London Luton Airport is the first establishment in the UK to be equipped with ground breaking new stormwater treatment equipment, which is set to transform the way in which airports, and other major infrastructure projects are able to manage surface water runoff.

As part of its long term surface water drainage strategy defined in September 2014, London Luton Airport Operations Ltd (LLAOL) commissioned Veolia Water Projects Ltd, supported by Mott MacDonald, to develop a surface water management strategy which would address the prerequisites to achieve planning consent for the airport’s further expansion.

LLAOL has subsequently embarked on a systematic programme of facilities and services development that ensures the Airport is able to comply with all current and anticipated future environmental regulations; this will prevent surface water and groundwater pollution in accordance with the objectives of the Luton Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework.

Data collected from water quality monitoring conducted at the Airport between 2005 and 2012 identified the main pollution risks from the Airport as oil spills and de-icing chemicals, for which oil interceptors and first flush drainage systems were considered the most appropriate pollution mitigation assets.

As well as providing storage and flow balancing to deal with contaminated surface water runoff, the Airport’s drainage scheme also includes methods to manage acute and chronic pollution events and techniques to continuously monitor the quality and quantity of surface water runoff from all points of discharge to either groundwater or surface waters.

The measures that have been adopted are based on sustainable mitigation - hazardous substances are prevented from entering controlled waters, whilst non-hazardous substances may enter but should not cause pollution.

The water resource receptors, into which any contaminated surface water may flow, are identified as Luton Hoo Lake (via a Thames Water surface water sewer) and the River Lea, to which UK/EU Environmental Quality Standards have been applied, along with an underlying Principal Chalk aquifer which is monitored against UK Drinking Water Standards for Groundwater.

Luton Airport new SuDS system

Phase 1 of the Airport’s new development programme has included the resurfacing and expansion of car parking areas, extensions to buildings and the construction of a new dual carriageway.

In addition to a known flooding problem that already existed on Airport Way, which provides main access to and from the airport, the main impact of this first phase of development has been the increased risk of flooding caused by multiple new impermeable areas, due in the main to a new road layout and the construction of a second carriageway.

The removal of pre-existing soakaways, installation of additional piping and the diversion of manholes required that a new SuDS system should not only prevent the increased risk of flooding but also protect habitat and amenity by improving water quality.

In late April 2016 SDS installed a new SuDS system to handle surface water runoff from Luton Airport’s extended medium term car park. Five SDS GEOlight® attenuation tanks have the combined capacity to store up to 4,277 cubic metres of water which has first been cleansed by each of two SDS Aqua-SwirlTM hydro dynamic vortex separators, designed to remove approximately 90 to 95% of the total pollutants in the surface water runoff volume.

The system has been designed to series 500 of the specification for highways works and sewers for adoption and follows engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald’s flood risk design for a 1:100 year storm event including an allowance for an additional 20% due to climate change.

An additional benefit of the SuDS system has been the reduction, to a great extent, in the frequency and volume of the flooding that occurred in the neighbouring Airport Way underpass. Whilst the flooding hazard for both carriageways continues to remain categorised as ‘significant’ for a 1 in 100 year storm event, the severity of flooding across the access route in a 30 year event has been reduced to the category of ‘moderate’ for one carriageway whilst, for a 1 in 10 year event, the second carriageway is deemed entirely clear.

In addition, for all return periods the hazard remains in place for a maximum of only 2 hours, thereby significantly reducing the duration of restricted access, whilst the installation of a pump, which is able to transfer flows to the SDS GEOlight® tanks, ensures that emergency access can still be gained at all times.

Sustainable urban drainage systems, or SuDS, are now considered best practice to maximise the many benefits of surface water management, specifically the ways in which water quantity and quality, biodiversity and amenity can be managed together.

Last year, SDS launched a range of water separation and filtration devices the devices are largely of high strength HDPE plastic construction, providing a light weight and low cost alternative to the concrete devices which until now have been the only option available.

Future SuDS developments at Luton

Sufficient capacity exists within the underground storage facility landside to accommodate excess airside surface water runoff, the first flush of which will be highly contaminated with substances such as de-icing chemicals and will be diverted to the Thames Water foul system for treatment. Whilst airside and landside runoff have more typically been considered two entirely separate wastewater streams, LLAOL is developing plans to manage holistically all sources of surface water, including the control of their dispersal, in the most environmentally friendly / ecologically conscious way.

London Luton Airport is the UK’s 5th largest airport carrying over 12 million passengers in 2015, an increase of almost 17% on the previous year.