Did this ever occur to you?

The deicing chemicals that are sprayed onto jets at airports across the country every winter – to get rid of ice and snow — can be a big source of pollution. A sometimes dangerous source.

What happens is, when the runoff from the two major kinds of deicing fluid — propylene glycol and ethylene glycol — gets into nearby ponds or streams, it can (and sometimes does) kill the aquatic life there – both fish and plants.

Keep reading, “orange water” ahead…

A recent AP report noted that these chemicals can actually create a kind of “dead zone” – but it also notes that the airports/airlines aren’t doing anything illegal by letting this stuff run off. And it happens at airports as diverse as JFK, O’Hare and Eastern Iowa in Cedar Rapids.

Changes may be coming, though: per the AP, “proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations would require airports to capture at least some of the deicing fluid” to reduce the chemicals by a little more than 20%.

Apparently, environmental officials in Iowa began looking into this when residents living along a stream near Eastern Iowa Airport, started complaining that the water was turning bright orange. See more on this story here.