FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PORTLAND, ORE. (May 13, 2009) – Enhancements Nearer for PDX Deicing Storm Water Collection System

Port of Portland hopes to break ground in early July on enhancements to the Portland International Airport deicing storm water collection system.

Today the Port of Portland Commission approved a $48.8 million construction contract for the enhancements that are nearing final design. Aircraft and airfield deicing is conducted to ensure flight safety when the weather is cold, and the deicing system captures deicing runoff that mixes with storm water.

Planned enhancements include expanding the existing system to capture storm water runoff containing dilute concentrations of deicing materials on the western airfield. Other improvements would increase the existing storage capacities for concentrated and dilute runoff, and treat dilute system effluent prior to discharge to the Columbia Slough and Columbia River in compliance with permit requirements.

Planned additions include the installation of a 3-million gallon concentrated runoff storage tank, two 6.5-million gallon dilute runoff storage tanks, three pump stations, a treatment building housing the anaerobic fluidized bed biological reactor, which breaks down deicing material in storm water; an outfall to the Columbia River, and more than six miles of underground piping.

Planned enhancements are subject to the completion of an extensive environmental review and permitting process. One of the final phases of the environmental review is the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit renewal process. The DEQ invites public comment on the permit renewal through June 16, and is hosting a public hearing on June 8. More information is available in the public notices section of www.oregon.gov/deq.

The original $31 million PDX deicing system design included extensive community involvement and opened in November 2003. It includes a 2-million gallon storage tank for runoff from around the terminal that contains higher concentrations of deicing materials; a 13-million gallon detention basin for deicing runoff from taxiways and runways that contain more dilute concentrations of deicing materials; automated water quality testing meters, and computer monitors and controls. The captured deicing runoff is discharged under permit to either the City of Portland Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant or to the Columbia Slough.

Although the existing system has proven effective at collecting deicing runoff, the system does not capture runoff from the western airfield, and coupled with periodic low or non-existent water flows in the Columbia Slough, which is not under the Port’s control, there have been occasional permit limit exceedances. As a result, a Mutual Agreement and Order between the DEQ and the Port requires the Port to complete the installation and testing of the enhanced deicing treatment and collection system by April 2012.

The Port Commission awarded the construction manager/general contractor construction contract today to JE Dunn Northwest, Inc. of Portland. The Commission also amended the existing consultant design contract with Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc. of Portland for additions to the final design and construction support services.