Edinburgh Airport Constructed Wetland Water Quality Support
Customer challenge
Starting in 2018, the airport began to develop plans to reduce the amount of organic carbon being discharged into the two receiving watercourses at the airport, the River Almond and the Gogar Burn. The airport needed to look at addressing both reducing the source of the organic carbon and treatment before discharging.
As specialists in airport water quality, the Ricardo team was asked to monitor the organic carbon and deliver a comprehensive option appraisal for how it can effectively be reduced
Ricardo's solution
Ricardo designed and implemented a monitoring program that collected water quality and ecological data in the two receiving water courses. This project has been collecting data monthly since 2018.
Secondly, the team at Ricardo used modelling to understand what needs to be done at the airport to keep below the stipulated limit for organic carbon in the watercourses.
The team then conducted an option appraisal, reviewing different options for source control and treatment, assessing their effectiveness and cost. The recommended option was a constructed wetland for treatment and sweeper trucks and swapping de-icer products for source control.
Customer benefit
This project is still pre-construction, but when finished, it should result in significant environmental betterment to the health of the River Almond and Gogar Burn for the long term.