After approximately ten years, Zech Water Technology GmbH has successfully completed purification of some of the groundwater in Schwerin of pollutant residues from the Red Army on behalf of Betriebs für Bau und Liegenschaften (BBL-MV).

The groundwater treatment plant in Stern Buchholz, in the south of the regional capital, cleaned the groundwater of volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons (VOCs) and was shut down on 30.04.2019.

With a capacity of 180 cubic metres of water per hour, a total of almost 14 million in the past ten years, it is one of the largest plants in Germany.

The contaminated groundwater was pumped out of 30 wells via a total of approx. 20 km long pressure pipes, treated with filters and desorption columns (stripping columns) and channelled back into the ground via 26 injection wells.

The concentration of pollutants in the groundwater was reduced from its original level of up to 80 milligrams per litre to an average of 0.22 milligrams per litre. In total, more than 17 tons of pollutants were removed from the groundwater. 

Picture from left to right: Oliver Kowalski (NordGeo office), Carena Klawonn (BBL-MV), Gerold Tjarks (Zech Water), Torsten Rabe (BBL-MV), Robert Klaus (BBL-MV)