In association with Toronto-based Jacques Whitford Environment Limited, Urban Engineers of New York has been selected by the Greater Buffalo-Niagara International Airport to develop a wetlands area to process glycols that are used to deice aircraft. In use at only a handful of airports in North America, this relatively new technology promises an ecologically sound solution to this disposal problem.

During the winter, glycol is used abundantly for aircraft deicing while the aircraft are parked on the apron. Quantities of glycol are therefore present in the airport’s stormwater collection system. Under the proposed scheme, stormwater would be channeled into detention ponds and then passed through the wetlands area and treated by a biological process before discharge to a water body or stream.

A notable installation of this type is at Edmonton International Airport in Alberta, Canada where engineers have developed the largest constructed wetlands in the world that treats glycol-contaminated aircraft runoff. Installed in 2001, the system has been treating 230,000 cubic meters of glycol-contaminated runoff annually.