and the result is that there should be dollars available to do the types of projects that would would help with what you've described.

So it's something to look for in the future, I think.

Well, those comments are much appreciated from both of you.

Um we have been experimenting with um ways to actually mitigate um uh pollutants.

Um we've got sort of a uh a small-scale electrocoagulation device, which actually uh works very well for pollutants of known concern.

And the question is, you know, can we actually um precipitate out these chemicals from uh for example the wastewater stream?

And and so um there are technologies that are mostly at the prototype level, but um certainly you know, uh trying to understand what we can actually mitigate, you know.

I think would be important.

Um you know, once it gets out in the water, you you know, it's really hard to get it back, right?

And I know Commissioner Bowles knows this, but fire retardant chemicals are another major cause of some of this water pollution as well.

You're you're exactly right.

I was just gonna say I would fully support um and help Commissioner Cohen if you guys want to go after some of that recovered PFAS lawsuit money.

So I'll be happy to talk to you about that.

Okay.

Thank you.

So moved.

Second.

I have a motion by Commissioner Wassa, second by Commissioner Cohen, please recall your vote.

Thank you.

Yes.

Okay, Janet.

Thank you so much, Dr.

Murkowski and Howard.

Always great to see you, and thank you, Cheryl, for uh for everybody for being here.

Um I do want to say something before we start the next uh presentation that um Dr.

Murkowski's project, like all of our PRF projects, they are not funded with taxpayer dollars.

They are come from penalties, they go through a very scientific and rigorous review, and then they come to this board for voting on whether they are worth funding.

So I just wanted to put that in.

I know you all know that, but I just want people in the public to know that as well.

So with that, we will move on to 9B, microplastics in in Tampa Bay.

Um, and I'm going to introduce Lindsay Grossman, but I wanted to say I just heard about this book on NPR.

It's called Plastics Inc., and it's just a fascinating book about uh the secret history and shocking future of big oil's biggest bet.

And so what I'm gleaning from this is plastics are not going away.

So it's very interesting.

Um with that, uh, I'll bring up Lindsay Grossman and I'll and I'll introduce her.

Um let me just give a little piece for the public here.

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic that are found in the environment as a result of wide and extensive use of plastic materials worldwide.

State and federal regulations on microplastics are evolving with legislative efforts aimed at understanding and mitigating their impact on health and the environment.

In 2025, bills were introduced in Congress to conduct studies on the human health impacts of exposure to microplastics and food and water.

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency, BPA, designated microplastics a priority contaminant group for drinking water, which will prioritize funding, research, and information collection to better understand the potential health risks of these substances.

Our next presenter will give you an overview of her research in the field of the field of that study.

Lindsay Grossman, or Z for short, it's funny, that's what I call you, is a PhD student at the University of South Florida and a former employee at EPC.

She's a Florida native, born in Key West and currently lives in Dunedin.

Her research is focused on the transport and microplastic pollution in Tampa Bay.

Good morning.

Uh Commissioners, thank you for having me.

I'm excited to present on some research that I completed this past semester for my master's uh thesis, and I will be continuing uh with a lot of this related research for with a PhD.

Uh so without further ado, uh, I will talk to you about microplastics in Tampa Bay and relate to you what we know so far.

So, just to briefly outline this presentation, I'll be defining microplastics for you, explaining why they're a problem.

Um, I'll show you how they're being studied in Tampa Bay with results from a recent study of my own and future work that we intend to do.

So you might have heard about microplastics in the news.

Um, for example, there's a Tampa Bay Times article showing that four billion particles of microplastics are in Tampa Bay waters.

You might have heard that they travel through the atmosphere and reach high mountain peaks like Mount Everest.

They're found in ocean trenches at the very bottom uh kilometers under the sea.

And we know now that they are in our food and bottle water as well.

So life is plastic, might not be so fantastic.

Uh but what is plastic?

So plastic is made from fossil fuel resources or petrochemicals.

