The Airport and The Environment

Water Quality Issues in the Airport Environment.  

Throughout time the demand for air travel 

increased drastically, sometimes pushing airports beyond capacity forcing managers to plan plan on airport expansion to meet the inevitable demand. Aviation is growing, and that is generating huge benefits for the world, it’s protected that air travel will double in the next 20 years reaching 8.2 billion in 2037 (IATA, 2018). 

The evident increasing demand will 

require new airport infrastructure. At airports in the US alone Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) handled an a average of 53 million takeoffs and landings by 2019 a number that is projected to increase greatly in the later years (FAA, 2020). This operation saturation of air travel will trigger a robust infrastructure, increase traffic that will raise one of the concerns at airports which is water quality issues. Many airport activities result in the discharge of pollutants to adjacent water bodies such as aircraft deicing and anti-icing, fuel storage and refueling, aircraft and vehicle cleaning. Activities regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). (CRS, 2008). 

There is not doubt that airport location 

plays a major role in the amount of pollutants used on the tarmac, for example storm weather during the winter aids the use of deice and anti-ice fluid and while there are permit programs squired by airport that allows the discharge of chemical waste combine with the nature of the operations pose the greatest challenge to airport managers because of the impact to the environment, potential aquatic life and human health impacts due to the toxicity of these fluids. Managers at major airports are challenge to put in practice their Best Management Practices (BPMs) to prevent or minimize the discharge or pollutants and chemicals to the ambient, all these challenges are controlled by government agencies that issues permits for specific operations and while one program may work to one airport it may not suit a similar operations. Furthermore,  the practices of appropriate protocols to avoid spellings during the winter is difficult to monitor and control.

In the future, an effective way to reduce 

or mitigate the use of these chemical that affect all living species it could be ecological alternatives to either replace or combine with the actual chemicals used for deicing and anti-icing to reduce the contaminants. In addition, since airports are considered industrial areas airports should have their own waste treatment and disposal of pollutants and fluids before it reaches the city’s water treatments and finally, airports should work to develop methods to recycle the fluids used in aircrafts with a potential new system that not only would revolutionize the aviation industry but, it will reduce greatly the contaminants that reach the water. 

References:

Environmental Impacts of Airport Operation, Maintenance, and Expansion. (2008, March 31). EveryCRSReport. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33949.html#_Toc222735822

U. S. Air Travel Demand. (2020, March 26). Federal Aviation Administration. https://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=95273&omniRss=news_updatesAoc&cid=101_N_U

Trends in Air Transport Press Release. (2018). International Air Transport Association. (IATA). https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2018-10-24-02/