Airport De-Icers Causing Wildlife Kills
A mounted kingfisher with its wings spread clings to the office wall of Wilmington College biology professor Fred Anliot. It’s a reminder that the birds used to flourish around nearby Lytle Creek.
Anliot says the aquatic life that once fed the kingfishers has all but disappeared because of de-icing chemicals used at Airborne Express’ sprawling overnight-delivery airport, among the largest privately operated ones in the country.
The chemicals are used because keeping ice off airplane wings and runways is crucial for air safety. Even a thin layer of ice can be a safety issue, says John Mazor, spokesman for the Washington-based Air Line Pilots Assn.
“Improper de-icing on an aircraft can result in having that airplane crash, sometimes before it gets out of sight of the airport,” Mazor says.
However, both national and state officials are increasingly seeing a need to balance that factor with public demands for more attention to airport pollution, said Martyn Burt, of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s surface-water division.
The owner of the Ohio airport, ABX Air Inc., has 106 DC-8s and DC-9s at the 2,200-acre, two-runway airport and plans to put five Boeing 767s into service later this year. ABX employs 7,500 workers and handles 1 million packages a night.
Anliot said he began to notice an antifreeze-like smell in Lytle Creek five or six years ago. In the last two years, he said, the odor has gotten so bad that people who live more than a mile downstream can smell it.
During the winter, rocks in the creek become coated with de-icing agents or bacterial byproducts; last February, thousands of fish, including bass and bluegill, were killed, he said. ABX said there was no confirmed fish kill.
“The stream does clean itself up by midsummer,” said Anliot. “It’s basically a nice clear stream in the middle of the summer. But it is dead.”
Anliot said his real fear is possible harm to residents.
“People are complaining about getting sick,” he said. “When I’m working back in there, I come out of there with a headache and a very strong taste in my mouth.”
Burt said there is no human health hazard as far as the agency knows. But he agreed with Anliot that de-icing fluid can affect wildlife.
The state EPA issued a notice of violation to ABX for exceeding its limit for de-icing runoff during a snowstorm last February. The EPA has asked ABX to provide a spill-response plan by Oct. 15.
“To be fair to Airborne, when the agency has brought matters to their attention, they have in the main tried to respond,” Burt said. “They still have a ways to go.”
According to EPA records, ABX has a history of spills and discharges.
An EPA memo in March 1992 said the company had 10 spills of jet fuel and firefighting foam since 1985 and that de-icers were running off into Lytle Creek.
Joe Hete, chief operating officer for ABX, said the company hasn’t figured out how to prevent de-icer runoff, but is trying to use limited amounts without compromising safety. ABX switched to nontoxic de-icers a few years ago, but they have drawbacks too. For instance, one type sucks the oxygen out of water as it breaks down, Hete said.
The company has established an experimental, man-made wetland designed to help break down de-icers before they can enter the streams. “We’ve seen some pretty encouraging results so far,” Hete said.
Anliot said the EPA has not been aggressive enough.
“We’ve done better recently,” said Burt. Since the February fish kill, he said, the agency has been in better communication with ABX, which could still be fined over the incident.
ABX is not alone in dealing with pollution from de-icer runoff.
Baltimore-Washington International Airport, for example, has been wrestling with the same issue since de-icers were found in nearby streams, according to Quentin Banks, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Banks said the airport has purchased vacuum trucks to suck up de-icers as they stream off aircraft. It also has agreed to build an additional concrete pad to collect the chemicals.
Airport spokeswoman Marilyn Corbett said a trenching drain has also been built to capture de-icers. She said the airport is trying to balance two important issues--sensitivity to the environment and the airlines’ requirement to de-ice the planes for passengers’ safety.
Carter Morris, director of environmental affairs for the American Assn. of Airport Executives, says airports have traditionally had a good response to environmental concerns. There are only a few cases in which de-icing chemicals from airports have been shown to have negative effects on the environment, he says.