98% of all plastic comes from either coal, natural gas, or crude oil.

Um, and plastic gets its name from its uh plasticity, its malleability.

So you can mold it into a lot of different shapes uh for different products.

It's durable, lightweight, and cheap, and much cheaper to produce new than recycle it.

And we typically call these different types of plastics synthetic polymers.

And what that means is that we have single units, monomers that get chained together into polymers, mono one poly many.

And so you can see ethylene that comes after the refining process as polymerized into polyethylene, one of the most common uh microplastics polymers.

And here's just an example of products that you will see that are made of plastic and the different polymers that make them up.

So, for example, polyethylene with our water bottles.

Uh we also have PVC, polyvinyl chloride used in construction, plastic bags, polypropylene is another prominent polymer, polystyrene, which includes styrofoam, and the category of other includes quite a few different products, including synthetic clothing like polyester is considered plastic.

So are our tires now.

And even acrylics, like an acrylic nails and acrylic paint is considered plastic and will become microplastic as well.

So scientists expected that plastic would last hundreds, if not thousands of years in the environment and pile up into large amounts, like you see on the right.

That's a picture of the giant garbage patch in the Pacific.

What scientists did not expect is that through UV light chemical reactions and physical abrasion through waves and curds, these larger pieces of plastic don't biodegrade, but they break down into smaller and smaller pieces.

And you can actually see that happening here in this picture.

From the left to the right is increasing time under UV light.

And I do have a piece of plastic like this in my lab.

It looks exactly the same.

It's like a dried mud bed, so it becomes brittle and it starts to easily break and crack apart.

If you've ever had plastic for a very long time, you know it doesn't bend anymore, it just breaks.

And you can see how this would form microplastics.

And with the diversity of plastic products, we get a diversity of microplastic pollutants in the environment.

So when we talk about microplastics, we're talking about a specific size range, and that's five millimeters to one micron is here.

So five millimeters for reference is about the size of a pencil eraser, all the way down to one micron, which borders on the nanoscale, and there are nanoplastics too.

So in these pictures, you'll see on the top left are microbeads manufactured at these small sizes.

To the right are tire wear particles.

In the bottom left are polyester fibers, and on the bottom right are some smaller pieces of trash that have degraded in the environment.

And just to give you again an idea of the relative size of these particles, on the very right is a human hair, about 50 to 180 microns.

You can see how this goes all the way down to bacterium at about one micron.

So we're talking about pieces of plastic that can be breathed in, like pollen and dust and travel throughout the body.

So what's wrong with plastic breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces?

So these plastics that might have gotten incidentally eaten by animals are now bioavailable to a much larger range of animals in the environment.

So these large animals can still accidentally ingest them, but maybe just through filtration.

And even very, very small organisms like plankton that make up the base of food webs can also consume microplastics.

And this has been shown to have detrimental effects on the organism.

You can imagine that eating plastic is not good for you.

You could expend more energy to actually have to expel the plastic.

This also causes inflammatory responses in cells and can hinder an organism's ability to reproduce.

And so scientists cite that there are subcellular to ecosystem level effects from microplastic pollution.

And this is not even to mention the chemicals, like we were talking about, chemicals of concern that are often put into plastics.

So those flame retardants, plasticizers, phthalates, BPA, all of that stuff.

Recently, scientists tabulated it all.

There are 16,000 known chemicals that get added to different plastic products.

Of those, we have information on the toxicity of about a third.

And you can see in that pie graph the 4,219.

So that's most of the information that we have.

We're finding that these are chemicals of concern.

And these are not intended to be ingested by humans or animals, as you can imagine.

So now we find that microplastic is ubiquitous.

And what I mean by that is that it's distributed all across the globe.

It's basically everywhere that we look for it.

So it's in all major ocean basins.

It travels in the atmosphere far and wide.

And in a full circle moment, we are now finding and quantifying it in the human body, which I am helping a medical doctor at USF do that right now.

