Meeting for the first time Oct. 8 with the Community Advisory Committee on the College of Veterinary Medicine's proposed medical waste incinerator, university officials invited full participation in a process to review waste disposal processes that one official termed an "EIS (environmental impact statement) of waste disposal."
Cornell Dean Franklin M. Loew of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Vice President for Facilities and Campus Services Harold D. Craft Jr. said the university is prepared to examine a broad array of subjects related to waste reduction, recycling and disposal, including whether the best alternative for disposing of veterinary college waste is an incinerator. Based on the findings of the review process, the university will then determine what the next steps should be, including the possibility of conducting a formal EIS.
However, whether the EIS will be a formal and official process conducted by the State University Construction Fund (SUCF), the lead agency for the currently proposed project, or whether the university itself conducts a comparable study, will depend on further discussions with appropriate state agencies, Craft added.
Craft polled the 17-member committee to seek their commitment to working with the university and planning the waste-disposal future for the veterinary college. Most agreed without provisions.
The committee, co-chaired for at least its first session by Craft and Loew, decided to meet approximately every three weeks in sessions that will be open to the public and the news media. They also decided to seek the services of a professional facilitator who is not connected with the university to assist their deliberations.
Comprising the committee, which was convened by the university after summer-long opposition to construction of an upgraded medical waste incinerator in the center of the veterinary college, are representatives from an array of interested parties: the Town of Ithaca and the Tompkins County Board of Representatives; the Forest Home Improvement Association and a group called Citizens Concerned about Medical Waste Incineration; the Tompkins County SPCA and the Southern Tier Veterinary Medical Association; Cornell Greens and Cornell United Progressives; the Student, Graduate and Professional Student, Employee and University assemblies and the Faculty Senate; the Cornell/Ithaca Safety Committee; the county Environmental Management Council and the Town of Ithaca Conservation Board; and the office of State Assemblyman Marty Luster. The state Farm Bureau, although invited to participate, did not send a representative to the first committee meeting.
Whether an EIS is conducted by the state agency or by Cornell, it would be a lengthy, multi-step process with ample opportunity for public comment, said Robert R. Bland, an environmental engineer in the university's Planning, Design and Construction office. After "scoping" to determine what issues will be covered by the EIS, he said, there would be a draft EIS and time for public comment, presentation of the final EIS and findings with more opportunity for comment, and finally the permit-review process by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, also accompanied by comment. The preparatory stage for an EIS is usually conducted "in-house" without involvement of community committees or any other participation, Bland noted. As outlined to the committee in their invitation to participate, that stage would include a waste management/minimization plan, selection of professional consultants, identification of alternatives to incineration, evaluation of alternatives and selection of a proposed project.