The CVM Staff Council is pleased to highlight the Biosafety Program, which is located in the Waste Management Facility within Schurman Hall, in the November 2019 edition of CVM eNews.

Recently, the Biosafety staff took a few minutes out of their busy schedules to talk to the CVM Staff Council about the work that they do to support the college.

Staff Council: What is the CVM Biosafety Program?

Biosafety Program: The Biosafety Program was formed in 2000 and is responsible for three main activities at the Vet College:

• Operation of the CVM Waste Management Facility (WMF)
• Operation of the Colleges Biocontainment Facilities
• General Biosafety Support for the college (e.g., rabies vaccinations, training, etc.)

Staff Council: What can you tell us about the Waste Management Facility (WMF)?

Biosafety Program: The WMF is a unit within the CVM Biosafety Program. There are three full-time staff who spend the majority of their time operating the treatment equipment in the WMF. They are responsible for managing all the regulated medical waste (RMW) generated by the whole campus (including off-campus locations like Snyder Hill facilities and the Cornell Ruminant Center in Harford, NY). The medical waste is transported to us by EH&S from locations outside the main CVM complex, or by departmental staff in the red transport carts you see people pushing around the college. We also manage animal carcass waste, most of which comes from the Necropsy in the NYSVDL building. We also perform individual “hydrocremations” when clients request their pet’s ashes be returned, typically for around 700 companion animals and 50 horses each year.

Staff Council: What other services does your group offer?

Biosafety Program: We operate the college’s Biosafety Level Three (BSL-3) biocontainment facilities, where important research is being performed on diseases like tuberculosis, MERS and influenza as well as diagnostic work in response to foreign animal disease outbreaks. These facilities are not only complicated to build and maintain, but also complicated to work in, so we support the combination of personnel, facility and equipment factors that enable the work being done in them to be done safely and efficiently.

We also administer, with support from Taylor Thompson (RMSS Administration) and Cornell Occupation Health, the rabies vaccination program for employees and students, and we support related initiatives like the annual flu shot clinic. Another activity we perform is training on biosafety cabinet usage and similar topics for the college and university.

Until last year, we also operated the college’s new sand/manure separation system at the Teaching Dairy Barn.

Staff Council: What are the day-to-day responsibilities of the team?

Biosafety Program: Our two main daily activities are treating the regulated medical waste and animal carcass waste generated at the university. The regulated medical waste we receive is treated in a large autoclave (the “Rotoclave”) then shredded in a large grinder and placed into a compacting dumpster, in accordance with a permit we have from the DEC. The carcass waste is treated in the digester and the resulting mineral solids (i.e. bones) are disposed of in the same compacting dumpster as the medical waste, and the liquid “hydrolysate” is hauled in a truck to the Ithaca Waste Water Treatment Plant, as described below. While the Rotoclave operates multiple time a day, the digester only operates two-to-three times each week, plus a dedicated run for hydrocremations. We also process incidental items such as chemotherapy waste and contaminated bedding from research animals.

Staff Council: Can you tell us a little about the history of the “digester” at the Waste Management Facility.

Biosafety Program: Prior to the digester being brought online in 2010, the college used a natural gas fired incinerator, which there have been two of at the college, the first one installed in the early 1950s when the college moved to its current location. Originally, the college planned to replace the second aging incinerator with a new one, but in response to community opposition, Deans Frank Lowe and Don Smith wisely engaged members of the Ithaca and Cornell community to identify an alternative to incineration, which led to the selection of the digester technology. Since safe disposal of carcass waste is mission-critical for the Vet College and the university, we had to implement a viable alternative. The digester uses an alkaline hydrolysis process, a proven water-based alternative that yields the same dry, powdered mineral ash as incineration while operating on less than 10 percent of the energy it took to do the same function that we used to do in the incinerator. We found that operating the digester is much safer and causes less pollution than the incinerator. We also are proud that resulting “hydrolysate” effluent (remaining liquid), which is transported to the Ithaca Waste Water Treatment Plant, is converted to methane gas which powers electrical generators there.

Staff Council: Can you provide us with some statistics about the amount of medical waste and the number of animal carcasses you process?

