Braunschweiger Rieselfelder

Seagulls in the Brunswick sewage fields

The Braunschweiger Rieselfelder are a facility for near-natural wastewater treatment . The sewage fields lie on sandy soils between the district of Watenbüttel and the municipality of Wendeburg in the northwest of the city of Braunschweig .

history

Already in 1895 the trickling of around 11,000 m³ of sewage (sewage manure) from the sewer system in Braunschweig was put into operation on approx. 490 hectares in the area of ​​the Steinhof monastery . The areas on which the wastewater was recycled were initially mainly used as vegetable growing areas. After the Second World War, the amount of wastewater increased so much that the capacities were no longer sufficient to carry out the biological wastewater treatment in the area of ​​the sewer farm alone. Therefore, the Braunschweig wastewater association was founded in 1954 and the Steinhof sewage treatment plant built by it was connected upstream; the sewage system was then redesigned for wastewater treatment. The Aue-Oker Canal serves as the receiving water for the treated wastewater ( clear water ) .

Inflow of treated wastewater into the artificial river landscape of the sewage fields

The system of the now 60 hectare clarification ponds has been modeled on a naturally meandering river since 1991, so that the already relatively clean wastewater from the upstream sewage treatment plant can let its remaining suspended matter sink for a long time . In the further course part of the water seeps away and ends up in drainage ditches through bank filtering. The clear water emerging at the end of the system chain meets the highest requirements for wastewater quality. The quality of the clear water is so high that part of it is used to irrigate nearby vegetable fields.

The pond landscape of the Rieselfelder attracts numerous species of birds, it has also been the area of activity of the NABU Braunschweig for many decades , which tends the water bird world here and offers natural and ornithological tours.

The drainage of the ponds is regulated.

literature

• Monika Lemke-Kokkelink with the assistance of Gundela Lemke and taking into account a collection of materials by F. Peter Müller: 100 Years of Braunschweig City Drainage / Festschrift on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Steinhof Rieselgut and the 40th anniversary of the Braunschweig sewage association , ed. from the city of Braunschweig, Baudezernat, Stadtentwässerung, 1995, ISBN 3-924595-50-X

Web links

Commons : Rieselfelder Braunschweig  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Abwasserverband Braunschweig, SEBS - The Braunschweiger Rieselfelder: symbiosis for man and nature for more than 100 years. (PDF; 1.51 MB)
• ingenieur.de: Sewage treatment plant produces electricity for 7,000 households , May 28, 2014

Coordinates: 52 ° 19 ′ 25.6 ″  N , 10 ° 25 ′ 12.2 ″  E