Industrial Waste Treatment At San Francisco
International Airport
ELLEN L. LEE, Senior Engineer
FREDERICK N. VAN KIRK, Partner
Consoer, Townsend & Associates
San Jose, California 95126
MELVIN LEONG, Associate Engineer
ROBERT G. LEE, Assistant Deputy Director
San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco, California 94128
INTRODUCTION
San Francisco International Airport is situated on San Francisco Bay south of the City
and County of San Francisco. The airport covers about 2,100 acres of land area and consists
mainly of terminal, aircraft runways, taxiways, aircraft and ground vehicle parking areas,
airline offices and maintenance and service shops. Almost all the airport activities generate
liquid wastes of various sorts which are collected via a combined storm and industrial
waste sewer system. A sanitary sewer system transports domestic sewage from various
locations in the airport to the domestic sewage treatment plant, whereas both storm flow
and industrial wastewater are pumped to oxidation ponds for treatment during periods of
dry weather. As a result of occasional overloading in the oxidation ponds, the discharge
requirements established by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, San
Francisco Bay Region, have sometimes been exceeded.
The primary purpose of this study was to develop and establish an economical
treatment process which will meet present and proposed effluent and receiving water
standards as far as can be determined.
AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS AND SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER
The primary purpose of the majority of the operations at the airport is to prepare
aircraft for safe and efficient operation within scheduled time periods. Since aircraft are
large and relatively burdensome to move on the ground and because of the necessity to work
on them immediately, a considerable portion of the work is performed wherever the planes
are located without moving them into hangars. Some specific operations are never done in
hangars and some aircraft, since they will not fit into hangars, have all work done outside.
Outdoor operations on the ramps and aprons therefore become a factor in solving the
industrial waste problem.
A survey was made of the airport to determine the nature of each industry, the wastes
produced and the problems involved in handling the wastes. The operations can be broadly
grouped into the following categories: Metal Plating and Finishing, Aircraft Service,
Aircraft Maintenance, Aircraft Washing, Ground Vehicle Service and Maintenance,
Rental Car Service and other miscellaneous related industries. These operations generate
the pollutants such as cyanide, chromium and other heavy metals, waste oils, jet fuel,
solvents, cleaning agents and other washing compounds, hydraulic fluids, detergent, dirt,
paint sludge etc.
EXISTING INDUSTRIAL WASTE SYSTEM
The airport tenants maintain oil and waste collection tanks. Concentrated wastes such
as used crankcase oil, paint thinners and cleaning solvents are isolated at the source and
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