New trees will be planted by the project at a number of locations to replace those that had to be removed. There is very small likelihood of any kind of catastrophic failure of the chilled water lines running up to campus, which would be the only thing that could leak large quantities of water. If this were to happen, sectionalizing valves in the system would be closed to limit the leak and allow repair to be made. The chilled water piping crosses Fall Creek under the existing bridge at Lake Street. Because the chilled water piping is all welded steel, there is an extremely small chance of a leak to the creek.
Nothing is added to the lake water other than heat as it passes through the heat exchange facility.
The lake water is separated from the chilled water by the stainless steel plates in the heat exchangers. The project was approved by the Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NYS Dept. Of Transportation, NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, and various town and city boards. If zebra mussels or any similar type of pest were to begin growing in the lake water piping and equipment, we would use pigging, a physical means of scraping out the pipes, to control growth. We plan to heat the lake water in the plant piping during a plant shutdown each year to kill the mussels.