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Reporter/Producer - The Environment Report

Tagged: airports

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The Environment Report
9:07 am
Tue June 18, 2013

Ford Airport proposes new system to prevent bacterial slime in nearby creek

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Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
This vehicle squeegees deicing fluid off the pavement during the winter months. Then it vacuums the fluid it can to be recycled.
Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
Gerald R. Ford International Airport’s facilities director Tom Ecklund points out the current retention basin where the fluid mixes with storm water. It drains to what residents call Trout Creek. The basin is covered to discourage birds from congregating.
Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
About 250 residents pack a public hearing last week hosted by Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality.
Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
The new treatment system would take advantage of the natural slope of the land from the airport down to the Thornapple River, behind the trees in the distrance.
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You can listen to today's Environment Report here or read an expanded version of the story below.

The main airport in Grand Rapids is proposing to build a new system to prevent the buildup of a bacterial film in a nearby river. The system would be the first of its kind at airports in Michigan.

In the winter, airplanes across the state are sprayed down with a fluid to prevent the buildup of snow and ice.

At Gerald R. Ford International Airport, roughly a third of that de-icing fluid makes its way into a small creek nearby. Bacteria in the creek can easily break down the fluid but they create a smelly film in the process.

The state considers the bio-slime a nuisance, not a human health risk. But it does deplete the oxygen, choking out aquatic life.

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Transportation
3:49 pm
Sat April 6, 2013

Closings of Michigan airport control towers delayed

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DETROIT (AP) - The closings of three air traffic control towers in Michigan are among 149 nationwide that will be delayed.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it needs more time to deal with legal challenges to the closures announced because of government-wide spending cuts.

The planned tower shutdowns include those at W.K. Kellogg Airport in Battle Creek, Coleman A. Young in Detroit and Sawyer International in Marquette County's Sands Township.

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Transportation
12:17 pm
Mon April 1, 2013

Detroit airport terminal reopened after evacuation

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ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - Authorities evacuated the smaller of two terminals at Detroit Metropolitan Airport for about two hours and detained one person as a bomb squad responded to a suspicious item at a security checkpoint.

The airport says the item was found at a Transportation Security Administration screening checkpoint at 5:50 a.m. at the airport's North Terminal in Romulus. The check-in lobby was shut down.

The bomb squad left the terminal with the item, which had been in an X-ray machine, and travelers were allowed to return about 8:20 a.m.

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