Congressman Jim Walsh has allotted $1.5 million for a potential project to develop a more environmentally friendly cooling system for Central New York.

Researchers from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry are part of a team working on the project. They aim to develop a way to pump water from the depths of Lake Ontario – 30 miles away – to cool buildings in Syracuse.

Participants of the initiative met on the shores of Onondaga Lake Oct. 16 to show their support of Central New York’s Chilled Water Project.

The project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, cut energy costs and move nutrient-rich water into Onondaga Lake. It could also decrease Central New York’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Cold, clean water would be pumped from deep in Lake Ontario and channeled to surrounding Onondaga and Oswego counties. The lake water has the capacity to cool public and private buildings, replacing cooling systems that rely on gas, said James Hassett, director of the Division of Engineering at ESF.

‘Buildings use mechanical chillers for comfort and industrial cooling. They run on electricity, which is generated by coal-burning power plants,’ Hassett said. ‘This project could replace those mechanical chillers and therefore use less energy, consequently causing less emissions.’

The project would decrease Central New York’s dependence on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said Richard Beal, associate director of ESF Outreach. Beal’s program looks to increase ESF’s activity in the local community.

‘There’s a lot of evidence that suggests that increasing CO2 emissions into our atmosphere can cause global climate change,’ Beal said. ‘From a system’s perspective, if this project could reduce emissions, that’d be a really good thing.’

Once the water is cycled through the cooling system, it will be channeled into Onondaga Lake, and eventually flow back into Lake Ontario. ‘Using oxygen-rich cold water from Lake Ontario could enhance the cold-water fishery in Onondaga Lake,’ Hassett said.

ESF partnered with Onondaga County and the Metropolitan Water Board on the project. Organizers of the project, including some ESF graduate students, are in the process of evaluating possible problems.

This is not the first time a project like this has been in the works. Cornell University has been pumping water from Cayuga Lake for years to cool its buildings. Hassett said that project served as inspiration for the local initiative.

‘People looked at the Cornell project and wondered why there couldn’t be something similar in Central New York,’ he said.

But Rich DePaolo, founder of the Cayuga Lake Defense Fund, said Cornell’s project has caused more environmental problems. The fund was created in 1998 to monitor water quality issues in the lake’s watershed. DePaolo said conditions in Cayuga Lake are worsening because of algae growth stimulated by the project.

‘Our primary concern was the issue of nutrient circulation,’ DePaolo said. ‘By bringing up all of that phosphorus-rich water from the depths, you’re essentially dumping fertilizer into shallow water, promoting algae growth.’

DePaolo said water purity should not be sacrificed to improve air quality. But he added that the initiative could be helpful if executed correctly.

‘In general, the technology shouldn’t be off the table,’ DePaolo said. ‘It has to be studied carefully and implemented in such a way to have the least effect possible.’

Hassett, director of engineering at ESF, said after analyzing data collected from Cornell University’s Lake Source Cooling Project, he didn’t observe a difference in water quality after the Cornell project. The data was produced by the Upstate Fresh Water Institute, an independent nonprofit organization. Still, precautions are being taken to check for potential problems of implementing such a large project, Hassett said.

He predicted this project would be much larger than that of Cornell. ‘Take the Cornell system, multiply the number of users by eight, and you’ll get the magnitude of this project,’ Hassett said.

Whether CNY goes through with this project, its researchers said they see potential.

‘There are usually unwanted side effects,’ said Beal, of ESF Outreach. ‘You just have to weigh the costs and benefits.’

ygalstya@syr.edu

Published on November 5, 2008 at 12:00 pm