Industry associations have voiced serious concerns with the EPA’s effluent limitation guidelines for deicing operations at airports (you can read more about it in the June/July issue). The major concerns include the potential impact on safety and operations, as well as cost.
Another issue with the proposed rulemaking is that there seems to be no clearly defined incentive for the use of more environmentally friendly technology that can reduce the amount of glycol used in operations.
If the airports are investing in technology to collect and treat fluid (at a cost that would likely be passed on to the airlines), where is the incentive to invest in new equipment that promotes more environmentally friendly deicing operations? This could have a negative impact on innovative efforts and the continued production of such technology for the marketplace.
At the very least, the EPA needs to consider how new technology can be accounted for in the rulemaking.
