This document discusses the environmental impact assessment of aircraft maintenance at Emirates Airline operations. It covers interference with water quality issues, activities of aircraft waste oil and fuels, mitigation measures, and control measures in case of spillage.
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Environmental Impact Assessment1 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT Name of Student Institution Affiliation
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Environmental Impact Assessment2 Contents Question One .................................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Interference with water Quality Issues ........................................................................................ 3 Activities of aircrafts waste oil and fuels. ................................................................................... 4 Mitigation measures put in place by the organization................................................................. 4 Control measures and safety procedures in case of spillage. ...................................................... 6 Question Two .................................................................................................................................. 8 Effectiveness of the mitigation measures .................................................................................... 8 Use of retention pond for discharge ............................................................................................ 8 Dry washing of aircrafts................................................................................................................ 12 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 13 References. .................................................................................................................................... 14
Environmental Impact Assessment3 Question One Introduction Aircraft maintenance is a highly regulated, complex and safety critical activity within the industries. This particular industry is facing unprecedented challenges currently not only with its operators Emirates Airline but also others in the aviation industries. There is actually a lot of pressure being mounted on the manufacturers and designers from their customers and environmental agencies to produce aircraft design with pushed out schedule of maintenance and more eco-friendly due to the negative impact on the environment we all share. The disappearance of customers from the grounded aircraft or bankrupt airlines and industry around the world is an indication of a substantial decline in such kind of businesses. As part of the Emirates Airline commitment to the environment various projects were commissioned due to, the Environmental Impact of Aircraft Maintenance. Assessment initiative has set forward the procedures and the steps to reduce the negative effects of maintenance operation on the environment. The objective of this particular study is to highlight the impact of air craft maintenance situation at Emirates Airline operations to the environment. Interference with water Quality Issues The operations at the Emirates airport that has been under the study normally involve very many activities which are responsible for the disposal of pollutants to the neighboring water bodies. The activities that were identified included ramp and aprons used / waste oils, chemicals and
Environmental Impact Assessment4 aviation contaminated fuel, refueling process, fuel storage, vehicle and aircraft cleaning. This formed the basis of the case study of maintenance operations. Activities of aircrafts waste oil and fuels. This was taken as one of the maintenance work situation at the airport. With regard to the compliance with the water qualities, the management of hazardous residual waste, chemicals poses a major challenge to the operators of Emirate airports. These processes are normally required by UAE GCAA General Civil Aviation Authorities, Local municipalities and Environmental protection agencies to ensure that passengers are always safe which include the local population, communities and the safe keeping of the delicate eco-systems. Performance of such operations without adequate control of discharge and waste as it has been in some cases at the airport results into serious and detrimental environmental impact. The discharge from these operations has the potential to cause algae bloom, death of fish and the contamination to the surface water table. Besides harm to the aquatic life, there is impact on the animal health from the toxicity of this waste and its chemicals. Some of these chemicals come from the biodegradation ofpropane-1, 2-diol/ ethylene glycol and waste fuel that may take place in the surface waters like creeks and water ponds. The dissolve oxygen in such water bodies is greatly reduced and the quality of water compromised. Studies have indicated toxicological effects of the solution of waste fuel and fluids which can never be attributed to either ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. Mitigation measures put in place by the organization The management of Dubai Airports strongly prohibits any point source including conveyance of pipe, drainage ditch and other outfall from depositing dangerous waste product into the waters. The control of the discharge of pollutants into the water bodies is through the program of
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Environmental Impact Assessment5 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) in various airports. The implementation of this kind of program is by individuals and the maintenance operators in these airports. . Considering their nature of outdoor operations and also the fact that airport is in the categories of the industries, there is a requirement for all the airports to have storm water management permit. This is considered to be one of the regulatory compliance documents towards environmental conservation. According to the management policies of the Emirate airlines, those airports that will be discharging other wastewater including those from the equipment maintenance and operations of cleaning with be required to have additional permit for waste water management. This particular permit will only be issued upon implementation of the best management practices (BMPs) of controlling storm water discharges which minimize or prevent the discharge into the water bodies. Some of these practices include construction of the water retention pond to prevent the other drainage sources from receiving discharge water directly. Figure 1: Waste water Discharge pond for the airport
Environmental Impact Assessment6 Emirates have made numerous efforts that are aimed at reducing costs while reducing environmental impact. For example the emirates are providing sustainably made blankets in economy class for long haul flights. Each of these blankets is made from 28 (www.emirates.com, 2017) recycled bottles which could have ended up in landfills or land pollution. It’s estimated that by the end of 2019 the ecoTHREADTMblankets will have prevented 88million plastic bottles from being deposited into landfills. The emirates airline used to keep their aircrafts clean by using traditional way in which they used huge amounts of water applied at great pressure at an outside cleaning bay. This meant that this wash would consume up to 7000 litres (www.emirates.com, 2017)of water. This lead to much waste of water and excessive run off water containing cleaning solvents which need to be disposed properly. When such water finds its way into water sources the probability of pollution is high. Due to these downsides of using water in cleaning, the Emirates engineers announced a washing technique known as dry washing on 1 April 2016 which only uses less than a third of the water required for a typical wash, it also uses far less chemical solution. The end result saves 11 (www.emirates.com, 2017) million litres of water a year. Control measures and safety procedures in case of spillage. Chemical spillage. Chemical spillages occur during maintenance of aircrafts or painting operations. In case of hazardous chemical spillage the following steps are to be followed: a) Notify people in the area where a spill has happened.
