Report on

Environmental
Impacts of Newark
Liberty
International
Airport
By Karolis Jokubaitis
University of Westminster
March 2016
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Contents
1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 3
2. Environmental Impacts...................................................................................... 3
2.1. Noise........................................................................................................ 3-4
2.2. Emission...................................................................................................... 4
2.3. Water pollution and consumption................................................................4
2.2. Waste and energy management..............................................................5-4
2.2. Wildlife, heritage and landscape.................................................................6
3.
Airport
management
policies
and
...........8-7

strategies

4. Conclusion......................................................................................................... 9
5. Recommendations............................................................................................. 9
List of References................................................................................................ 10

1. Introduction
Newark Liberty International Airport is the second busiest airport after John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York and New Jerseys airport system.
According to The Port Authority of NY & NJ (2016), the airport handled about 25.5
million domestic passengers and about 12 million international passengers
during the year ending November 2015. It has three terminals and is closest to
lower Manhattan.
Newark Liberty opened October 1, 1928 and was the first major airport serving
passengers in the New York metro area. Newark Liberty was the busiest
commercial airport in the world until LaGuardia Airport opened in December
1939. During World War II, the airport was closed down for commercial service
and was instead regulated by the Army Air Corps for logistics service. There are
30 different airlines that service the airport nowadays. Newark Liberty is a major
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hub for United Airlines. According to Todd (2012), in 2012 United Airlines carried
71% of the airport's passengers and the next two busiest airlines (Delta Air Lines
and JetBlue Airways) each had less than 5%.
According to The Port Authority of NY & NJ (2013), in June 1993 the Port Authority
developed and issued their first environmental policy statement, which included
guidelines for the Newark Liberty airport to minimize their environmental
impacts, organize and advance regulatory compliance and reporting and
integrate environmental planning into the capital planning process.
This report aims to provide information about environmental impacts on the
surrounding area caused by Newark Liberty International Airport, discuss the
policies and strategies used by the airport on order to reduce the environmental
impacts and to give recommendations to the airport on how to make
improvement.