So what do we know about microplastics in Tampa Bay?

Previous studies have shown that surface bay water and sediment has microplastics, about one microplastic per liter in water and 280 microplastics per kilogram in sediment.

And that sediment level is relatively high, even among other estuaries.

There's also been a study looking at microplastics in stormwater ponds.

And microplastics have been found in organisms in Tampa Bay.

So on the left, there's our plankton, and researchers have found microplastics in those, as well as oysters, and even in the guts of deceased manatees, they found microplastics.

So we know that Tampa Bay has high concentrations of microplastics, but where are they coming from?

This is the question that I'm interested in.

And so far, there has been one study looking at plastic moving through Hillsborough River, which estimates about one ton of plastic per year travels through this system into the bay.

And for my research for the past few years, I've been looking at the atmospheric deposition of microplastic or microplastic falling out of the sky around Tampa Bay.

So here is our sampling scheme.

We mounted rain samplers in five different locations based on land use, and I'll show you data from this site right here.

So this is EPC's air monitoring site right next to 275 I4 interchange.

And so this is the work that I did for my master's thesis.

We mounted this rain sampler, and whether it's dry out or it rains, it just collects anything that falls out of the sky, and I would collect weekly from these, and this was in August of 2023, and as happens in August sometimes in Florida, we had a hurricane form.

And since my advisor used to be working construction, we actually reinforced the sites instead of taking everything down and looked at how this affected atmospheric deposition microplastics.

And so here's our sampling scheme just to show you how we sampled as the hurricane approached, which was pretty fun.

So between H2 and H3, that's when this hurricane, hurricane and daily went and hit Big Bend.

But if you remember, we had some flooding downtown from this event.

And just briefly, sample processing to reduce these water volumes, get away some of the pollen plant material, and concentrate all of these particles onto a filter about the size of a quarter.

And now at USF we have a cutting edge new machine to look at this plastic.

So on the left, you can see a picture of many, many microplastics, but it's not easy to see just by looking and say, what is plastic and what's not.

That's what we use this new machine for.

It's basically an infrared microscope.

And I'll show you how it works.

So this is one of the filters, and it's about the size of a quarter.

We took subsamples from this, and I'll show you one of those up close as well.

So just for size reference, uh, this 1.7 millimeter area is about the size of uh pencil lead, two pencil leads.

We take an image through, and what happens is we run light all the way through this filter and all the particles, and whatever reaches the detector, we can tell what chemical each part was.

So now we end up with a chemical image, and what you're seeing with these different colors are different materials.

And just for a more focused view on that as well, so now we're looking at a very even smaller area.

So this lime green kind of particle right here.

Um, we look at the signature, the chemical signature of that, and we can match it with polyethylene from a database.

So anywhere that we see that color in this area, we mark as polyethylene.

We counted up all the plastics per filter and related that to a deposition rate per day.

And again, just for a size reference, this particle is about 100 microns.

That's about the cross section of a human hair, which you see on the bottom right.

And our machine takes chemical images of every single little tiny pixel there, too.

Um, so that goes down to about 5.5 microns, which is the most similar cell we have there as a neuron cell, like in your brain.

So this is a very advanced piece of machinery that we get to use and continue work on.

So what we found were mostly particles, very small particles falling out of the sky, and as far as the polymers, you can see in this bar graph with the different colors, different polymer types.

What we make is what we see in the environment.

So we see lots of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and lots of polyurethane and acrylic in these samples too.

And what effect did the hurricane have?

So in this green line is the deposition rate over time.

In the very middle is the hurricane coming through, and we had three weeks before and three weeks after of sampling, and the blue bars are rainfall.

So you can see there is some correlation between the amount of rain that we have and the microplastics that fall out of the sky.

And so, as a max during the hurricane, we had 95,000 microplastics per meter squared per day, which is extremely high.

Uh, but there's only been one study that's looked at microplastic coming from a hurricane, and their levels were very similar to this.

