Oldenburg-East Frisian Water Association

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Oldenburg-East Frisian Water Association
(OOWV)
logo
legal form Public corporation
Seat Brake (Lower Weser)
founding July 14, 1948

Board Sven Ambrosy , head of the association
executive Director Karsten Specht
Website www.oowv.de

The Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesische Wasserverband (OOWV) is an association of districts, cities and municipalities in northwest Lower Saxony , which has set itself the task of supplying consumers in the association area with drinking water and purifying wastewater . The association is a corporation under public law with no intention of making a profit.

history

On 14 July 1948, the three counties Friesland, Wesermarsch and Wittmund founded at the instigation of senior district director of the district Wesermarsch, Bernhard von Kampen, the Oldenburg and East Frisian march Water Association (OOMWV) based in Jever. After the accession of members from the Geest areas , the association assembly decided on February 11, 1957 to amend the statutes, according to which the association was given the current name Oldenburgisch-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband (OOWV). The association's headquarters were relocated to Brake (Unterweser) in 1959 . Initially, the task of the OOMWV / OOWV consisted exclusively of supplying the population of the association area with drinking water, including from other communities.

The instrument of large-scale supply of the population was used mainly because the groundwater in many marshland areas is of no drinking water quality. To this day, the entire Wesermarsch district has to be supplied by wells in geest areas of other districts that belong to the OOWV area.

Since 1999 the OOWV has also been involved in the field of wastewater management.

Association area

The coverage area of OOWV is 7,457 square kilometers. It includes (with the exception of the cities of Delmenhorst , Emden , Norden , Oldenburg , Vechta and Wilhelmshaven ) the area of ​​the former state of Oldenburg as well as the districts of Aurich and Wittmund in East Friesland and the district of Diepholz . No water supplier in Germany covers a larger area than the OOWV. However, there are enclaves in the districts that are assigned to the OOWV , in which some municipalities belonging to the district operate their own waterworks. This applies to the municipality of Juist , the city of Norden , the city of Norderney and the city of Vechta. EWE AG is responsible for the water supply of the city of Varel , another enclave in the OOWV area .

The disposal area covers 3,695 km². It consists of nine cities, 29 municipalities and a special purpose association.

Association structure

Members of the OOWV in the field of drinking water are:

Not all cities and municipalities belonging to the association have their wastewater cleaned by the OOWV.

The members of the Oldenburg-East Frisian Water Association send their representatives to the association assembly. This elects the seven-member board and appoints the commissions. The board members are volunteers.

Services rendered

Drinking water supply

The OOWV supplies 1.123 million inhabitants in the association area with drinking water. It draws drinking water from 267 wells, which it processes in fifteen waterworks . On average, it sells 210,000 m³ per day to the connected households.

Sanitation

46 sewage treatment plants and 23,650 small sewage treatment plants are connected to the sewer network of the OOWV. In 2012, the OOWV took 34 million m³ of wastewater. This resulted in 241,000 m³ of sewage sludge .

Research and teaching, nature trails

At the Bakenhus organic farm near Großenkneten , which the OOWV bought in 1997, options for protecting ground water and drinking water are being researched and implemented. The results are discussed in seminars with interested parties. Visitors to a drinking water educational trail in Bakenbhus can find out about the activities of the OOWV on partition walls. The association also maintains visitor facilities such as the "Kaskade" in Diekmannshausen (on the southern Jadebusen ), the "Drinking Water Trail " in Nethen and the "Rundweg Baum und Natur" in Holdorf , where visitors can see on display boards how drinking water is obtained, processed and forwarded to the consumer. Specimens of all the trees that have been proclaimed tree of the year since 1989 have been planted on the central avenue of the circular route next to the Holdorf waterworks . This avenue is followed by a fruit tree avenue.

  • OOWV drinking water educational trail at the Bakenhus organic farm

  • “Tree and Nature” circular route next to the Holdorf waterworks

Drinking water quality and ecological balance

The OOWV causes a public sensation by publishing scientific studies on the subject of "Threats to the quality of drinking water". In 2008 the association emphasized its claim to be committed to the principle of " sustainable development ".