2. Environmental Impacts
According to Graham (2013), environmental impacts caused by airports can
categorized in to two levels: global and local. Global impacts contribute to world
problems like global warming and ozone depletion. They are long term impacts
and effect the whole population. Local impacts include noise and air pollution.
These are problems that affect the local surrounding area around the airport and
need to be addressed on a day-to-day basis. The main bodies that contribute
towards environmental impacts in the airport are the airport operator, the
airlines, governments and statutory organisations, amenity and conservation
groups and local residents (Graham 2013). The main environmental impacts can
be divided in to five categories: noise, emission, water pollution and
consumption, waste and energy management, wildlife, heritage and landscape.
2.1. Noise
According to Daley (2010), air craft noise is one of the biggest issues in terms of
local environmental impacts. It affects the communities within the vicinity of the
airport and its flight paths. It is a source of annoyance that can affect people
psychologically and physically. It disturbs peoples sleep, communication and
leisure activities, contributes towards stress, anxiety and ill health. Airport noise
pollution is mostly caused by air craft operations, maintenance and engine
testing, airports access traffic, surface vehicles and stationary plant. According
to The Port Authority of NY & NJ (2013), there were a total of 25.400 people
residing within DNL 65 (8.6 square miles around the Newark Liberty airport) in
2008. According to Williams Aviation Consultations (2016), DNL is the acronym
for Day-Night Average Sound Level and 65 stands for airport noise that does not
exceed 65 decibels. DNL 65 is established as the threshold above which aircraft
noise is considered to be incompatible with residential areas. (Williams Aviation
Consultations, 2016) The airport received a total 355 noise related complaints in
2008.
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2.2 Emission
According to Graham (2013), airport and air craft emissions impact can be rated
on a global and local scale. Globally carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the main
causes of problems such as global warming and ozone depletion. According to
(ATAG, 2014), global aviation contributes 2% to all of human-induced CO2
emissions. Even though this number seems fairly small, according to ICAO
(2010), it is expected to rise by 4-15% by 2050. Other emissions that greatly
contribute towards global problems are nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particles of
carbon monoxide and sulphur oxides. According to Daley (2010), the main
factors contributing towards emissions related to airports are air craft operations,
airport access traffic, stationary plant, surface vehicles, construction and
contrails. Locally, aviation emissions contribute towards problems such as acid
rains and poor local air quality. According to the Port Authority of NY & NJ (2014),
Newark Liberty airport related operations contributed towards 1,770,933 tons of
CO2, 16,095 tons of which are considered to be scope 1 (emissions owned and
controlled by the airport operator, such as energy generation and airport
vehicles (Thunderfunk, 2016)) and 1,754,838 tons that are scope 2 and 3
(scope 2 are emissions from the off-site generation of energy purchased by the
airport operator, scope 3 emissions are those owned and controlled by airport
tenants and other stakeholders (Thunderfunk, 2016)).
2.3 Water pollution and consumption
According to AEF (2013), the main causes of water pollution and use related to
airports are building works, surface water or rainwater run-off (chemicals mixing
with nearby water bodies or ground water), airport maintenance (painting
chemicals, testing of fire equipment, and fuel leakage and spillage from
refuelling and storage), sewage, fuel dumping (disposal of excess fuel), overabstraction of water. According to the Port Authority of NY & NJ (2013), Newark
Liberty consumed 150.855.286 litres of water in 2009.
2.4 Waste and energy management
The waste at airports is mostly generated by airlines, airport operators and other
airport-related companies. The biggest problems according to Graham (2013),
are in-flight catering waste, recycling, energy management (most efficient use of
heating, air conditioning, lighting and ventilation). All of these problems can be
well-managed, but the biggest factors preventing this are security, customs,
insurance restrictions and cost. According to the Port Authority of NY & NJ (2014),
Newark Liberty airport produced a total of 2,467 tons of non-hazardous waste,
40.8 tons of hazardous waste and purchased 9,285 reams of paper in 2013. By
looking at Figure 1, it shows that Newark Liberty (EWR) consumes less energy for
its opperations compared to Jhn F. Kenedy International Airport and is more
energy reliant compared to its other main competitor LaGuardia Airport, but it
has to be taken in mind that all of the airports very in their size and passanger

numbers.

2.5 Wildlife, heritage and landscape

Airport operations and construction might affect wildlife habitats (for example
according to Graham (2013), 3000 homes had to be built for Indiana bats by
Indianapolis Airport in order to build a new maintenance building and at Oslo
Gardermoen airport a bridge had to build to secure the airport from annually
migrating moose, which might have wondered in to the airport otherwise),
heritage (historical buildings might be affected by construction and operations of
airports) and landscape (airports might cause changes to the surrounding eco
system and nature). According to Stirling (2014), since 2008 to 2014 about 6000
animals were killed in the Newark Liberty International and Teterboro airports.
Some of these animals were killed on purpose to protect the air crafts and some
of them were killed while striking the air crafts. Figure 2 displays the most
common birds to be killed through the years due to the operations carried out by
the airport, which also includes a death of an American kestrel in 2012, which is
an endangered bird.

Figure 2. Source: True Jersey, by: Frank Cecala

3. Airport management policies and strategies

The main most recent Newark Liberty management policies include Newark
Management Plan (2013), 2013 Sustainability Report (2014) and Airport
Sustainability Report (2015). They focus on providing information related to
environmental issues, goals, targets and initiatives. They provide information
about the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey controlled activities within
Newark Liberty Airport and other local airports. This report uses them as the
main tool to discuss the 5 main environmental issues as identified by Graham
(2013) and to provide information about the organisations goals in order to
tackle them.
In order to reduce noise pollution around Newark Liberty airport according to
the Port Authority of NY & NJ (2015), opened a new noise office that will try to
manage complaints dealt by people in the New York and New Jersey airport
system. Furthermore, they recently introduced a new flight and noise monitoring
web portal (WebTrak). They also aim to enchant their noise complaint
management system and to expand their noise monitoring program. To do that
they initiated a new Part 150 Noise Compatibility studies, which aims to calculate
existing and future aircraft noise exposure levels and to clearly identify the
airports present and future noise patterns and the land uses which are not
compatible with those noise patterns. The airport also received the lowest levels