Environmental Impact Assessment7 b) The painting/maintenance operation must stop around the spill vicinity. Remove ignition source and unplug any nearby electrical equipment’s. c) Isolate the spill area to avoid unintentionally spread of the contamination over a larger area. Prevent the spillage from entering water drain or going under equipment. d) Get the cleaning equipment’s and protective gears from the spillage kit located in the designated area. Make sure the necessary PPE’s are used when handling the spillage. e) Neutralized spills of hazardous chemicals using the chemical absorbent kit or soak up the liquid spills with inert absorbent materials e.g. sand or sawdust as provided in the spillage kit. f) Make sure the spillage kit is available at designated location and staff are aware of it presence and usage. g) Sweep up waste / absorbent materials and place in proper designated containers E.g. tray trolley / plastic bag for disposal cleaned the residue by neutralizing / wash the floor with water (if required). h) Ensure adequate ventilation and avoid contact with skin and eyes. i) LAE / Controller assess the vicinity to make sure area is safe and report must be raised. Sometimes hazardous chemical spills can occur on a person; in this case one is required to follow the following steps: a)Call assistance and immediately go to the nearest eyewash or safety shower area. b)For spill on the skin, rinse immediately under running water, removing any jewelry or clothing that might contain any remains of the spill. c)Call the supervisor / Duty manager and the First Aider and consult with the MSDS to know if any delayed effects should be anticipated, and keep the MSDS with the victim. Call JCR on 04-5045000 if the victim requires urgent medical attention. The First Aider
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Environmental Impact Assessment8 should alert emergency workers of the decontamination routines used before their arrival (for example, flushing for 15 minutes with water). Be assured that emergency personnel are told precisely what the victim was contaminated with so they can treat the victim in view of that. d)For a chemical splash in the eyes, call assistance and immediately go to the nearest eyewash and safety shower and immediately flush the eyes under running potable, holding the eyes open while rotating the eyeballs. e)For spill on the clothing, call assistance and go to the nearest eyewash and safety shower, remove all clothing that had been contaminated including shoes and jewelry while standing under an open safety shower. While removing a pullover / overall, one needs to be careful not to get their eyes contaminated, this can be ensured by cutting the clothing thus avoiding the spread the contamination. f)LAE/ paint controller to make sure area is safe and incident report must be raised if the First Aid Kit is used First Aid Report also need to be raised. Question Two Effectiveness of the mitigation measures Use of retention pond for discharge WinDETPOND has been used to evaluate the effective performance Emirate International Airport discharge Pond. The overall performance of the discharge pond has been summarized in the table below. The following lists summarize the expected performance of the discharge pond.
Environmental Impact Assessment9 The particle size control of the flow is taken to be about 5.1m. Most of these values correspond to the flow estimated to be for the solid particles representing over 89% of the particle distribution. In the case of particle size distribution of lower components, the estimated flow weighted solids would account for 65% of the total suspended matter. While using the high particle distribution, over 97% of estimated flow-weighted suspended solids will be considered for the control. The statistical summary of the performance of discharge pond initiative has been done for a period of over 38 (www.emirates.com, 2017)years. The period has been characterized by over 3000 events with the particle size and their effects being analyzed between the ranges of 0.01 inches to 10 inches. According to the results, only about 1% of the outflow took place through evaporation. About 10% of the content of the pond was replaced by the rain event. The displacement volume of the pond was found to 0.5 inch rainfall with the flushing ratio ranging from 0.25 to 6.8.This basically means that majority of the treatment can be done during the periods of short runoff. The comparison with the data from the wildlife conservation department shows reduction in the death of aquatic animals. This is one of the ways to determine the effectiveness of the initiative of constructing discharge pond by the organizations or management of the Emirate Airports. According to this data the population of the aquatic life has been on the increase due to the controlled pollution from the airport operation discharges.
