Advisory committee on Vet waste stream disbands after final recommendations

Two years after its inception amid much acrimony, the Cornell Community Waste Management Advisory Committee (CCWMAC) has declared its mission a success and voted to disband.

A consensus agreement in July set the direction for an innovative approach to replacing Cornell's existing incinerator with a tandem of alternative technologies. A CCWMAC subcommittee spent three months writing a final report that the committee adopted Oct. 8, when it also approved a set of recommendations for further waste minimization at Cornell and heard a presentation from Veterinary College Dean Donald F. Smith on the next steps in the process of replacing the current incinerator. CCWMAC was formed after members of the community objected to a state proposal to build a large, new incinerator at the Vet College.

All told, Smith estimated, it could take as long as seven years before the new system is operational. As Cornell, the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the State University Construction Fund (SUCF) work toward applying the committee's recommendations for dealing with the Vet College's waste stream, he said, members of the community will continue to receive quarterly updates, beginning Nov. 5. And additional meetings will be called before substantive decisions or actions are taken by Cornell, he said.

Smith said the DEC will be the lead agency in the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process. From the time of application by Cornell and SUCF to begin the process, he said, it is expected to take 27 months to complete an environmental impact statement and obtain permits, another 39 months to design and build the new system and up to 18 months to determine whether the new technology can effectively neutralize prions, the active agents in "mad cow" disease.

Smith noted that the only technology now approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for destruction of prions is incineration, so it is important that incineration be available until an alternative is proven successful. He proposed an evaluation of the current incinerator to determine its life expectancy. He said that if the incinerator becomes unreliable before the new system is in place, an interim, state-of-the-art incinerator with enhanced air pollution control may be built in its place.

Ruth Mahr, an early critic of the proposed replacement incinerator who represented the Forest Home Improvement Association on CCWMAC, said several of her neighbors have expressed satisfaction with both the process and the result. "There is a sense of gratitude here," Mahr said, "that we raised the issue, that Cornell responded the way it did and that through a long process we persevered and found a solution we all think will be mutually beneficial."

The committee has recommended that Cornell deploy a chemical digestion system (using sodium hydroxide) in tandem with external steam sterilization to treat and dispose of about 600 tons of potentially infectious animal remains, animal bedding, regulated medical waste and other laboratory waste generated at Cornell. But because the two technologies suggested by the committee are not now used in combination for a waste stream such as Cornell's, the group recommended a back-up plan that would utilize one of the technologies -- external steam sterilization -- and examine other alternatives for dealing with a relatively small amount of animal remains that such sterilization might not treat adequately.