Our minimum was 18,000, again, relatively high for the atmosphere, with an average of 50,000 microplastics per meter squared per day in this specific area.

And so, what we found was that there is a significant correlation between deposition rates of microplastics and the average relative humidity.

So it looks like these particles can be like little raindrop nucleases where they get pulled out of the sky as it gets more human, which is pretty interesting.

So like I said, as a result, we saw a positive correlation between microplastic deposition and rainfall volume.

There was relative uh humidity that was significantly correlated with microplastic deposition.

We found that large storms transport atmospheric microplastics, and we're doing more work to see if those were actually transported from the ocean onto land, which is interesting too.

And we found at least one hot spot of microplastic pollution in Tampa Bay in this specific area.

And I'll show you what I mean by that.

So the one limitation of our machine, because it uses light and the light that reaches a detector, is that for tire wear, which is totally black and absorbs all light, no light reaches the detector.

So we can't definitively say if it's tire wear, but boy, does it look like it.

Um and so this is from one sample.

And if we zoom out here, you can see all these black particles, which are tire wear.

And this is on one quarter size filter.

And just for reference, this is a week-long sample that could not be contained on one filter.

It took four filters to completely hold all of these particles.

And so if we just do some uh image analysis on these black particles, which are tire wear, and sum those up and calculate a rate like we did for the other microplastics, these are an order of magnitude higher.

So these is an extremely large amount of microplastics in very, very small size fractions, too.

So future work is going to be looking at this area in particular.

Uh, we plan to form a working group so that we can have some capacity building that will eventually lead to monitoring.

I would like to take a holistic look at Tampa Bay with standardized methods and reporting to identify sources and prevent pollution in the bay.

And my focus will be on marine microplastics and tireware particles.

And with that, I'll open the floor to questions.

And thank you so much for your presentation.

Uh Commissioner Wolstone, excellent presentation.

Yeah, good presentation.

I should have saved my comments for you.

I I had forgotten that there were the two different ones today, honestly.

But um, I I had never really considered that um large storm events could bring a large influx into the area, and I'm wondering if that's something at Tampa Bay water where we're on a volume issue where if we have this massive influx of pollution that's brought in from a rain event like Milton, um, whether or not we we anticipated capacity issues and our ability to um treat the PFAS that we're moving towards.

So that's something that I'll probably be asking their scientists over there.

But I think that it was very helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Cohen.

Yeah, I I just was thinking also, I mean, if if a storm event contributes to this, which clearly it does, I wonder if some of the CDBG money uh can be directed in this direct uh toward dealing with this as well.

I mean, this is something that affects everybody, and um it can be tied, I think, directly back to some of what we experienced in the storms.

So another thing to look at.

Okay.

And again, thank you for your Janet.

You your comments?

Um, I just want to say that thank you, Zee.

And again, it's my understanding, I guess, that Jack is it Jackie Dixon was your advisor, another college of marine person.

So they're doing a lot of good work over there.

Um are you out of the St.

Pete campus or are you out of the you're out of the I'm on St.

Pete I just started?

Yeah, okay.

Well, very good, and congratulations on your uh doctorate program that you're gonna go through.

We can't wait to see your studies in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Great work.

Thank you.

Can we have a motion to receive the presentation?

So moved.

Second.

We got a motion by Commissioner Wilson, second by Commissioner Cohen and Miller.

Please record your vote.

Commissioner Hagen.

The motion carries six to zero.

Thank you.

Janet.

Uh thank you, Commissioner Myers.

Our last presentation today will be the nine.

Well, not our last executive director report will be.

Oh, and we have the permitting feedback group.

I'm sorry.

Nine C will be the last USF presentation.

It's the community air monitoring network presentation.

Um, we have some special guests with us today.

Um, Dr.

Wong is here.

Um, we stuck in traffic, okay.

I know why it is Wyatt here, so thank you, Wyatt.

Um, he's a community planner too.