Environmental Impact Assessment10 Figure 2: Graphical analysis of the increase population of fish as a result of proper management of discharge from the airport. YearEstimated Population of fish in adjacent water bodies Reason for the results 2010345897Management of discharge from the airports 2011456743Management of discharge from the airports 2012546742Management of discharge from the airports 2013651230Management of discharge from the airports 2014785362Management of discharge from the airports 2015882356Management of discharge from the airports
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Environmental Impact Assessment11 20161045647Management of discharge from the airports 20171239075Management of discharge from the airports This is the percentage increase in the number of fish between the years 2010 to 2011. The number of fish in the fish pond has always been on a steady rise since the year 2010 with the highest record of 193428 fish increase being recorded in years 2016 to 2017. This recorded an average of 127596 fish each year between years 2010 to 2017. There was also a 3438.35% increase in the number of fish over a period of seven year which can be shown in the calculation. These tremendous improvements are attributed proper management of discharge from the airport. Regrettable to note is that the discharge ponds have provided better breeding grounds for the mosquitoes. The medical report from the health department of the airport has indicated the rise of malaria cases for the majority of the airport workers. Malaria among the airport employees has led to decreased human labor thus having a negative impact on the economy. This can be
Environmental Impact Assessment12 considered to be one of the negative impacts of this initiative. Measures however have been put in place in various places to have discharge ponds treated and made free from mosquito occupation. Figure 3: Sample of medical report from the airport health department. Dry washing of aircrafts. The dry washing of aircrafts replaced the traditional standard washing procedure in 1 April 2016. According to the emirates website (www.emirates.com, 2017) when estimated the Emirates saves in excess of 11 million litres of water annually. Furthermore the dry washing practice ensures that the airplane stays clean for a longer period of time thus reducing the number of times the aircraft has to be cleaned externally to about a third a year. This lowers the fuel consumption due to a reduced amount of buildup of dirt. (www.emirates.com, 2017)
Environmental Impact Assessment13 The emirates group is committed in biodiversity and conservation, the emirates group funds activities of the Dubai Conservation Reserve (DDCR). Under the emirates group funds the desert has seen abundant bird life, desert eagle nests, six short-eared owls which are rare in UAE were seen in January. These are proof that the emirates company is committed and producing good results. (http://www.ddcr.org, 2017) Conclusion The maintenance activities carried out by the Emirates companyhave had several negative impact on the environment, however the company is dedicated to ensuring that they find alternative ways of minimizing environmental pollution like using of alternative routes to minimize fuel usage, recycling of papers, aluminum and plastics, adoption of water saving procedures in washing aircrafts and care for wildlife and ecosystem protection through the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR), Emirates One & Only Wolgan Valley. These has steered to a positive impact and this is a good sign that the company is focused on creating a greener tomorrow by restoration of native plants, protection of biodiversity and wildlife while raising awareness. (www.emirates.com, 2017)
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Environmental Impact Assessment14 References. Bibliography www.emirates.com. (2017, July 7). Retrieved April 4, 2019, from www.emirates.com: https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-showcases-environment-friendly- aircraft-cleaning-technique Anji Rendy Mareddy, A. S. (2017).Environmental Impact Assessment: Theory and Practice. Mumbai: Elsevier Science. Emirates .com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2019, from http/emirates .com: http://prez.ly/eSx
Environmental Impact Assessment15 http://www.ddcr.org. (2017, July 7).http://www.ddcr.org. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from http://www.ddcr.org: http://www.ddcr.org SANCCOB. (2016, February 8).www.sanccob.co.za. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from https://sanccob.co.za: https://sanccob.co.za/ Thomas, G. (2009).Plane Simple Truth: Clearing the Air on Aviation's Environmental Impac. California: Aerospace Technical Publications International. www.emirates.com. (2017, July 7).emirates.com. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from emirates.com: https://www.emirates.com/english/about-us/environment/greener-tomorrow www.womsat.org.au. (2015, August 9).www.womsat.org.au. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from WomSAT.org.au: https://www.womsat.org.au