Road Weather Management Program
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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

EPA Targets Airport Deicing Operations for Effluent Guideline Development: Is Highway Deicing Runoff Next?

Abstract:

Winter highway operations and winter operations in the aviation sector have a great deal in common. Highway and aviation winter operations are conducted in the outdoor environment. As a result, both experience some unavoidable runoff of their deicing products in storm water. After years of analysis, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified discharges from airport deicing operations as a candidate for the development of nationwide discharge standards. This paper explores the nature of the Effluent Guidelines program, with particular attention to the way in which EPA selects industries for regulation. It examines the way in which that process was employed to direct the focus the Effluent Guidelines program onto airport deicing operations. Finally, the paper examines the likelihood that this same regulatory attention could in the future be directed at runoff from highway deicing operations.

Source(s):

85th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, Beveridge and Diamond. For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.

Date: 2006

Author:

Davis

Keywords:


Anti-icing/deicing chemicals
Environment

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