Wyatt has served as the project manager for this CAM project that we're talking about.

Um, and let me just tell you a little bit about Wyatt.

Um, he's earned his master's degree in urban and regional planning at the US at USF.

His experience includes transportation planning roles with USF Center for Urban Transportation Research, a private engineering firm, and the Florida Department of Transportation.

He has also worked on the Fort Fraser Trail Extension in Polk County and US 41 in Sarasota, as well as on land conservation and environmental policy initiatives in Virginia.

Wyatt now serves on the Hillsborough Transportation Planning Organization, managing the community air monitoring network project and supporting resilience health and environmental planning initiatives.

And so with that, I think I'm bringing up, am I bringing up Jason first to introduce our main person?

Good morning, Commissioners.

Jason Waters, EPC staff.

We also have Dr.

Amy Stewart here from the University of South Florida.

She's a professor of environmental health sciences, and we're going to talk to you today about the community air monitoring network.

The background of this community monitoring started five or six years ago.

There were a lot of concerns about neighborhood air quality.

While I've given presentations before on our regulatory air monitoring network, people said, yeah, those monitors are great, but they're not in my backyard.

So what can we do about that?

There were a lot of concerns about I 275 traffic corridor, associated emissions.

And if you remember, there was a long-term construction project on I-275.

We Dr.

Stewart and I gave a presentation to the commission in August of 2020 about some potential of low cost monitoring.

This led to subsequent presentations to the TPO.

And in September of 2021, we kicked off a pilot project with the TPO taking the lead between us, US TPO, USF, and EPC.

The goal of this community monitoring was to determine the best low-cost sensors for the network, our regulatory monitors or tens of thousands of dollars.

This aimed to look at some monitors that were hundreds to a few thousand dollars.

To find some community host sites where we could put these monitors to collect data along with traffic corridors.

Part of this project was to educate the community on air quality in their neighborhood and backyard.

And lastly, to compare this data from what we call sensors to the regulatory monitors to see how they performed.

Take a moment to talk to about EPA's criteria pollutants.

The US EPA established criteria pollutants, and we typically look at six pollutants listed here.

For our study, it was mainly particulate matter or dust and nitrogen dioxide that was looked at.

While Hillsborough County is in attainment, and that's the term EPA uses.

That means our air quality is good.

We meet the federal standards.

Sometimes people want to know in their area what the air pollution is like.

The TPO was the main driver, and so they acquired some grants through the Federal Highway Administration and the US CPA to conduct a lot of this.

Also, the University of South Florida provided funding and a lot of resources through students and a dissertation for reducing the data.

EPC provided access for co-location sites, just like you saw the ones on the microplastics monitoring, one of those same sites was used, and staff resources for the project to help in monitoring expertise.

I'm happy to say the data is comparable to the regulatory data, which supports that we are in attainment even in our neighborhoods.

But what I'd like to do now is have Dr.

Stewart come up and talk about all the data and the collection that was done in the background by USF of the data.

Dr.

Stewart.

Thank you very much, Jason, and thank you to everyone here for having having me here.

I'm Amy Stewart.

I'm a professor at the University of South Florida and the Colleges of Public Health and Engineering.

And my work over the last 30 years has really been focused on understanding air pollution and how we can improve the air that we all breathe.

So it's really been a privilege for my for my research group to be involved in this community air monitoring project over the last few years.

So to achieve the objectives that Jason mentioned in his slides, we achieve uh we uh established this partnership, and the partnership have been involved in a lot of different activities, um, types of activities.

The project started with testing um several small monitors that you can see here on the left-hand side.

These are personal monitors and fixed site monitors that are sensor-based and less expensive.

And we decided to focus on fine particles, which is PM 2.5 and nitrogen dioxide NO2, because those are pollutants that are measured by low-cost monitors.

There are good um sensor-based monitors for those pollutants.

They are traffic related air pollutants.

