THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ACCIDENTAL AIRCRAFT
FUELING/DEFUELING SPILLS AS SOURCES OF POLLUTION
Vincent J. Ciccone, Environmental Engineering Consultant
Office of Surgeon General
Department of the Army
Washington, D.C. 20310
Alan P. Graves, Engineer
William J. McNamara, Chemical Engineer
U.S. Army Mobility Equipment
Research and Development Command
Fort Beh/oir, Virginia 22060
INTRODUCTION
Background
Present techniques used to neutralize accidental aircarft fuel spills include natural and
enhanced evaporation, washdown with water, and absorption onto a fibrous material. The
immediate problem with any fuel spill is the associated fire hazard and consequently fire
protection equipment and personnel are summoned to the fuel spill scene to preclude ignition of the spill and/or elimination of the fire hazard.   In the overwhelming majority
of these cases, water washdown is used to neutralize the hazard.   A side effect of this
action is a potential threat to the environment due to possible contamination of land and
water resources from the resulting water/fuel mixture.
This apparent deficiency in the present techniques raised many questions regarding
their respective effectiveness and the lack of data documenting such items as frequency
and sizes of recorded or reported aircraft fuel spills.   This void in information prompted
the study, which was prepared and conducted with the goal of providing a degree of accurate information regarding such spills, within the Department of Defense (DOD).
Objective
Define the magnitude of the fuel spill problem in terms of fuel volume, frequency of
occurence and specific site(s) of occurence.
Scope of Study
Search the published literature to obtain the results of any previous work in the area
of aircraft refueling fuel spills.
Obtain data from representative DOD air bases in the following areas:
1. Record the frequency of fuel spills on a monthly basis grouped in a small (0 < 4 gal),
medium (5 - 42 gal) or large spill (>42 gal) category.
2. Total amount of aircraft fuels pumped and number of aircraft takeoffs and landings
on a monthly basis at the installations surveyed.
Adapt and use high-speed computer techniques to analyze the data obtained above.
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