Lawmakers weigh $3.5 million for Vermont Agriculture & Environmental Lab heating after campus boilers falter

The Vermont Agriculture & Environmental Lab, located on the Vermont Technical College (VTC) Randolph Center campus, is the subject of a request for additional capital funds after staff and facilities engineers told a legislative committee on Feb. 19 that the campus steam plant cannot maintain a steady steam pressure needed for lab operations.

The lab performs a range of agricultural and environmental testing — including microbiology, pesticide residue, chlorophyll and metals testing — and requires consistent steam pressure and humidity control for instruments and autoclaves. The governor’s FY2026 recommendation includes $3,500,000 to address the heating system; the project previously received $300,000 (FY2024) and $1,500,000 (FY2025), all currently unencumbered, officials said.

Committee members heard from Joe Adrich, Design and Construction, Buildings & General Services, who explained that the lab was built after the Waterbury facility was lost to flooding during Tropical Storm Irene and was connected to the campus steam plant instead of a standalone heat plant. “During the design of the lab, the engineers believed that the campus system could provide about 50 pounds per square inch of steam,” Adrich said. “The campus can only produce 48, and they cannot produce it continuously.” He described short-cycling in warmer months — boilers fire for five to 10 minutes then shut off — which fails to provide the steady steam pressure required for sterilization and humidity control.

Cheryl, identified as the lab director of the Vermont Environmental Lab, told the committee the consequences for the lab are operational delays and loss of deliverables. “If we don't have the steam pressure to do that step of the test, sometimes our testing is delayed,” she said, describing how autoclaves and pre‑instrument digestion steps need reliable steam and how humidity fluctuations interfere with sample preparation such as grinding for chlorophyll testing.

Officials described two paths under consideration. The original plan (design work and bids completed under a previous RFP) proposed a standalone heat plant using a wood-chip boiler backed by propane, with a previous lifecycle estimate near $5,000,000 for building a new facility. Because VTC is now planning its own boiler replacements, Buildings & General Services is pausing the standalone contract and proposing a pivot: investigate installing one or more “summer” boilers (fuel to be determined: number‑2 oil or propane) in space inside the campus plant to provide the lab with consistent steam in warm months and limit new construction. Adrich said the state would also evaluate whether the campus boilers can reliably provide the lab’s steam requirements or if a steam generator is needed to raise pressure only for the lab’s autoclaves.

Committee members asked about cost-sharing and timing. Adrich said existing ground-lease terms require the lab to pay a share of campus boiler replacements if the campus replaces boilers; the committee did not have an immediate percentage figure. He said none of the earlier appropriations have been spent and that the administration’s $3.5 million FY2026 request would fund the next stage of study and potential conversion work. If the state pursues a standalone plant, construction would not begin before summer 2026 at the earliest; using campus space to house a summer boiler could be done faster if equipment were available and sited quickly.

Officials also flagged permitting and neighborhood opposition risks. A standalone wood-chip boiler previously faced Act 250 permitting appeals that delayed construction for more than a year; that litigation history could delay any new stand-alone installation. Adrich said converting campus boilers from hard-to-source number‑4 fuel to number‑2 fuel (or propane) would improve reliability because modern number‑2 and propane systems require less daily operator intervention.

The committee did not take formal action at the hearing. Members directed staff and the agency to revisit the paused RFP, seek written details about the campus agreement and cost‑share obligations, and to invite VTC representatives to testify. The committee chair said markup language and further committee discussion could follow in March and that a clear path might not be known until later in the spring.

Next steps: staff will gather the campus‑agreement percentage, update cost estimates for (1) a summer boiler housed inside VTC’s plant, (2) converting campus boilers to number‑2 fuel, and (3) constructing a standalone plant; the committee expects to revisit the request during markup and to hear directly from VTC before finalizing recommendations.