Mountain Echo

Issue date: 3/14/07 Section: News

Coal smoke comes out of the smokestack behind Borders Learning Center.

It is not easy going green on the Mount campus, especially with the aging infrastructure of the heating system and the relatively cheap cost of coal.

The west side of campus (the ARCC) is heated by natural gas, while the east side uses mainly coal with a combination of natural gas.

"The university only uses coal on the average of six months a year and the rest of the time is operated on natural gas," said Director of Physical Plant Operations, Phil Valentine.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 tons of coal are used during the winter months, Valentine said.

"The reason why we use coal is it's the most economical," said Vice President of Business and Finance Mike Malewicki. "Coal is a cheaper fuel, as compared to oil or natural gas."

According to Valentine, coal costs the University $3.62 per MBtu (per million British Thermal Unit), while natural gas costs $12 per MBtu. Btu is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. Coal would cost $98 per ton and the natural gas equivalent would be $324.

"Why would I pay twice as much [for natural gas] when I have an inefficient system?" Malewicki said, referring to the Mount's underground heat and steam delivery system, in which the boiler makes steam and pipes it underground to the buildings on the east side of campus.

However, many of the pipes have holes in them and, as a result, the system uses energy inefficiently.

"The design is efficient [but] due to the age of the system, parts and repair, it's inefficient," Malewicki said.

Yet, on the other side of campus, the ARCC has a more efficient heating system with modern controls, according to Malewicki.

Malewicki said the Board is concerned with the heating infrastructure and that "we're

in the midst of refinancing our debt," which will include borrowing money to be used for infrastructure/master plan construction.

"Overall, we have an aging infrastructure that inhibits our environmental stewardship," Malewicki said.

The smokestack behind Borders Learning Center emits "the products of combustion, refuse (carbon/ash), dry gas (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, oxygen, nitrogen oxides, and water vapors. These combustion products are not filtered but particulates are separated out by a collector," Valentine said.

The Mount is not required to install scrubbers in its smokestack because the plant is so small, Malewicki said.

"We're way under the threshold for scrubbers," Malewicki said.

However, the coal ash leftover after the coal is used and the disposal of this ash, has been a complaint on campus.

"Mostly the concerns we hear are that it gets messy when we're dealing with the soot," Malewicki said.

Although coal emissions and use have decreased by 50 percent since 1999, according to Valentine, Malewicki said "our heating bill has increased more modestly than our electric bill."

There has been a 5-10 percent increase in the heating bill each year and this, along with the electric bill, puts the Mount's utility bill at an excess of $2 million a year, according to Malewicki.

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