New airport plan: Dump de-icer in river

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - The Gerald R. Ford International Airport has proposed building a $15-million pipeline to dump airplane de-icing fluid -- an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 gallons a year -- directly into the Thornapple River.

Some neighbors criticized the plan. Some, including the president of a nearby river association, say the airport hasn't given them a chance to object.

"Dumping it into the Thornapple without any type of filter doesn't sound like the best option to us, and we don't intend to accept that with open arms," said Scott Rissi, president of the 300-member Cascade River Association, which covers the Thornapple from the Cascade Dam to the south.

The plan follows a December 2010 order by the state Department of Environmental Quality to stop allowing glycol -- considered a non-toxic substance -- to run off into a tributary that meanders to the Thornapple. That stream, known as Trout Creek to neighbors and "unnamed tributary" to the airport, is dead, with no fish and no vegetation.

Rissi said neither his association nor an association of homeowners downstream in Ada were aware of an August public meeting at the airport until after that meeting was held.

"Neither of our associations were contacted by the airport or the DNR at all about this whole situation," Rissi said.

Airport officials, however, said they've held monthly meetings since February with "stakeholders," including a resident, the DEQ, environmental groups and township officials. The meetings, they said, were publicized.

On Sept. 1, the airport submitted its proposal to the DEQ. It suggested a nearly mile-long, perhaps 9-foot diameter pipeline stretching from the airport to the Thornapple. It would dump glycol into the river about where M-6 meets with I-96 in Cascade Township.

Glycol run-off has plagued the airport and other airports for years. Local airport officials say they have taken steps to reduce the run-off, including a recycling program.

William McCarrel, the lone resident on the airport's "stakeholder" committee, first noticed a smelly slime on the creek behind his home in the early 1990s, every winter and spring.

"It was just a gelatinous mass in the creek -- really, really yucky," he said.

Before then, the stream was a "playground" for the neighborhood and was teeming with fish, he said.

But the slime, which has appeared every winter since, eventually killed everything in the creek, which still appears barren, McCarrel said.

"It's dead; everything's dead in this creek; there is no life in the creek," McCarrel said.

Thomas Ecklund, airport facilities director, said the airport has found "no indication we're aware of that it has hurt aquatic life over the years." Glycol, he said, creates a so-called biofilm in the water, but "chemically, it doesn't hurt the water quality."

"When we start de-icing, a month later, the biofilm develops," Ecklund said.

Through a pilot program, the airport is sending some of the runoff to the Grand Rapids wastewater treatment plant, but airport officials say that's not a long-term solution. They've also considered building a wastewater plant at the airport, but found that was too expensive, Ecklund said.

Another possibility was building a centralized de-icing pad for aircraft, but the airport isn't big enough. It would cost $20 million to $30 million and would slow air traffic, Ecklund said.

Ecklund said airport officials believe the pipe is the best solution because there is enough fast-moving water in the Thornapple to dilute the glycol.

McCarrel says the pipe would "certainly solve the problem in the creek," though he would understand why Thornapple River residents would be worried.

Airport officials hope the DEQ will approve the project soon so they can start designing the project next year. The airport's permit requires it to complete the project by the fall of 2015.