The levels tend to be higher near high volume roadways, and there are uh national linebacker air quality standards for these pollutants.

You can see on the right-hand side here us co-locating these test for our testing, co-locating with the EPC Monroe site monitors to be able to evaluate how well the monitors perform compared with the reference data.

So in addition to testing, oh, and that testing resulted in the selection of the purple air monitor.

That's the one on the far top right, and even though it's called the purple air, it's white, and the clarity monitor, Clarity Node S monitor.

And then more recently, we began looking at black carbon as a more specific marker of traffic more recently.

So in addition to testing, building the network has included selecting monitoring sites, installation and maintenance of the sites, and all of this work has involved a lot of community participation through community coalition meetings and active participation of site hosts in the physical work, which you can see here on this slide.

So the current network includes 31 sensor-based monitors at 23 sites, including the EPC Monroe and Sydney reference sites, which are in yellow on this map.

The community sites, which are in red, are the include library, a library, include community parks, include community centers, include schools, and we focused primarily on publicly accessible sites that are near high volume roadways and interchanges.

So in addition to network building, data quality management has been an important aspect of our work.

We established a quality assurance project plan or QAPP and standard operating procedures for monitor tracking and routine data collection review and analysis.

Since these types of community networks are so new, there were no established templates or examples for this type of CAP, and we're proud to say that EPA found our CWAP to be a good example to share with other community monitoring sites around the country.

An important task of the quality management activities is ongoing co-location of the sensors with the reference monitors, which you can see on the left-hand side, and following US EPA tech testing protocols with the guidebook shown on the right.

Finally, we worked on quality assurance automation systems and the center bottom of the page that routinely generate diagnostic graphs like that one that you see there to make quality management involving non-expert participation more tractable.

A primary aspect of this collaborative network is the automatic sharing of real-time data with the public.

The TPO maintains a website that has links to the native data collection and visualization platforms of the two monitors we're using.

The Clarity Node S platform is on the left and the purple air on the right.

This poster is present at all of the community monitoring sites, and it briefly explains the network and provides a QR code to access the website and the data.

To further build community capacity, community involvement and education have been instrumental throughout the project.

This has included the establishment of a community coalition with quarterly meetings for input, direction, training and education of community members on several topics: air quality science and management, monitor installation and maintenance, how to use the data, and urban and transportation planning processes.

We also developed educational activities, like you can see on that name that part on the slide, and held and participated in many events for outreach and education, particularly for K-12 youth programs, including working with the Hillsborough County Public Schools Green Teams.

In addition to these accomplishments, we've gained some insights from the project and its data.

One important project objective was to determine the quality of the data from these sensors.

We learned that for 24-hour average PM 2.5, both monitors perform well against co-located reference measurements, with example quality statistics shown in that left bottom part of the screen.

However, performance for one hour NO2 is not reliable, and the technology and the calibration methods still need some improvement.

Regarding usability, which is shown on the top right part of the screen, we found that the ClarityNode S was best for public sites with its integrated solar power and cellular data upload and the purple air two monitor could be good for individual homes and is good for where you have reliable Wi-Fi and you have access to external power.

Um and I developed a method to categorize this more technical, these more technical metrics on quality into a usability framework that you can see on the right hand side that basically provides information on the usability of the sensor data and with a color-coded chart.

And this work has just been published in the Atmospheric Environment Journal.

The method enables uh appropriate use of sensor data for different types of purposes like those listed there.

Another question we had, another objective was a determining the value added of sensor data on top of the regulatory monitoring data.

And we found that the community and reference site had similar average levels and followed a similar general trends.

And you can see that in the uh lower left graphs, the one from the Munro reference site and Monroe Reference Data, as well as monitor data as and then another just below it from an example community site.

However, because of the density of the community network, community sensor data can provide additional information on the variability of pollutant levels in space.

Um we can see that in this visual to the right.

We found that park sites tend to have better air quality than non-park sites, um while other community sites had statistically unique distribution profiles from the reference sites.

