Rautenweg landfill
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The Rautenweg landfill on Rautenweg in the 22nd district of Donaustadt is the only municipal landfill in the city of Vienna and also Austria's largest landfill. Together with the Rinterzelt , which was blown up in 2019, and the Lobau composting plant , it is one of three waste treatment plants in the Danube city.
General
The original gravel pit located at the site on today's Rautenweg in the Hirschstetten district has been used as a landfill since the 1960s, after being approved for the first time by the water authority on March 14, 1966 and by the building authority in June 1961.
According to the current permit, 23 million cubic meters of waste may be deposited on an area of around 60 hectares . As of 2018, 13 million cubic meters of this were still usable. That should last until 2065. The maximum height was set at 75 m above street level. The Rautenweg landfill is already the highest point in the Danube city and, after the Bisamberg, the second highest in Vienna north of the Danube .
In 1982, the residents of the outskirts and Paxsiedlung, which border the landfill, were prohibited from drawing well water for pleasure purposes. There are different statements between residents and the City of Vienna as to whether this was related to a possible groundwater contamination from the landfill.
In 1986 there was an explosion in the already vacant Hoffmannsiedlung on the west side of the landfill. After this explosion, the settlement was demolished. However, the cause of the explosion could never be clarified.
To protect the groundwater, the landfill was enclosed between 1986 and 1988 with two parallel sealing walls that extend into the layers of the groundwater. Additional transverse pods were installed within the two sealing walls at regular intervals, so that a total of 49 chambers are lined up. Within the enclosure, the water level is kept below the outer groundwater level by pumping out the groundwater. The pumped out landfill water is discharged via the sewer system to the main sewage treatment plant in Vienna in Simmering for cleaning.
After massive protests against the planned settlement of various recycling plants, a citizens' initiative was founded in the late 1980s. Meanwhile, there is a good relationship between those responsible for the landfill and the residents. A viewing tower was even built on the landfill for residents.
Although the landfilling of untreated household waste has been prohibited in Austria since 2004, untreated waste was landfilled or temporarily stored until autumn 2008 due to an exemption. Since the end of 2008, only chemically no longer active combustion residues (slag) from the Viennese waste incineration plants have been deposited.
Energy generation
The untreated landfill of household waste with a high proportion of biological waste, which took place until the end of 2008, resulted in the formation of landfill gas in the piled-up garbage , which primarily consists of methane and carbon dioxide . In order to avoid the uncontrolled escape of methane gas and possible gas accumulations in cavities such as in the basements of neighboring buildings, combined with the risk of explosion, the first 70 gas wells with the associated collecting lines, a landfill gas compressor system, a gas flare necessary for safety reasons for the safe flaring of excess landfill gas were made in 1991 , as well as a landfill gas engine installed. In 1994 30 gas wells were added and in 1995 another 64 gas wells were added. The number of gas flares was increased to three in 1993. In 2001 there were already 200 gas wells on the landfill site. In November 1994, a new landfill gas utilization plant, nine gas engine modules with an installed capacity of almost 6 MW were put into operation. The electrical system is next to the landfill and is operated by a private company. The electrical energy generated (2009: approx. 7.1 GWh ) is fed into the Wiener Stadtwerke's electrical network. The average output of just under 1 MW can cover the average requirements of 2,500 Viennese households.
particularities
Unusual residents of the landfill area have been Pinzgau mountain goats since 1993. They were settled here because a veterinarian was looking for a place for the endangered breed of goat and at the same time the city wanted to demonstrate that the landfill poses no environmental hazard. At that time four were released, in 2012 the small herd had grown to 23 animals and more than 100 more offspring were released.
The rubble of the Reichsbrücke , which collapsed in 1976, is also a prominent landfill material; it was deposited here, forgotten and rediscovered in 2007. Employees of MA 48 - waste management, street cleaning and vehicle fleet - processed one of the granite blocks that encased the pillars into "lucky stones", which they sold for charitable purposes at the Vienna Christmas market.
literature
- Peter Payer (editor): Clean Vienna - city cleaning and waste disposal since 1945 , Vienna, 2006, Holzhausen Verlag GmbH, ISBN 978-3-85493-131-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b wien.at - Rautenweg landfill
- ^ Zeit Online - The landfill became the highest mountain in Donaustadt
- ↑ Liselotte Hansen-Schmidt: Donaustadt - city on the other bank , Mohl Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-900272-46-8
- ↑ https://www.wien.gv.at/ma48/pdf/deponie-rautenweg-deutsch.pdf ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ Wien.at - Ten years of Pinzgau mountain goats on the Rautenweg landfill , January 30, 2003
- ^ Video from the City of Vienna on the Pinzgau mountain goats on the Rautenweg landfill
- ↑ http://www.zeit.de/2007/35/Reichsbruecke
- ↑ wien.at - MA 48: "Lucky stones" with a history
Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 42 " N , 16 ° 28 ′ 55" E