This ‘bug’ is for a cleaner environment

By John Howell
Posted 6/2/16

Gerald “Jay” Brolin worked hard “to bug” Green Airport. The job didn’t come easily and took him to two breweries – Budweiser finally did the trick – but the effort paid off big time. He …

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This ‘bug’ is for a cleaner environment

Posted

Gerald “Jay” Brolin worked hard “to bug” Green Airport. The job didn’t come easily and took him to two breweries – Budweiser finally did the trick – but the effort paid off big time. He said Tuesday that thanks to the work of “the bugs,” four million gallons of water laced with deicing fluid propylene glycol was treated and didn’t find its way into the Buckeye Brook watershed.

Brolin, Rhode Island Airport Corporation manager of environmental programs, described his search for the “bugs” following a press conference celebrating the first full year operation of the $36.3-million Deicer Management Facility, described as only one of four worldwide.

The system works similar to a wastewater treatment plant in that it uses bacteria, like those used in making beer, to digest pollutants. Methane gas produced by the process is used to help offset the cost of natural gas to run the operation, while the treated water is discharged into the Warwick sewer system.

When it came time to put the plant in operation, Brolin turned to Harpoon Brewery in Newport. They obliged and gave RIAC some of their “bugs.” Unfortunately, the bugs didn’t take, and Brolin turned to Anheuser Busch in New York to see if they had any “excess bugs.”

RIAC bought the bugs. They didn’t take to their new home either. The third shipment was the charm.

“This project is a complete success,” said Peter Frazier, interim president and CEO of RIAC. Serving as master of ceremonies, he called the system a “win” for the airport, the state, the city and, most importantly, the environment.

Frazier, who also serves as RIAC legal counsel, worked closely with the Department of Environmental Management in permitting the operation and award contracts to Hart Engineering and Cardi Construction for the design and construction of the facility. With such familiarity of the project, Frazier singled out Sen. Jack Reed as a “tireless advocate” of the airport and a key player in securing federal funding not only for the glycol collection system but also multiple airport projects, including improved runway safety areas, relocation of the Winslow Park playing fields, relocation of Main Avenue, and a 1,500-foot extension to Runway 5. Work on the extension has started. An official groundbreaking is scheduled for June 23.

Reed called the Federal Aviation Administration a “critical partner with the airport” and said the collection system is 10 to 30 times more effective than the previous system that used a designated deicing area and vacuum trucks to collect excess fluid.

Reed also pointed to the funding and how interest rates for a Clean Water Finance Agency loan will end up saving RIAC about $4 million over the life of the revenue bond used to finance the project.

“This was a Jack Reed effort,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said.

Mayor Scott Avedisian called the release of glycol into the watershed one of the “biggest and stickiest issues” confronting the city and RIAC. The presence of glycol left a yellow-brown scum on the banks and streambed of Buckeye Brook. It was thought to have impaired the spring spawning run of herring and alewives and a threat to wildlife around the brook as well as Warwick Pond. The fact the system is now operational and, in addition, runway safety improvements and the relocation of Winslow Park have been completed, he said, is indicative “of what we can accomplish when we put aside our differences.”

Stressing that the first role of the FAA is safety, Amy Lind Corbett, FAA New England regional administrator, said the system will serve the airport for years to come. She also talked of the “new chapter” for Green and. with the runway extension. she sees nonstop service to California in its future.

“We worked hard to get the ‘yes,’” Frazier said of DEM, which oversaw the permitting of the system. “At times it wasn’t easy, but there was always decorum.”

DEM Director Janet Coit agreed the agency’s work does not always make it popular, but the effort makes for a cleaner bay.

“There’s, of course, no replacing our environment,” she said.

And while the system will mean environmental benefits, the economy also got a shout-out. RIAC board chair Jonathan Savage said the airport is “critically important as an economic driver for the state.” He sees the improvements as ensuring that role for generations to come.

Brolin said there are two types of deicing fluids: type 1, which knocks off the ice formed on the fuselage and wings of aircraft, and type 4, which “sticks” to the aircraft and prevents the formation of ice as it takes off and in flight. Roughly, according to its permit, the airport is required to recapture 60 percent of the recoverable glycol. As glycol evaporates and stays with an aircraft, it is impossible to recover all of it.

Brolin said operations have been well within the guidelines, with overall efficiency rates of 67 percent last year and a projected 63 percent this year.

The system is made up of collection drains running along the taxiway adjacent to terminal gates and at a designated area for cargo planes. When a certain level of glycol is detected, the mix of glycol and runoff water is pumped through almost three miles of forced mains to the treatment facility. The facility has the capacity to store 2.9 million gallons. It’s then that the Budweiser bugs go to work, feeding off the carbon and hydrogen content in the glycol.

“It’s akin to sugar and the bugs like it,” Brolin said.

But what of the bugs in the middle of summer when the airport isn’t deicing aircraft?

Brolin makes sure they don’t go hungry.

“We can’t live on steak alone,” he said, making the analogy that the bugs can’t subsist on only glycol either. Stored glycol is used as well as other nutrients to sustain the bacteria until they are needed.

Of course, Brolin could go back to Budweiser for another 4,000-gallon shipment of bugs, but he’s not anxious to go through that again.

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