Biosafety Program: We average about 250,000 lbs of regulated medical waste in total each year, from which about two-thirds comes from the Vet College. We receive about 300-400,000 pounds of animal carcass per year, most of which comes from the Necropsy in the NYSVDL building. About 20 percent of the total volume of carcass material is in the form of individual hydrocremations. We receive companion animals for hydrocremations generally from the Tompkins County area, but horses come from all over New York and neighboring states.

Staff Council: What kind of animals do you cremate?

Biosafety Program: We’ve done hydrocremations for almost every type of animal, from as small as a parakeet to as large as a draft horse. The largest we’ve seen was Billy the Bull, who weighed 2,100 lbs. We even cremated a goldfish for a client. Nothing surprises us anymore. We also support the Syracuse and Binghamton zoos so have cremated zoo animals such as elephants, camels, giraffes, snakes, birds, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). We even did a Kodiak grizzly bear once. We’ve also cremated local police K9 dogs, an FBI K9 dog and a NYC police horse. We’re very “species” inclusive here.

Staff Council: How does your team ensure that clients receive the ashes from their pet back?

Biosafety Program: For individual hydrocremations, each animal is carefully identified and tracked before, during and after the hydrocremation process using a combination of authorization forms, individual tracking tags and unique identification numbers to ensure the highest degree of accuracy possible. The animals are separately contained in specially-designed vessels during the hydrocremation process and we provide a Certificate of HydroCremation with ashes from each individual hydrocremation.

Staff Council: What do you most appreciate about being part of the Biosafety group?

Biosafety Program:

• From Paul: “The university is very fortunate that the staff working in one of the more hazardous and challenging environments on campus come to work every day (and after hours for occasional emergencies) with a combination of professionalism, mutual support, hard work, respect and compassion. That makes my job as a supervisor much easier! The WMF has been inspected recently by State and Federal regulators and each time, I have not had to worry because I know that Clyde, Brian and Suzie always keep the whole operation running like that proverbial well-oiled machine.”
• “I appreciate the new learning experiences we deal with every day with BSL-3 work, medical waste training and any other hazards that come from the college.”
• “That we have challenges and are able to fix them with the knowledge from the staff within.”
• “I appreciate getting to know everyone on campus and to be part of the group.”

Staff Council: What do you like about working in the Waste Management Facility?

Biosafety Program:

• “What I enjoy most is working with very good people to support the very important work being done at the Vet College to make a difference in the world.”
• “It makes us feel good helping pet owners with their final wishes for their pets.”
• “It’s nice to know that people can come to us for help. Whether it’s helping with the loss of a pet or dealing with medical waste disposal questions.”

Staff Council: What is the hardest part of your job?

Biosafety Program: 

• The smells!
• Handling the animal waste that comes from the AHDC after necropsies have been performed.
• Comforting people when they come to pick up their pet’s ashes, especially the elderly. With most of the elderly, their pet is the last connection to a loved one they have. Their pet is their life and it keeps them wanting to do things and they help with their loneliness during the day.
• Convincing people that they don’t have to worry about all of the hazards involved with operating the WMF and biocontainment facilities when they come into the facility.
• It’s difficult but a rewarding feeling to know that we can comfort the clients who bring in their pets for cremation. It’s never easy to deal with the loss of a pet. It’s nice to know we ease the grief and can sympathize with them.

Staff Council: What would you like the CVM community to know about the Biosafety team?

Biosafety Program:

• If you smell a bad smell, it’s not always coming from our facility!
• They can count on us to take care of scary “messes.”
• If the CVM community has any questions about biosafety, they can stop in to our facility or call us anytime at 253-3288 to ask us.

Staff Council: Thank you, Biosafety Program Team, for being our CVM Staff Council’s November Spotlight. We enjoyed meeting with you and learning what your group does.

To learn more about the Biosafety Program’s HydroCremation Service, please visit:  https://www.vet.cornell.edu/hospitals/services/hydrocremation

Look for our December e-News Spotlight with the Equine Research Park!

Have ideas or suggestions for an upcoming Spotlight? Email us at cvmstaffcouncil@cornell.edu!