Figure 3. Source: Aviation sustainability report, by: unknown

of noise complaints compared to other local airports, though this might be

caused by being located in a less residential area (Figure 3).
To reduce emissions, the airport aims to reduce Scope I and II absolute
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 10% by 2016 compared to the 2006
baseline inventory to help meet the overall Port Authority goal of an 80%
reduction by 2050. (Port Authority of NY & NJ, 2014) This would be achieved by
measuring energy efficiency of the airports buildings, evaluating use of gate
power and pre-conditioned air, introducing renewable energy opportunities. They
also aim to Reduce ground vehicle emissions of particulate matter and NOx by
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5% and 15% by 2016 compared to the 2009 baseline. (Port Authority of NY & NJ,
2014) To achieve this would introduced a new Employee Ride-Sharing Program
focusing on reducing reliance on single use vehicles for transportation to and
from the airport.
To target the water pollution and consumption problem is introducing
sodium acetate as the solid pavement de-icer and no longer using liquid de-icers
containing ethylene glycol on airfield pavement. (Port Authority of NY & NJ,
2013) This substance contains less harmful chemicals that can easily mix with
water. They also aim on using stormwater (surface water generated from heavy
rain falls or snow) as greywater in buildings.
In order to address waste and energy management problems they are aiming
to Reduce landfilled waste generated by PANYNJ operations at the Airport by
15% per passenger by 2016 using a 2009 baseline. (Port Authority of NY & NJ,
2014). To achieve this the airport performed a waste composition study, which
inspected, categorized, and quantified the trash stream in the airport and its
surrounding areas, thus creating a waste hauling and recycling system that
includes the airport and local businesses like Marriott Hotel, Hertz and Enterprise
car rental properties. It also displays to have the best waste management
system (Figure 4) out of the three main airports in New York and New Jersey,
when taking in mind the size and passenger numbers of the airports. The airport
is also aiming on providing electric power hook-ups and air conditioning units for

Figure 4. Source: Aviation sustainability report, by: unknown

parked air crafts, thus eliminating the need to use fuel to power the air crafts.

To minimize the wildlife damage the airport is training additional staff to be

available 24 hours per day to respond to wildlife hazards and wildlife strikes. The
staff duties include insect management (in order to attract less birds), monitoring
changes in local wildlife, strike reporting and removing wildlife from the airport. It
also shows to have low numbers of aircraft strikes compared to other local
airports (figure 5)
4. Conclusion
Newark Liberty International Airport has a strong sustainability management
policy, which addresses all of the key environmental issues addressed by
Graham (2013). While comparing to other airports in New York and New Jersey
area, it shows to have the best numbers in terms of waste management, aircraft
strikes and noise complaints, though there are many factors that contribute
towards these numbers. The airports sustainability management strategy is
well planned, it outlines all of the major environmental issues and gives provides
clear short-term and long-term goals, some of which already been achieved, thus
proving to be successful.
7. Recommendations
As mentioned above, Newark Liberty has a strong sustainability management
strategy. One of the few weak points while comparing to the other local airports
could be considered energy management. According to ACRP (2010), one of the
ways to reduce energy consumption and to use environmentally friendly energy
is to switch to renewable energy. For example by using a solar thermal system,
which involves water running through roof-mounted solar panels, thus becoming
warm and can be used for space heating or domestic hot water. Taking in mind
the airport is already working on using stormwater to provide greywater where
needed, they could integrate the solar thermal system into this project and use
stormwater for heating options. It is indicated to be a 2-to 5-year payback and
medium level cost project. Other low cost options to save energy could be
Figure 5. Source: Aviation sustainability report, by: unknown

upgrading to fluorescent screw-in bulbs, which use up to 75% less energy

compared to regular light bulbs, turning off information displays and staff

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computer monitors, when not in use and investing in more modern energy
monitoring systems.

Words: 2155
References
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|. [online] Wacaz.com. Available at: http://www.wacaz.com/services/airportdevelopment-analysis/65-dnl-day-night-average-sound-level/ [Accessed 28 Mar.
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