Centerlines - April 2008 - (Page 24) ENVIRONMENT THE DEICING DEBATE T BECAUSE they discharge wastewater, all airports in the United States today operate under NPDES permits. Will EPA actions increase airport costs? B Y PAU L S E I DE N M A N A N D DAV I D J. SPA NOV IC H his fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will propose rules that would establish the first national standards for the management of aircraft and airport pavement deicing and anti-icing chemicals. “The objective is to identify one or more of the chemical components used in the fluids and set a discharge limit on those identified as pollutants,” said Eric Strassler, EPA project manager for the Airport Deicing Effluent Guidelines. “We will then focus on setting a ‘performance standard,’ but not mandate any specific ways or methods the airport operators or airlines have to use to achieve the standards. That would be up to them.” Impact of New EPA Rules on Current Infrastructures While the rules, which the EPA expects to finalize by December 2009, are not yet known, airport operators are concerned that compliance could mean costly changes to infrastructures currently handling storm water/chemical runoff. “I think that the major challenge the industry faces is making the EPA understand that every airport is unique,” said Jessica Steinhilber, director of environmental affairs for the Airports Council International–North America (ACI-NA) in Washington, D.C. “For this reason, any rule that the EPA comes up with should be flexible enough to apply to any airport situation. Along with this is the issue of how the EPA will interpret the real world data gathered in their research.” EPA Effluent Limitation Guidelines The EPA’s actions represent a confluence of its authority under federal law and the growing concern of the environmental community over the nation’s water quality. Most airports in the United States today operate under National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. As part of their permit requirements, airports must prepare a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP), which describes the source of any pollution and what the airport is doing to control the discharge. In Northwest aircraft are deiced on a pad at Detroit Metro. 24 CENTERLINES | APRIL 2008
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