Recovery of de-icing fluids in now mandated (in many jurisdictions) by law.
There is a recovery "apron" upon which the plane sits when it is being
treated.

That's the idea anyway, but I bet lots still is lost to the environment.

No appreciable bio-degredation occurs at cold temperatures. The waste stuff
is stored or else taken to incinerators.

Alistair

on 2/4/03 8:42 am, Bob Stevens wrote:

>
> I get your point but, deicing fluid is used on aircraft, in winter when it
> is quite cold, while they sit on the ramp, most often at the departure gate
> just before getting in line taxiing to takeoff point on the runway. The
> deicing fluid is left on the ground/ramp and people drive fuel trucks,
> baggage tugs/carts and walk in it. It is NOT recovered. No attempt is made
> to do that. When the ramp area drains due to snow melt and rain (the ramp is
> not "washed", ever-only sometimes "swept"), it drains into the sewer system,
> and in the case here in Salt Lake, drains into the gray water system then
> into the Great Salt Lake. When snow falls on the ramp area where the
> residue/remnant deicing fluid sits, the snow is plowed, put into trucks and
> hauled to a central dumping point at the airport, on soil.....which then
> contaminates the ground water system after being filtered by mother nature.
> I walked in it for almost 20 years.
>
> Bob