"DIA to pay 2nd fine for de-icing spills"

Friday, October 4, 2002

DIA to pay 2nd fine for de-icing spills
New airport penalty tied to mandate after fluid entered creek
By Todd Hartman
The Denver (CO) Rocky Mountain News


Denver International Airport has agreed to pay a $59,112 fine to the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment after a series of
de-icing fluid spills, including one last spring that put a million
gallons of tainted water into Third Creek.

The settlement is the second time the airport has been fined by state
regulators for spills of de-icing fluid, or propylene glycol.

In 1998, DIA paid a $29,000 fine and agreed to undertake a nearly
$500,000 study on the airport's drainage into area creeks after two
small spills into Third Creek.

The latest fine is linked to a "cease and desist" order state officials
issued in July 2001, citing DIA for exceeding permitted limits on glycol
released into Third Creek 61 times between the May 1999 and May 2001.
The glycol is sprayed on airplanes before they take off in icy
conditions.

The violations were surprising to state health officials, who have said
DIA's de-icing operation was state-

of-the-art in 1995, when the airport opened. Since then the airport has
embarked on two projects to improve the system - a $2.7 million effort
in 1997, and a nearly $14 million project started last year.

"They've expended significant amount of resources to upgrade their
facility to manage (the glycol)," said Scott Klarich, the enforcement
team leader for the health department's Water Quality Control Division.

State regulators initially calculated a penalty of $177,162, but a study
undertaken by DIA as part of the 1998 penalty showed that the releases
didn't have a "significant environmental impact" on the creek, and don't
appear to be linked to a fish kill in nearby Burlington/O'Brien Canal
and Horse Creek Reservoir in early May of 2001, the settlement said.

"It's fair to say that based on the results of the study, that weighed
pretty heavily with us in reducing the penalty and accepting the
settlement," Klarich said.

The de-icer itself isn't toxic, but in large concentrations it can
threaten aquatic life because the chemical sets off a process that leads
to oxygen depletion in the water.

DIA spokesman Steve Snyder said settling the dispute with the health
department was the most cost-effective route.

"Basically we're paying (the fine) to try and quickly resolve the issue,
to get all the outstanding issues out of the way," Snyder said.

Additionally, he said, the airport is asking state regulators to review
the permit limits for glycol in light of the DIA study that found
minimal impact to the creek. "Essentially the health of the stream
downstream from the discharge was in better shape than upstream," he
said.

The largest spill, in May of 2001, in which about a million gallons of
glycol-tainted water made its way into the creek, could have been worse.
In that case, airport officials said heavy rains forced them to release
the contaminated water from one storage pond to avoid spilling even more
pollutants from another pond.

The latest improvement project included construction of additional
holding ponds for the de-icer, bringing total capacity to 61.5 million
gallons in eight retention ponds around the airfield. The earlier
project included lining runways with pipes to collect the glycol that
drips off airplanes.

De-icer that flows off the runways and mixes with stormwater, snow and
dirt is collected and piped to the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District
plant in northeast Denver for treatment. Some of the fluid flowing off
de-icing pads is quickly recaptured and can be sold off for use in other
products, including windshield washing fluid.


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