And um the letters that you see in these circles are just the identifiers of the particular site.

Um the network data provide many insights uh on community air quality.

Visualizations of the data show that most days have good to acceptable air quality, but we can see specific events like wildfire events in May shown here, as well as fireworks that lead to poor air quality.

We can also see the strong influence of traffic emissions with peak levels found during morning rush hour in other analyses not shown here.

We've also done some research to investigate the impact of the project on community capacity and influence through surveys, interviews, and focus groups.

And the results of this work indicate that the data alone are not enough and it really needs to be accessible and understandable and effectively communicated.

We found that increased participation time on the project for community members, increased their knowledge and increase their perceived capacity to influence.

We found that youth education and curriculum in particular as potentially transformative, and we found that the government officials that we interviewed supported community involvement, but the community influence remains limited by institutional structures and resource constraints.

And as a testament to the impact and value of the project, I want to highlight that led by the TPO, the project won a grassroots initiative award of excellence from the Florida American Planning Association this past September.

So, in summary, we built a collaborative partnership between the TPO, the EPC, USF, and Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association and on other partners to establish 31 sensor-based monitors at 23 sites.

And although we're very excited about the breadth of the network established so far, we hope to continue the expansion of the network as resources become available.

Through substantial testing, we found that the PM 2.5 sensor data are most consistent with the regulatory monitoring data.

And although the sensor data cannot be used for regulatory purposes, data from the community network align with the information provided with the regulatory network, which indicates the air quality in Hillsborough County meets USCPA standards.

And the community sensor data in particular provide tell us that the air quality is generally good to acceptable with community sensor providing added value, particularly in targeted areas that are away from monitoring regulatory monitoring sites.

So thank you all for this opportunity to talk to you about the community monitoring network and thank you to all of the partners that have been really instrumental in the project.

Thank you for your presentation on the air monitoring network.

I don't see anyone in the queue.

Can we have a motion to move?

Second.

We have a motion back to Mission Walker second by commissioner coin.

Please record your vote.

Motion carried six zero.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Dr.

Grant.

That was great.

Thank you.

Okay, Janet.

Awesome, Commissioners.

We will be moving on to 9D.

This was a request at our last board meeting from Commissioner Woostall.

It's for um permanent process feedback group meetings, and uh Mike Lynch is here to report on it.

Good morning.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Mike Lynch, EPC, wetlands director.

And we've done a lot this morning.

We've had microplastics, PFOS, air pollutant monitoring.

We're gonna this is gonna take significantly less brain power, so depending on how you feel, you're welcome, or thank you.

Um so permitting process feedback.

Um we're honored to have the privilege to speak to you today concerning the meetings that we conducted, and as Janet mentioned, they came from Commissioner Woostel requesting this to occur at the February 2026 EPC meeting.

The goal for EPC was to evaluate and enhance on our current design review permitting process using input from external stakeholders.

All right.

While we regularly gather feedback through channels such as the customer surveys, an annual external stakeholder group meeting and one-on-one meetings.

We welcome the opportunity to engage with engineers and consultants that represent applicants to allow uh additional collaborative and focused discussion.

In addition, we look for ways to improve our overall efficiency at EPA through Six Sigma yellow belt training uh through participation in the Sterling process, and in addition, in our biannual strategic planning.

So the meetings were well attended.

Uh they were attended by all staff at EPC from all divisions, including administration, water, waste, wetlands, and by the executive director.

Uh the meetings used a large grouping of questions to stimulate conversation that covered a range of topics that included our overall process, predictability, communication, responsiveness, technical standards, and guidance, technology tools, innovation, and performance.

Both sessions were attended, like I said, by a large group of people, uh, diverse but mostly consultants and engineers, specifically uh about a dozen or over a dozen people.

Overall, the discussions were productive and yielded actionable feedback.

Since these sessions have concluded, EPC has continued the conversation, both collectively via email, phone, and groups of people that attended.

