Lanny Joyce, Cornell utilities engineer and Lake Source Cooling project manager, right, speaks to, from left, Ithaca High School senior Anne Fuller and 12th-grade social studies teacher Heather Tallman after his talk about the project, Feb. 23, at the high school. Charles Harrington/University Photography
With construction of a two-mile chilled-water transmission pipeline about to begin in Ithaca and on campus, planners and supporters of Cornell's innovative Lake Source Cooling project have continued their efforts at providing the public with information about the project.
W.S. (Lanny) Joyce, Cornell utilities engineer and project manager, explained the project and its goals in recent appearances at Ithaca High School and at the Cornell Law School.
Calling Lake Source Cooling an environmental plus that will dramatically reduce the use of electricity derived from fossil fuels and accelerate the elimination of refrigerants that damage the Earth's ozone layer, Joyce said four years of research has established that the project will have no discernible effect on Cayuga Lake.
Other proponents of Lake Source Cooling who have spoken out recently at public events include:
In the five years since he first suggested that Cornell consider using chilled water from the depths of the lake to cool campus facilities, Joyce has made dozens of presentations to governmental bodies, college and high school classes and various area groups, including Rotary, Kiwanis and Trout Unlimited. On Feb. 23 he spoke to members of the Ithaca High School Environmental Awareness Club and students in six senior classes at the high school in government participation.
In those talks, Joyce described the lengthy public process involved in securing 17 permits and approvals issued for the project by local, state and federal agencies and reviewed highlights of the 1,500-page final environmental impact statement.
"Students seemed especially interested in two additional points that have not received much public attention: the extent to which local municipalities have used research data from Lake Source Cooling to secure millions of dollars in outside aid for improving waste water treatment to help clean up the lake and the project's role in allowing Ithaca High School to increase areas that can benefit from climate control," Joyce said.
Joyce was joined by Hairston, Bland and Cornell Associate University Counsel Shirley Egan last week in the John MacDonald Moot Court Room at Myron Taylor Hall on a panel organized by the Cornell Law School's Environmental Law Society to discuss the permitting and review process for Lake Source Cooling.
During the Feb. 24 discussion, each participant sought to answer and refute concerns raised about the process and the safety of the project. Hairston was especially critical of points raised by Alex Horne, a California-based consultant hired by Lake Source Cooling opponents to critique the project. He said Horne's report had major errors and that his conclusions on the project's possible impact on nutrients, heat and bacteria were inaccurate and misleading.
In one demonstration of what he called an unfounded conclusion, Hairston used a published plot of more than 400 algal measurements in lakes around world. For Horne's worst-case scenario on algae growth to come about, he said, "There is no lake on Earth that responds the way that Horne suggests Cayuga Lake could."
Bland described the extensive monitoring of Lake Source Cooling's operation to be undertaken by the independent Upstate Freshwater Institute with state Department of Environmental Conservation oversight. He said data from the monitoring would be shared with governments and other groups committed to improving the lake's water quality.
Egan detailed the extensive care taken by Cornell to adhere to each legal requirement of the permitting process.
| Cornell Chronicle Front Page | | Table of Contents | | Cornell News Service Home Page |