CU Vet School

Wastewater from the animal carcass digester at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine overflowed for at least 14 hours last Friday night into Saturday afternoon before the spill was discovered.

A Dec. 12 letter obtained by The Journal from a Cornell engineer to the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility detailed a series of errors that resulted in the spill into sanitary and storm sewers. On Feb. 19, another series of errors at the facility also dumped treated vet waste into Ithaca sewers.

ITHACA, N.Y. -- An equipment malfunction at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine causes thousands of gallons of animal carcass wastewater to be dumped into Ithaca's Wastewater Treatment Facility and storm drains that run into Fall Creek and Beebe Lake.

A statement by Kyu-Jung Whang, Cornell University's vice president for facility services, described the spill that happened late Friday night.

ITHACA -- An accidental release at Cornell University on Friday morning sent 4,300 gallons of digested animal carcass waste into the city's sewer system.

Cornell asserts that the treated waste was neither infectious nor hazardous, and the city's Superintendent of Public Works said he didn't expect the waste to cause problems at the municipally owned Ithaca Wastewater Treatment plant -- though Cornell does not have a permit to discharge to Ithaca's plant.