Treating Surface Water from Airport Runways and Standing Areas

Surface water from runways and standing areas can be severely contaminated, particularly in winter with de-icer fluids, and occasionally with accidental spills of hydraulic fluid and fuel.

To permit safe discharge into local water courses, the levels of contaminants must be constantly monitored and maintained below strictly applied limits.

Votec recently completed a control system at a major international airport in the UK to continuously monitor the contaminant levels of incoming surface water.

The control system  has various treatment stages to remove solids and general contaminants and then, by monitoring its organic content, diverting high and low concentration effluent to separate storage tanks.

The control system then automatically controls the blending of the two streams to maintain the final outfall within limits.