Airport selects natural way to clean up
Ponds’ gravel will break down de-icer residue
By Sharon Linstedt
NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER
Updated: 04/29/08 6:38 AM
The Buffalo Niagara International Airport is going green with a unique, natural solution to cleaning up chemical de-icing agents.
The Cheektowaga airport will be the first in the United States to employ aerated ponds filled with gravel and other aggregate matter to break down glycol — the chemical used to de-ice planes. The stony filters will convert the toxic liquid into a harmless mix of water and oxygen.
“We’re going to be on the cutting edge of this nature-based technology as the first U. S. airport to handle glycol this way,” said Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer. “This is a giant step forward in our “Going Green” initiative and commitment to the environment.”
The NFTA Board of Commissioners on Monday approved a pair of contracts for the $10.6 million project, which will get under way this spring. Kandey Co. of West Seneca was awarded the main $9.9 million contract to install the four glycol treatment beds and a related underground pipe system.
Man O’ Trees, also of West Seneca, had submitted the low bid of $7.8 million, but abruptly withdrew that offer late last week indicating it had made an error in the estimated cost.
Jacques Whitford, a Canadian environmental services firm, will be paid a $741,500 fee as the project’s consultant.
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 and Buffalo Sewer Authority treatment systems. The clean water can safely be pumped from the gravel basins into storm sewers.
“This is a solution that’s been four years in the making and it should be up and running in 2009,” Hartmayer said.
The airport had originally planned to use ponds filled with thousands of cattails and reeds to absorb its glycol, but redrew the design for the more effective gravel beds.
London’s Heathrow Airport utilizes a similar system, as do airports in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta.
More than $9 million of the price tag for the earth-friendly effort will be paid for Cheektowaga airport’s Passenger Facility Fees, with federal and state transportation and aviation grants making up the balance.
The NFTA board also approved purchase of a nearly $497,000 jet bridge for the soon-to-be-constructed terminal at Niagara Falls International Airport. The authority had originally planned to relocate a passenger bridge from the Cheektowaga airport.
A groundbreaking for the new $29.7 million terminal will be held May 16.
NFTA officials also announced that Myrtle Beach Direct Air and Tours will increase its weekly count of flights from Niagara Falls to South Carolina from three to five starting in June. At that time, the airline will discontinue its thrice-weekly flights from Niagara Falls to Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla. for the summer season.
The Buffalo Niagara International Airport will see improved service to Chicago. United Airlines, which boosted its direct flight count this month to seven daily flights, will increase the seat count starting in June by switching from regional jets to Boeing 737s on six nonstop flights to O’Hare International Airport.
In other action, the NFTA board amended its 2008-09 budget by $2.3 million, citing a reduction in state transportation aid. The rebalanced budget, which totals $186.6 million, eliminates five new administrative positions, and relies on updated estimates of expenses and revenues.
The cut in state aid, from a projected $47.7 million to $45.4 million, will have no impact on fares or service levels.
