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This historical page is being kept for research or reference
purposes and will not be updated.

This historical page is being kept for research or reference
purposes and will not be updated.

Appendix D: Management of Ethylene Glycol at Canadian Airports

Management of ethylene glycol at Canadian airports was discussed at some length in the State of the Science Report (Environment Canada and Health Canada, 2000). Some recent improvements in the handling and release of ethylene glycol have been mentioned in the present report.

Data on groundwater concentrations of ethylene glycol are very limited, but some pre 2000 measurements were taken at Calgary International, Charlottetown, Montréal International (Dorval and Mirabel) and Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International airports. These data are summarized in Table 14 below, along with data obtained from the Edmonton International Airport.

Table 15 presents concentrations of total glycol at selected monitoring stations at Canadian airports for the 2004-2005 deicing season.

Table 14: Concentrations of ethylene glycol in groundwater sampled at Canadian airports1
Airport Sampling Dates Number of Samples Detection
Limit
(mg/L)		 Median
(mg/L)		 Mean
(mg/L)		 Maximum
(mg/L)		 Reference
Calgary International 4 Oct. 1996 - 28 Jul. 1999 17 5 <DL 4 38 CAA 1999
Montréal Trudeau 13 Nov. 1997- 25 May 1998 20 0.5 1.3 8 32 Aéroports de Montréal, 1998
Montréal Mirabel 28 Nov. 1997- 6 Jul. 1999 5 6 <DL <DL 49 Aéroports de Montréal, 1999
Ottawa MacDonald Cartier Dec. 1985-Dec. 1986 ? 5 <DL <DL 415 Transport Canada, 1987
Edmonton International Mar.-Sept.2002 8 5 <5 <5 <5 Transport Canada, 2003

1 For many airports, "total glycol" values have been reported; however, none of the airports listed used other glycols. All samples taken in the immediate vicinity of deicing operations and at shallow depth were excluded. The "detection limit" (DL) is equivalent to minimum values in all cases.

Table 15: Concentrations of total glycol sampled at selected monitoring stations of Canadian airports for the 2004-2005 deicing season
Airport Sampling
Dates within Deicing Season		 Site Number of Samples Detection Limit
(mg/L)		 Mean
(mg/L)		 Median
(mg/L)		 Maximum
(mg/L)		 Number of Samples > 100mg/L
Moncton 4 Nov 2004 - 24 Mar 2005 4 19 4 0 80 0
6 19 13 0 >120 2
8 19 9 0 120 2
Charlottetown 1 Oct 2004 - 15 May 2005 7 0 0 0 0
Charlottetown 14 Dec 2004 - 5 Apr 2005 Not indicated 6 No numerical data
Saint John 27 Oct 2004 - 7 Apr 2005 Not indicated 14 Na na >100 1
Montréal-Trudeau 2 Nov 2004 - 26 Apr 2005 Centre de dégivrage (PE-2) 203 10 49 53 97.5 0
Aviation générale (R: ethylene glycolegard Whitewind) 11 10 <10 <10 20 0
Aviation générale (R: ethylene glycolegard Skyservice) 16 10 22 11 146 1
Aviation générale (R: ethylene glycolegard Exécaire) 17 10 17 <10 124 1
Exutoir Bouchard (DP-1) 19 10 51 42 136 3
Montréal-Mirabel 2 Nov 2004 - 26 Apr 2005 Centre de dégivrage 82 10 40 <10 590 5
Zone cargo 2 10 <10 <10 <10 0
Site Cyr 2 10 <10 <10 <10 0
Québec-Jean-Lesage 1 Mar 2005 - 31 Mar 2005 Station CA 4 78 67 130 1
Station 24 8 77 66 198 3
London 9 Nov 2004 - 15 Apr 2005 8 4 <4 <4 <4 0
Ottawa 11 Nov 2004 - 2 Jun 2005 S3 13 0 N/D N/D 0
G1 16 0 N/D N/D 0
S4 109 2 N/D 162 1
G11 1 0 N/D N/D 0
S9 110 5 N/D 172 2
Toronto 1 Oct 2004 - 30 Apr 2005 Carlingview Stormwater Facility 178 4 4 <4 32 0
Etobicoke Creek Stormwater Facility 60 4 16 <4 129 2
Moore's Creek Stormwater Facility 155 4 4 <4 105 6
Water Monitoring Station WM4A 177 4 10 <4 287 3
Edmonton 2 Jan 2004 - 15 Oct 2004 Subsurface Wetlands Inlet 16 5 7 8 11 0
Subsurface Wetlands Outlet 5 5 13 8 33 0

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