"Indiana airport lacks stormwater permit"

Friday, December 24, 2004 

Airport lacks stormwater permit
S.B. Regional's director doubts permit will be needed
By JOHN DOBBERSTEIN
The South Bend (IN) Tribune


SOUTH BEND -- Despite increasing scrutiny of environmental issues with the
nation's airports, South Bend Regional Airport doesn't have a required
stormwater discharge permit to dispose of potentially hazardous chemicals.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said there's no evidence
that airport officials have ever applied for the permit, which is required
of the state's airports every five years.

"We have a lot of airports in our database, but South Bend is not among
them," said Cyndi Wagner, chief of IDEM's wet weather section.

The airport has 30 days to apply for a permit under IDEM's stormwater
management program, a process that began Wednesday, airport director John
Schalliol said.

Just last week, Schalliol told St. Joseph County Airport Authority members
that de-icing contamination issues needed study because IDEM was considering
changes in its regulations that would include groundwater as "waters of the
state."

The authority agreed to spend $15,000 and hire an Oklahoma firm, NXT LLC, to
determine if there is contamination.

But IDEM officials disputed Schalliol's story this week, saying groundwater
has been considered part of Indiana's public waters for about 20 years.

Schalliol declined to comment whether he and other airport officials should
have known about the regulations.

He did say an IDEM employee told him in September 1991 that the airport
didn't need a permit for stormwater discharge, since nothing was leaving the
airfield and federal officials didn't define groundwater as "waters of the
U.S."

Schalliol now agrees the authority should go through the permitting process
with IDEM.

But Schalliol doubts the airport will need a discharge permit because the
runoff reaching the basin "will have cleaned itself up" to meet
water-quality criteria, he said.

The most pressing issue might involve deicing fluid runoff at the airport,
which drains into a one-acre basin.

The water table is 50 to 60 feet below the surface, and the groundwater near
the basin flows east-southeast, toward the St. Joseph River basin.

The deicing chemicals used at South Bend Regional contain ethylene glycol
and various additives to get rid of ice and keep it from forming again on
the wings, Schalliol said.

The excess chemicals flow into inlets, through pipes and spill into the
six-foot-deep retention basin. Some storm runoff from Lincoln Way West also
drains into the basin.

Schalliol said he doesn't know how concentrated the deicing runoff is, or
where it goes after settling in the basin.

Federal studies have shown deicing chemicals can be dangerous to the
environment because of their high oxygen demand in the water. Very low
oxygen levels can lead to fill kills, or unwanted algal blooms.

Additionally, the U.S. EPA said exposure to deicing compounds can cause
neurological, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal problems, birth defects
and even death in humans.

Earlier studies of the drinking water in neighborhoods west of the airport
found no problems with deicing fluid contamination.

Schalliol said he "first became aware" the state considers groundwater to be
public waters during Wagner's presentation in October, at the Aviation
Association of Indiana's annual conference.

"That started me thinking about our situation here at the airport, and that
was the genesis for the study ... " Schalliol said.

Wagner said airports have been covered under the state's general permit
rules for industrial discharges since 1992.

IDEM's general permits require airport officials to test stormwater
discharges every year, have a pollution control plan in place and submit
annual reports showing how the plan is being implemented.

Airports fall under the state's industrial stormwater discharge rules,
Wagner said, because of activities like painting, maintenance, fueling and
deicing that involve hazardous chemicals. Airports must devise plans so
"waters of the state" aren't harmed, she said.

The situation with South Bend Regional is perplexing, Wagner said, because
her section does plenty of "outreach" with various trades it regulates,
including the aviation industry.

"I don't know what (Schalliol's) motivations are. I don't understand it,"
Wagner said.

Airport officials may argue the retention basin is an effort to control
pollution.

But that would apply, Wagner said, only if the basin is specifically
designed for that, "and if they drained every square inch of airport deicing
fluid into that, and (the basin) was lined, and nothing soaked into the
ground, nothing ever overflowed out of it, and it evaporated."

In a 2000 study, the U.S. EPA estimated the nation's airports discharge 21
million gallons of deicing fluids into surface waters each year. The study
showed a wide disparity among airports when it comes to permit requirements
for discharges and how well airports control pollution.

The U.S. EPA is mulling changes to the Clean Water Act that could require
airports to meet more strict guidelines on how chemicals are discharged.

Solutions have emerged -- such as biodegradable anti-icing fluids,
compressed air, infrared deicing hangars and computerized deicing sprayers
that reduce the amount of fluid used.

Some airports have constructed "treatment wetlands" or other methods to
control pollution. Glycol recovery is another option, but it's
cost-prohibitive at most small and medium airports, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has said.

NXT was to collect water samples from the retention basin and ship them to a
laboratory for analysis. Airport officials wanted to know the concentrations
of chemicals in the water, what happens to the chemicals and if there is any
sludge on the bottom of the basin.

Schalliol said there is a large sanitary sewer pipe within 300 feet of South
Bend Regional, and he planned to explore whether the deicing chemicals could
be pumped into South Bend's sewer system for treatment.

But for now, Schalliol has shelved the study so he can work with IDEM.

"I am starting the permit application process," he said, "and we should know
whether we need (a permit) or don't by some time in the summer."

Attached Photo:

A crew member de-ices an airplane at South Bend Regional Airport earlier
this year. A 2000 study by the U.S. EPA estimated the nation's airports
discharge 21 million gallons of de-icing fluids into surface waters each
year.

cdeicing.jpg