Emmitsburg -- Mount St. Mary's University is getting a new boiler in February to replace an aging, coal-fired boiler that was recently cited for air-pollution violations by the Maryland Department of the Environment.MDE issued a corrective order June 15 requiring the university improve the operation of the boiler to comply with Maryland's visible emission regulations. Mount spokeswoman Linda Sherman said the university will no longer be using the coal-fired boiler. "We will be using supplemental heating until then," she said. When University President Thomas H. Powell took over the post six years ago, his top goal was to get rid of the boiler, Sherman said. "Just by doing that, we will reduce our carbon footprint by 40 percent," Sherman said. Preservation of the environment is a priority for the Catholic university, she said. Some of the buildings on the campus date back 200 years, she said. The boiler is an example of older technology that survived. It dates from 1974, and for many years, it was an economical way for the college to heat several buildings. "When you get the money in the door, you do the things you have to do," she said. The boiler will be replaced with a new, $500,000 high-efficiency gas-fired boiler. This winter, two other gas boilers the college uses will handle the load. The three boilers are used to heat 12 campus buildings. Geothermal heat has also come to Mount St. Mary's. Bicentennial Hall, the college's newest residence hall dedicated earlier this year, has geothermal heat. The Delaplaine Fine Arts Center, which is being gutted and refurbished, will have a geothermal heating and cooling system when it reopens. Dedication of the updated building is set for April. "They're drilling the holes for it now," Sherman said. Geothermal heat is an energy-efficient form of heat that relies on the constant underground temperature as a heat source.
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