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Abstract

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility inventory is constantly changing as newer systems supplant older infrastructure in response to technological advances. Transformational change embodied by the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will affect the replacement of thousands of ground-based air traffic control systems with satellite-based systems by 2025. NextGen alone will drive a massive facility decommissioning effort with the potential for major environmental impacts from demolition and disposal activities, including emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), criteria pollutants, and air toxics, erosion, runoff, noise, generation of solid waste, and the migration of contamination associated with historic releases of hazardous waste, fuel constituents, and hazardous building materials. The FAA and other federal agencies need effective environmental impact assessment tools to design mitigation strategies and ensure compliance with regulatory and policy drivers, including Executive Order (EO) 13514 Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, which establishes integrated strategies towards sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the Federal Government. In this study we develop a model to facilitate the quantitative analysis of comprehensive GHG emissions inventories from demolition debris reuse, recycling, and disposal activities that accounts for scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 emissions as defined by EO 13514. The results of the model are used to inform a trade-off analysis that compares the relative impacts of debris management alternatives. Data from the decommissioning of an air traffic control tower and an air route surveillance radar facility are used as case studies to refine and validate the model, which could be used as a tool to guide future decommissioning efforts at Federal facilities and to provide input to FAA’s agency-wide GHG emissions inventory.

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