Airports & Pollution

Airports and Pollution

Abstract

How do airports affect the environment and the area surrounding an airport? Transportation through the air is an ever-growing portion of the way people get to their destinations these days. But how many people know about the forms of pollution that occur at an airport. Noise pollution, water pollution, and air pollution are some of the effects at airports and the area around them that are occurring today.

Airports and Pollution

The many effects of the ever-growing aspect of airports and the rapidly demanding growth of transportation through the air may be spoiling the environment that we live in today. The most noted form of pollution that occurs from airports and the planes that fly in and out of them everyday would be noise pollution. To express sound we often refer to the word decibel. Decibel is a shorthand way to express the amplitude of sound. Prolonged exposure over 85 decibels that could occur at any point of your daily routine could signal the beginning of hearing loss. Just to give you a few examples of the decibel values of some common everyday activities, at the clothing department of a large store you could experience 53 decibels. Normal everyday conversation with someone sitting next to you exposes you to 60 decibels. Heavy city traffic exposes you to 92 decibels. A jet liner traveling 500 feet overhead from you exposes you to 115 decibels. That’s 30 decibels over the point where hearing could be damaged if there is a prolonged exposure.

Water pollution at airports is another major concern for us as citizens. Water pollution affects more people that just the ones located near an airport. 45 of the 50 busiest airports in America today are located within three miles of a major waterway according to the National Resources Defense Council. The major pollutant, a substance called ethylene glycol or propylene glycol, is one of the major substances that are getting into our waterways. Glycol is used for de-icing the airplanes during the winter weather season. At 93 airports during the 1989-1991 timeframe, more than four million gallons of glycol was used for de-icing purposes. With well over 500 certified airports in the United States, the actual amount emitted is much higher than reported. During de-icing, the airlines mi...

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... cost twenty five hundred dollars.

The final pollution issue is the air pollution aspect from the airports. The airplanes that are taxing could reduce fuel consumption and engine emissions by taxiing on only one engine. Single engine taxiing saves fuel and reduces emissions substantially. Delta Airlines Pilot generally only use one engine to taxi, and at their hub in Atlanta, this strategy saved more than 5.9 million in fuel costs in 1995 alone.

References

Aviation Noise Effects (March 1985) Comparative Noise Levels. Retrieved February 21, 2005 from the Noise Pollution Web site: http:www.nonoise.org/library/ane/ane.htm Environmental Health Perspectives (1997) Environmental Health Issues. Retrieved February 18, 2005 from the Environmental Health Perspectives Web site: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov Nader, R., & Smith, W. (1994). Collision Course: The Truth About Airline Safety.

Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: McGraw Hill

Hardaway, R. (1991). Airport Regulations, Law, and Public Policy.

Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books

Linton, R. (1970). Terracide; America’s Destruction of Her Living Environment

Hampstead, Maryland: Little Brown & Company