Um, the agency is also moving forward with implementing the changes that are feasible and consistent with our rules.

Um, some of the ones that we initiated immediately were allowing for larger files to be sent through our application portal, uh, in addition, changing the way we format our RAIs to have a more organized structure that's easier for the person receiving them, and in addition, changing some of the nomenclature on some of our form templates that our applicants receive.

Uh we plan to continue to practice to hold these feedback sessions on a regular basis.

And lastly, we would like to take a moment to thank Commissioner Woosel for bringing this matter to our attention and for giving us the opportunity to work uh in more additional ways with our stakeholders.

If there's any questions or comments at this time, we would be happy to take them.

Commissioner Woods.

Any comment?

Okay.

Thank you so much for the open view.

Thank you, Commissioner.

All righty.

Thank you, Mike.

We have a motion to receive to report.

Second.

I had a motion by Commissioner Wassa, second by Commissioner Coin.

Please do record your vote.

Commissioner Hagen.

Okay.

Motion carried six to zero.

Okay, Janet, thank you.

Um and I just wanted to thank Commissioner Woustle.

That was very valuable, and we'd had a lot of.

I mean, the meetings went full time, so there was a lot of back and forth in QA.

Um, we'll move to the executive director report.

It's very brief, and then we'll conclude our meeting.

If HTV could pull up my slides, thank you so much.

Um staff attended Commissioner Myers Town Hall meetings on March 24th in Winston Park and April 13th at the Victor Chris Community Center in Tampa.

Next slide, please.

We also attended Commissioner Bowles' uh town hall meeting on March 10th at the Hillsborough County Fire Station 46 in Riverview.

Next slide, please.

In March and April, we participated in several outreach events focused on the community, the environment, science, and education.

These include the USF Engineering Expo and Nature's Classroom Nature Fest.

And I went to that USF Engineering Expo and there were thousands of students there.

It's just an amazing, amazing expo.

Next slide, please.

And the wetlands division staff presented on shoreline management and native vegetation to a Sun City Center community group.

Next slide, please.

Okay, this is very important because we just went through some presentations, and once again, uh our PRF funds are open, so our pollution recovery fund is accepting project applications until May 1st.

The maximum award amount is 100,000, and the application application form can be found on our website at APCHC.org.

And again, USF has done in the last few years has presented some very robust scientifications.

Next slide, please.

Commissioners, our award-winning 25th annual clean air fair will be held on May 7th at Poe Plaza in downtown, uh, Tampa.

This year's theme, Stars and Stripes Forever, celebrating clean air together, aligns with our nation's 250th anniversary and celebrates our environment.

We look forward to everybody being there.

It's a great event.

Um we get uh donations of free trees, and I always love I see people walking all around downtown Tampa with our trees.

There's food that's offered that we have vendors, we have live music from one of our retirees and his band.

It's just lovely.

So again, it's open to the public.

Um, and we have you know, electric vehicles you can see there.

Florida Aquarium brings wildlife, and you can interface with them as well.

So there's just a lot of different vendors.

So uh again, we hope everyone can attend.

May 7th, 2026, 1130 downtown at Poe Plaza.

Next slide, please.

And um uh finally, before I conclude the presentation, our 10th annual guided wetland walks will take place on May 2nd at Lettuce Lake Park, and May 16th at Upper Tampa Bay Park.

Um, you can find the information on our website.

It says it here.

I have glasses on, I think that says 9 a.m.

If I'm correct, uh let me look here.

Yes, 9 a.m.

So they're very well attended, and we partner with the Native Plant Society, and our staff goes out there on a Saturday and uh interfaces people with the public, the floor in the fauna in the parks.

Um next slide, please.

And finally, commissioners, our next meeting will be held on June 18th, and this concludes my report unless there are any questions.

Any questions for Janet?

Okay, seeing none.

Okay, do we have any future uh items to discuss?

Uh meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

We have a working roof that goes out.