Christina Aue, for example, criticized the boom in biogas plants because of the associated increase in nitrate pollution of the groundwater . The OOWV therefore encourages farmers in drinking water protection areas to cultivate as little maize as possible and not to operate biogas plants with maize.

The OOWV rejects test drilling to develop unconventional gas deposits with the help of chemicals ( fracking ) in its drinking water extraction areas.

The association also had to be accused of disrupting the ecological balance itself , for example in the area of ​​the Ahlhorn fish ponds , by excessively withdrawing drinking water from the groundwater. In 2010, the OOWV applied for an annual increase in the output of the Wildeshausen waterworks from 4.5 million to 5.5 million m³. This is necessary for the supply of a large part of the Oldenburg district and part of the city of Bremen , for which the waterworks is responsible. The OOWV justifies the increase in the delivery rate with numerous companies settling in Wildeshausen in recent years, including the turkey slaughterhouse "Geestland", and the population growth. Geestland alone needs 300,000 m³ of fresh water per year.

In Holdorf it is feared that the planned increase in the limit of the permitted drinking water pumping by the OOWV to 5.5 million m³ per year will significantly reduce the groundwater level and that even the Heidesee could dry up as a result.

However, not all water consumers in the OOWV supply area get their water from OOWV pipes. In the OOWV's supply area, for example, there are not only domestic wells that are used by private households and agricultural operations, but also large farms with a right to independent extraction of a fixed quota of groundwater guaranteed by the competent regional authorities. This circumstance makes it difficult for the OOWV to manage the drinking water sustainably.

In mid-July 2019, water consumption reached a new record high.

Annual accounts

The OOWV accounts according to the commercial code. In 2017, the balance sheet total was € 890.3 million. The operating performance was reported at € 191.8 million. Equity amounted to € 46.0 million, and net income for the year was € 5.5 million. The annual average employed 737 people.
The inspection of the annual financial statements is the responsibility of the inspection body at the Wasserverbandstag e. V., Hanover, the association assembly adopts the audited annual financial statements. The Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment is the supervisory authority for the OOWV within the meaning of the Water Association Act .

Involvement in politics

European Union projects

In the funding period 2000–2007 the OOWV was in charge of an INTERREG IIIC project of the EU and was a partner in 5 other Interreg III B and C projects. In addition to groundwater protection, the main topic of these projects was the implementation of the Europe-wide newly introduced Water Framework Directive (WFD), to the implementation of which the association is contributing. Between 2006 and 2008 he had the quality of the Lethe river examined as part of the “hunte 25” project.

From 2003 to 2007 the OOWV was involved in the projects “Water4all”, “Hanse Passage”, “Nolimp” and “Farmers for Nature”. In the years 2005–2007 the projects “ENMaR” and “Water cost” were added.

In the new funding phase 2007-2013, already approved or applied for projects of the OOWV deal with topics related to the sustainable securing of the drinking water supply or the optimization of rain and wastewater management. As part of the “Interreg IVB North Sea Region Program” “Cradle to Cradle - Islands”, the aim is to strengthen and maintain the self-sufficiency of islands in the North Sea region with regard to water, energy and waste.

Board positions are filled by politicians

Traditionally, posts on the board of the OOWV are filled by party politicians who take office as representatives of those regional authorities that are members of the OOWV.

