Committee hears plan to fix VAIL autoclave and summer‑steam problems with summer boilers and local steam generators

The Senate Institutions Committee heard an update on operations and repairs for the Vermont Agriculture & Environmental Laboratory (VAIL) on Thursday, when Joe Langen, director of design and construction with Building & General Services, described technical and operational fixes to recurring steam problems.

Langen said the laboratory, completed in 2019, was originally tied into the adjacent college’s central steam plant. Two problems emerged after construction: the lab’s large autoclave requires about 50 pounds per square inch of steam pressure — higher than the college routinely runs — and the college reduces or shuts off steam delivery during the summer, leaving the lab without reliable autoclave service. "The autoclave ... is 50 pounds of steam pressure," Langen said, and the college cannot maintain that pressure continuously.

To address those constraints, Langen said the current design (moved forward in FY '23) would add dedicated summer boilers installed in the college heat plant and local steam generators at the lab to supply the higher pressure when needed. He described a 1‑to‑3 boiler configuration to match low and peak loads and avoid frequent cycling: "One for very low loads ... and also the peak loads," Langen said, so fewer boilers run at low demand and more come on during peaks.

Langen told the committee the project is in design and that the team expects to get at least one summer boiler operating early in the work so the college can shut off its boilers in summer; the goal is to have the work completed by Christmas of this year. He also flagged an administrative error on a slide about FY '27 bond requests: the slide showed a $1.5 million FY '27 request that Langen said does not exist.

VAIL director Cheryl Akaliza told the committee the lab performs roughly 35,000 tests annually and identified the highest‑risk pinch points that motivated the project: organic chemistry instrumentation (sensitive, high‑value equipment), weights and measures calibration on the bottom floor, and phosphorus testing that requires an autoclave digestion step. Akaliza said the lab is preparing to support PFAS methods used for drinking and wastewater testing and expects to be ready to run those methods in the spring pending method approvals and any external partnerships.

Committee members underscored the lab’s importance and asked for metrics; members praised the lab as a critical statewide resource for tight‑tolerance, temperature‑sensitive work. Langen said the administration intends to convert or upgrade boiler tanks and service as part of the project and will balance winter steam use from the college with the new summer boilers and local steam generators.

Next steps: staff said the design work will continue this fiscal period and that the team plans to present status updates to the committee as design and early construction milestones are reached.