Ruhrtalsperrenverein

Ruhrtalsperrenverein
legal form	Public corporation
purpose	Procure and provide water for drinking and industrial water supply as well as for the use of hydropower, regulate and balance water runoff, secure flood runoff
Seat	Essen , North Rhine-Westphalia
founding	April 15, 1899
resolution	July 1, 1990
Board	last: Fritz Bergmann, Klaus R. Imhoff
Website	www.ruhrverband.de

The Ruhrtalsperrenverein (RTV) was one of the special statutory water management associations in North Rhine-Westphalia until it was merged with the Ruhrverband . Its foundation went back to the contractual amalgamation of municipalities and industrial companies in the Ruhr area in order to solve the growing problems of water supply and competing water use. The development of river management with the help of dams was significantly shaped and promoted by the RTV. To this day, the association has ensured sufficient water flow in the Ruhr with its dam system and reliably secures the year-round water supply in the region with 4.6 million people.

The history of the Ruhrtalsperrenverein

Overflow of the Möhne reservoir in 2007

With the development of large-scale industry and the rapidly growing population in the Ruhr area in the second half of the 19th century, there was increasing competition between the various water users in the Ruhr , because the relatively small river was hardly able to meet the water needs of the growing conurbation cover. Especially in the dry summer months there was a threatening water shortage, especially in the river sections below, with the standstill of the machines powered by water power and the partial standstill of industrial production. The waterworks had to prepare drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people from the sparse remains in the dried up river bed, which was also contaminated with the sewage from the population and the companies .

In order to alleviate and eliminate this water emergency, the operators of the waterworks, power plants and engines as well as the mine and steelworks owners joined together voluntarily and founded the Ruhrtalsperrenverein on April 15, 1899 in the Essen town hall . The aim was to provide funding and financial support for the formation of dam cooperatives in the Ruhr catchment area. The money came from a fund that was filled by the fee for the use of Ruhr water. The construction of dams was intended to ensure an even flow of water in the Ruhr and its tributaries in order to have sufficient amounts of water available all year round for the production of process and drinking water.

The water emergency became particularly evident in the dry summer of 1904, which was used as an opportunity to estimate the future water demand for the growing Ruhr area. This resulted in a necessary dam volume of around 100 million m³, which was three times the size of the dam area at the time. And for 1925, the demand was estimated at almost 200 million m³. It was recognized that the demand could not be met by promoting small, decentralized dams. On November 28, 1904, the general assembly of the RTV therefore decided to change the statutes, which in future allowed the construction of our own dams.

The construction of dams is closely associated with the civil engineer Otto Intze from Aachen . On behalf of the Prussian District President of Düsseldorf in 1893 he had prepared an expert report on the management of the Ruhr catchment area. As a result, six years later, he also provided technical support for the establishment of the RTV as an interest group of local authorities and companies. His basic construction of dam walls with the upstream "Intzekeil" was the model for the construction of the dams at this time.

Initially, the work of the RTV was based on the Prussian Water Cooperative Act. With the enactment of the Ruhrtalsperrengesetz in 1913, the RTV became a corporation under public law . By law, all users of the Ruhr became members of the association: that is, the municipalities and districts that are wholly or partially in the association area as well as industrial and commercial enterprises that draw water in large quantities, public water supply companies and engine operators. With the groundbreaking Prussian water laws, the conflict over the use and quality of the Ruhr water could be settled.

The old Ruhrhaus in Essen

The close interlinking of the tasks of providing Ruhr water in sufficient quality and quantity was documented externally from 1938 onwards by a management team from the Ruhrverband and RTV, which was manned in personal union. The joint head office - known internally as the Ruhrhaus - is located in Essen on Kronprinzenstrasse. With the amendment of the Water Association Acts in North Rhine-Westphalia on July 1, 1990, the RTV was also formally united with the Ruhr Association and has since been known as the Ruhr Association . Despite the longer history of the RTV and the much higher level of awareness among the population, the name Ruhrtalsperrenverein disappeared and was literally 'buried' by the 'former' employees' with a small, internal ceremony.

Duties of the Ruhrtalsperrenverein

With the Ruhrtalsperrengesetz of June 5, 1913, the management of the Ruhr received the status under public law with the aim of replacing the water that had been detrimentally withdrawn from the Ruhr and making better use of the driving force of the Ruhr and its tributaries. The amount of water that was taken from the Ruhr at times of low water flow and not fed back into the water was considered to be harmful. This was and is due to the fact that the topography of the Ruhr area slopes towards the north. As a result, most of the drinking water drawn from the Ruhr flows as wastewater in the direction of the Emscher and does not find its way back into the Ruhr. In detail, the following tasks were named in the law: ( § 2 Ruhrtalsperrengesetz of 5.6.2013 ):

Construction and operation of own dams;
Promotion of the construction and operation of foreign dams;
Manufacture and operation of systems for water procurement from the Rhine;
Manufacture and operation of other equipment.

After the union with the Ruhrverband the RTV Act was repealed and replaced by the Ruhr Association Law replaced (RuhrVG) of 7 February 1990 ( § 2 RuhrVG ). This no longer explicitly calls for the replacement of harmful water withdrawn. Instead, target values for the water flow in the Ruhr are quantified at the gauges in Hattingen and Villigst . The similar tasks to the RTV law are formulated in the RuhrVG with:

Regulation of water runoff including balancing the water flow and securing the flood runoff of surface waters or sections of water and in their catchment areas;
Procurement and provision of water for drinking and industrial water supply and for the exploitation of hydropower;

To meet these requirements and to limit the effects of floods, the RV has set up the Ruhr dam control center in Essen . From there the control and management of the dam system takes place .