The case of the former Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests, Karl-Heinz Funke , caused a stir in 2009. After resigning from the office of Minister in 2001, he was elected as deputy mayor of the city of Varel and acted as head of the OOWV. On December 19, 2009, Funke resigned from this office. The reason was the participation of the OOWV in the costs of Funke's private silver wedding ceremony 2007 in the amount of 8,000 euros. On October 26, 2012, Funke was sentenced by the Oldenburg regional court to a suspended sentence of six months and a fine of 10,000 euros for illegally increasing the manager's salary as head of the OOWV. However, Funke was acquitted of the accusation that the OOWV had paid for his silver wedding anniversary celebration. The verdict is not yet legally binding.

literature

Gertrud Diesing, Oldenburg-Ostfriesischer Wasserverband 1948–2008, Asco Sturm Druck Bremen 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024957-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Senator for the Environment, Building and Transport: Report 2005 Groundwater. Appendix 2: Description of the hydrogeological sub-areas LAND BREMEN (PDF; 31 kB). Bremen Environmental Information System ( BUISY ) 2005, p. 2f.
  2. ^ OOWV area , accessed November 28, 2015
  3. ↑ Working group on water in the (BBU) : OOWV head resigned . Water newsletter . January 10, 2010
  4. ↑ Stadtwerke Norden: The waterworks in Hage  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stadtwerke-norden.de  
  5. ↑ Wirtschaftsbetriebe Norderney: Drinking water supply on the island of Norderney  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stadtwerke-norderney.de  
  6. ^ Vechta waterworks: Our water
  7. ^ EWE AG: Water prices in Varel
  8. ^ OOWV - Area - Wastewater Municipalities , accessed on November 28, 2015
  9. ↑ a b Articles of Association of November 9, 2016 , accessed on December 18, 2017
  10. ↑ Biohof Bakenhus / OOWV: Agriculture and Groundwater Protection ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bakenhus.de
  11. ^ NABU Oldenburg: OOWV visitor centers
  12. ^ OOWV: Flyer Rundweg Holdorf . 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2020
  13. ↑ OOWV: The Tree & Nature circular route in Holdorf . Retrieved May 24, 2020
  14. ↑ OOWV: The sustainability report  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2008. Chapter 2. P. 1@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.oowv-nachhaltig.de  
  15. ↑ Christina Aue: Biogas plants from a water management perspective  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.4 MB) Lecture. August 26, 2008@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kuk-nds.de  
  16. ↑ Lutz Timmermann: Nordwest-Zeitung completely forego maize when it comes to biogas . April 27, 2011
  17. ↑ Nils Klawitter: Piston-Eaters . The mirror . Edition 35/2012, August 27, 2012, p. 82f.
  18. ↑ Norddeutscher Rundfunk: Water Association defends itself against natural gas search ( Memento from December 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). December 27, 2010
  19. ↑ Teichwirtschaft Ahlhorn - A natural oasis in the northwest - How much longer? Small question from the MPs Renate Geuter and Axel Brammer (SPD). Lower Saxony State Parliament - 16th electoral term; Printed matter 16/2341. January 19, 2010. p. 1
  20. ↑ Stefan Idel: Fear of a drop in the groundwater level. Dozens of objections to the OOWV application for higher funding . Northwest Newspaper . December 30, 2010
  21. ↑ community Holdorf: Holdorfer against plans of the Water Board. "Interest group for environmentally compatible water pumping" founded / Against an increase in the delivery rate . April 19, 2011
  22. ↑ Lisa Hänel: Why Germany fights over water. In: dw.com . August 6, 2019, accessed on August 7, 2019 : “In 50 years we could have customers here in the region who live in a climate like the one in Toulouse today. We have to upgrade our waterworks so that we can extract more water. "
  23. ↑ Annual report 2017
  24. ↑ Inspection center at the Water Association Day ( memento of the original from December 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wasserverbandstag.de
  25. ↑ OOWV / hunte 25 / DHI-WASI: Implementation of the European Water Framework Directive Integrated modeling of river basins - input of matter , currents and transport. Development of an integrated surface groundwater model, focus area Obere Lethe as part of the model project Hunte 25 ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 13.9 MB). Final report March 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hunte-25.de
  26. ↑ OOWV: EU projects of the OOWV  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.oowv.de  
  27. ^ Probation and acquittal for Funke ( memento of October 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). North German Broadcasting . October 26, 2012

Coordinates: 53 ° 19 ′ 30.5 ″  N , 8 ° 29 ′ 1.8 ″  E