Air Force remains committed to pollution prevention

  • Published
  • By Jennifer Schneider
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  The Air Force joins the rest of the nation Sept. 15-21, Pollution Prevention Week, an annual opportunity to highlight achievements, expand on current efforts and commit to new actions to reduce or eliminate pollution.

"The Air Force recognizes its responsibilities to conserve, reduce waste, prevent pollution and make the Air Force a cleaner, more sustainable force every day," said Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force Chief of Staff.

With an eye on sustainability, many actions are being taken across the force to make the mission, and the processes that support it, more environmentally friendly.

One particular project, led by a team at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, is expected to result in both environmental and financial benefits not only for the Air Force, but for all F-35 aircraft users, including the Navy and Marine Corps.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center F-35 Environmental, Safety and Occupational Health Support Team at Wright-Patterson, in partnership with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, spearheaded the successful field service evaluation of an innovative corrosion-resistant coating for the new F-35 Lightning II fighter jet which has many ecofriendly benefits.

Although hexavalent chromium remains in the conversion coat, the F-35's Advanced Outer Mold Line coating system incorporates a non-chrome filler material to provide corrosion resistance properties, allowing the original coating's primer and topcoat layers to be eliminated.

"The F-35 is now almost free of hexavalent chromium, a highly toxic heavy metal," said Andy Ghazee, ESOH risk management branch chief at the AFLCMC. "The Air Force is working to eliminate use of the metal and develop affordable alternatives that offer the same level of protection and durability."

So far, the new coating system has not only met the durability standards of the original system, but has exceeded it, said Jeff McCann, environmental engineer at the AFLCMC.

The new system is projected to extend the life of the coating to six to eight years - slashing the paint waste stream by more than 50 percent and significantly reducing maintenance crew labor hours and aircraft down time over the aircraft's life cycle.

The new process also eliminates emission of 21 pounds of hazardous air pollutants and 17 pounds of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, for each aircraft during the painting process.

"When you look at the reduction of hazardous materials used during this aircraft's life cycle as a result of this new process, then multiply that by the more than 2,400 aircraft to be used in the United States alone, the environmental benefits achieved are truly substantial," said Kevin Gabos, Air Force Civil Engineer Center subject matter expert for pollution prevention and hazardous materials and waste.

Another benefit of the system, due to reduction in the number of paint layers required, was reduction of aircraft weight, resulting in lower fuel consumption and air emissions, said Arnold Godsey, environmental engineer at AFLCMC.

The new system is estimated to save $435 million in production costs and $1.07 billion in operations and sustainment costs over the lifecycle of the Joint Strike Fighter program.

While the benefits of large-scale efforts like the new coating system are far-reaching, the cumulative benefits achieved by efforts at the installation- and individual-level add up and are just as beneficial in preventing pollution, Gabos said.

At Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the 30th Civil Engineer Squadron implemented a green product procurement initiative to encourage more than 220 client shops to specify more environmentally friendly commodities when submitting hazardous material requests. Any time a hazardous product is requested, green alternatives are recommended.

Civil engineers with the 72nd Air Base Wing at Tinker AFB, Okla., are utilizing environmentally friendly chemicals as an alternative to perchloroethylene, or PCE, for parts cleaning and masking wax removal at the plating facility there, significantly reducing PCE emissions and production of wax-PCE hazardous waste.

Although the Air Force continues making progress, officials emphasize more needs to be done and every Airman can make a difference. For example, supporting Air Force recycling programs not only helps reduce waste, but raises proceeds for additional installation pollution prevention and other support initiatives, said Nancy Carper, integrated solid waste management specialist at AFCEC.

"To win the war against waste, we need to continue to educate the members of our Air Force on how they can contribute to the fight and show them that their efforts, large or small, can make a difference," Carper said.

To assist installations in their pollution prevention efforts, AFCEC has developed a pollution prevention toolkit with customizable products at http://www.afcec.af.mil/news/pollutionprevention/index.asp.