A new, environmentally sensitive way to handle airplane de-icing fluid will be taking off soon at Buffalo Niagara International Airport [1].

Buffalo Niagara International AirportAccording to the Buffalo News [2], the airport will be the first in the country to use aerated ponds that are filled with gravel and other aggregate matter to break down glycol, the chemical used to de-ice planes. The filters convert the glycol into a non-toxic mix of water and oxygen.

The basins will be located on the airfield, between the airport’s main runway and Perimeter Road. Millions of gallons of airfield runoff, currently siphoned into a holding tank system, will be channeled into the engineered wetland beds.

The natural glycol filtration system will handle 100 percent of the chemical residue, eliminating the need for the run-off to be handled by the Town of Cheektowaga [3] and Buffalo Sewer Authority [4] treatment systems. The clean water can safely be pumped from the gravel basins into storm sewers.

The filtering ponds should be in place by 2009. Similar ones exist in Toronto and London Heathrow.