The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy An artist's conception of the biomass plant, slated for completion in 2008. [Click to enlarge]

The preliminary groundwork on the new $11 million biomass facility on Old Chapel Road behind the Service Building has begun, according to project manager Tom McGinn. The biomass facility's construction has redirected both pedestrian and vehicular traffic patterns, yet many students seem to be unaware as to what is being constructed.

"I thought they were just redoing the roads," said Emily Jones '10.

Campus Sustainability Coordinator Jack Byrne acknowledged that publicity concerning the facility has waned significantly since the project's inception.

"There was a flurry of news coverage, both local and national, for a few weeks after the decision was announced," said Byrne. "[The declining coverage] is probably due to the project shifting from a planning and design phase to construction start-up. Now that groundbreaking has occurred, it is much more visible."

Despite the large presence of the construction work, many students seem generally uninformed about the facility.

"I had no idea what they were doing," said Will James '10.5.

"I feel like they didn't really inform the student body," said Molly Brister '10.5.

According to Assistant Treasurer Thomas Corbin, the faculty-, staff- and student-comprised Carbon Reduction Working Group developed the idea for the biomass facility after examining the student-researched inventory of the College's carbon footprint and discovering that the College's biggest source of carbon emissions was generated by space heating.

Construction began on the facility in July and much progress has been made since then, but the original completion goal of fall 2008 has been pushed back until December 2008.

"We have started the underground utility work for the project and will be starting foundation work soon," said McGinn. "We are constructing an addition to the central heating and cooling plant to house the biomass boiler and related equipment."

The goal of the biomass facility is to use an alternative process to produce energy.

Continued...

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