Drinking water from the Ruhr

The water from the Ruhr is not used directly for drinking water treatment. Due to the geological structure, the river valley of the Ruhr is particularly suitable for the process of artificial groundwater enrichment with surface water . For over 100 years, the river water has been passed into large, sand-filled filter basins after pre-cleaning. These act as slow sand filters , in which intensive biological degradation and sorption of non-degradable substances take place. The subsequent underground passage eliminates microorganisms , dampens concentration peaks and ensures temperature equalization. As a result, out of the wells , a very soft water at around 7 ° dH (dH = German hardness ) promoted, which is then further processed by the water works depending on the local condition, in order to achieve the prescribed strictly controlled quality of drinking water. After the pH value has been raised and disinfected , the water is pressed into the supply network.

Buildings

Even before the RTV was founded, two smaller dams had been built in the Ruhr catchment area in order to better supply the hammer mills at Fuelbecke and Heilenbecke . After its establishment, the cooperative provided support for four dams ( Haspertalsperre , Fürwiggetalsperre , Glörtalsperre and Ennepetalsperre as the largest), which together represented a total storage space of more than 16 million cubic meters (million m³). In the following three years, the Hennetalsperre , Jubachtalsperre and Oestertalsperre, three further barrage structures, of which the Hennetalsperre was the largest with over 38 million m³.

Although this was able to alleviate the greatest need, it was still not enough to meet the constantly growing demand for water in the Ruhr area. In addition to supporting the construction of the Listertalsperre , the RTV dealt with the planning and construction of its first own dam, the Möhnetalsperre . Both locks went into operation until the end of 1912. With a storage volume of 134.5 million m³, the Möhnetalsperre was the largest dam in Europe at the time and today, along with the Biggetalsperre and Rurtalsperre (Eifel), is one of the three largest dams in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In the following years, the RTV pursued the further construction of dams in the Sauerland. In the 1920s, construction work began on the Sorpe and Versetalsperre . In contrast to the dams that had been built up to that point, no barriers were planned, but stone embankments were implemented for both barriers for the first time . During this time, the RTV took over the Hennetalsperre from the Upper Ruhr Dam Cooperative . The decision to build the Biggetalsperre was taken before the Second World War , but it was not implemented until the 1960s. After the war, the war damage was initially repaired. Because the Hennetalsperre was very underflow, it had to be drained in 1949 and instead of the wall was also given a dam until 1955. In the eastern side valleys of Sorpe and Henne, the streams were collected and led into the dams via side lines in order to make better use of the volumes. There is always a minimum runoff in these streams.

As the last dam built, the Biggetalsperre went into operation in 1965 as the largest dam of the RTV. Due to the backward damming of the wall of the Listertalsperre, this became a functional pre-barrier. In 1997, at the urging of the state government, the Ruhrverband took over the Ennepetalsperre, as the operating company could not carry out the necessary renovation of the old wall. The Ruhrverband now operates a total of eight of its own dams. The smaller dams in the Sauerland are still in the hands of local sponsors.

List of dams

Due to the primary purpose of the RTV dams to feed additional water into the Ruhr, most dams are also approved for recreational sports on the water (e.g. sailing, swimming and diving). In the case of the locks used as drinking water dispensers, this use is severely restricted. In addition, the dams serve to protect against flooding on the Ruhr and Lenne . For this purpose, you have to maintain a lower storage target in the winter half-year so that a flood protection area can be kept free. Today there are power stations for the generation of electrical energy at all barriers . They belong to the Lister and Lenne power plants in Attendorn , a subsidiary of the Ruhr Association.

Dams of the Ruhr Association
Surname	Barrier structure	construction time	Crown height	Storage volume	surface	TW = drinking water
Biggetalsperre	dam	1957-1965	52 m	171.7 million m³	8.76 km²
Ennepetalsperre	Wall	1902-1904	51 m	12.6 million m³	1.03 km²	TW
Fürwiggetalsperre	Wall	1902-1904	29.1 m	1.7 million m³	0.18 km²	TW
Hennetalsperre new:	Wall dam	1901-1905 1952-1955	38 m 59 m	11 million m³ 38.4 million m³	? km² 2.13 km²
Lister dam	Wall	1908-1912	42 m	21.6 million m³	1.68 km²
Möhne reservoir	Wall	1908-1913	40.3 m	134.5 million m³	10.37 km²
Sorpe dam	dam	1926-1935	69.0 m	70.0 million m³	3.30 km²
Versetalsperre	dam	1929-1952	62 m	32.8 million m³	1.83 km²	TW

Further planning

In the 1970s, due to the heavy pollution of the northern group (Möhne, Sorpe and Henne), an urgent need for dam space was seen in the upper Ruhr valley. The RTV therefore worked very intensively on planning and purchasing land for a dam in the Negertal above Olsberg with a volume of 45 million m³. However, the project was prevented by an administrative court dispute.

In addition, there is regularly a high risk of flooding in the narrow Lennetal during floods. The construction of the Biggetalsperre did some relief from this bottleneck, but when the snowmelt and heavy rainfalls, large amounts of water continue to come from the Hochsauerland. In order to partially hold back the water inflow into the Lenne, the state development plan has included the Hundemtalsperre since 1975 . The construction of this dam has not yet been decided and there are no specific plans.