Writing the Book on Proactive Water Quality Management

Information about an airport’s water quality drives important decisions associated with permitting, regulatory compliance, development planning, infrastructure modifications, asset management as well as facility operations and maintenance. As part of its mission to provide practical solutions to problems that airports commonly face, the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) called on Gresham Smith to develop a report on interpreting data collected from water leaving the airport that does not go to an off-site treatment facility. We developed an intuitive guidebook filled with practical advice and easy-to-use tools, literally writing the book on proactive water quality management.

The guidebook’s tools include a field data collection spreadsheet, fact sheets describing commonly observed field conditions, a data analysis tool and a customizable fact sheet database. We also provided a user-friendly Microsoft® Excel™ spreadsheet for statistical analysis that creates basic statistics and graphs from user data and a Microsoft® Access™ database.

In addition to tools for statistical analysis, the guidebook also outlines how to apply monitoring data to establish permit conditions, assess regulatory compliance issues, support operations, improve airport stormwater quality, communicate with stakeholders, and conduct public outreach. We also included three case studies from North American airports that describe both practical lessons learned and unique solutions to water monitoring issues.

To view the report, visit the Transportation Research Board’s website.