Farge tank farm

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Loading station I on the tank farm site as it was in 2012

The Farge tank farm with over 300,000 cubic meters in 78 tanks is the largest artificially constructed underground tank farm in the world. It is located in the Farge district of Bremen and in the Lower Saxony municipality of Schwanewede . The size is more than 300 hectares, of which around 200 hectares are in the area of ​​the city of Bremen.

history

Property

Farge Oil Terminal (2012)
Oil pier of the Farge tank farm on the Weser, north-east view, around 1960

The Farge tank farm and the associated infrastructure, including a landing stage for tankers (oil pier) on the Weser, were initially built and operated by the Wirtschaftliche Forschungsgesellschaft mbH Berlin (WIFO), which was founded in 1934 for the procurement and storage of raw materials that were important for the war economy . In the course of further expansion, the Todt organization was involved from 1938 onwards , and numerous slave laborers who lived in barracks on the site were employed in this context . Petrol, diesel, gas oil, kerosene and other fuels were stored in the tanks. a. were transported by ship. From the oil pier where the ships were unloaded, the fuels were pumped through underground pipelines across the site into the tanks of the tank farm.

The total costs amounted to 67.4 million Reichsmarks, the construction phase lasted from 1935 to 1941, whereby the individual parts of the infrastructure such as roads, buildings and railways were gradually put into operation. From 1941 the tank farm was used by the Wehrmacht . After the war it was taken over by the US Army until 1957 and then by the German Armed Forces and companies commissioned by them. It is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany .

On May 31, 2013, the Bundeswehr abandoned the site. Since then it has been managed by the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA), which is looking for a buyer for the warehouse.

Bombing in March 1945

At the end of March 1945 there were bombing raids on the tank farm. Not only was one of the tanks destroyed, but the underground pipeline system was also damaged. The local history researcher Ulf Fiedler from Rönnebeck also reports that the pipeline system had been completely replaced from the mid-1970s. But before the bombing, tank wagons at the loading stations are said to have been emptied by simply opening the tap.

“We were sitting in the yard with my mother when we suddenly heard the noise of planes. And it didn't take long before a squadron of planes flew over our house. "

- Karl-Heinz Schönberger : Christina Denker: "Deafening Bang". Karl-Heinz Schönberger witnessed the attack on Farge. In: Osterholzer Kreisblatt of March 21, 2013, p. 7.

It didn't bang particularly badly, but in the afternoon time detonators are said to have triggered the detonations - the explosion was deafening. The ten-year-old Karl-Heinz Schönberger and his parents became frightened and fled in the direction of the Heißenbüttler forest. After the fire brigade had put out the fire, residents are said to have fetched an alcohol-containing fuel “with tubs”, “filtered it through gas masks and bread” and then offered it for sale.

Shutdown

Osterholz District Administrator Bernd Lütjen was pleased about the decision by the federal authorities to shut down the Farge tank farm in mid-2014 and to return the existing operating license. The federal authorities reacted to the activities of the citizens' initiative Tanklager Farge eV , which had been very committed to the closure for years. The tank farm has been in the so-called decommissioning phase since March 2015, the facilities are being dismantled and the site is being decontaminated from pollutants.

"All systems are emptied and cleaned, and explosion protection is made," writes Bima. All 78 tank containers have been emptied and 60 of them have also been cleaned. The connecting pipes have been emptied, but most of them have not yet been cleaned. Its length is 125 kilometers underground. It is another 7.5 kilometers above ground. According to Bima, the Bundeswehr is assuming that the decommissioning will be completed in two to three years. "

- Lisa Boekhoff : Dangerous relic . In: Die Norddeutsche, Monday, July 4, 2016, page 1.

Environmental damage

The area of ​​the tank farm is inaccessible to the public. Neighbors of the site report huge bomb craters on the site. They are assigned to bombing raids in late March 1945. Therefore, emissions of pollutants should also cause concern for residents and environmental authorities. As early as 2009, the environmental authority warned residents in 13 streets not to use the groundwater. It was contaminated with benzene, for example .

“All the trees that you want to plant die after a short time due to the poor soil ... When the samples were taken, we smelled the earth here. Sometimes it smelled extremely of gasoline. "

- Resident Reinhard Riegert : Elina Hoepken: Danger from the tank farm. In: Sunday courier of the Weser-Kurier on April 7, 2013, p. 11.

The Bremen environmental authority cannot precisely state the cause of the contamination. But she said that the groundwater was contaminated with BTEX , i.e. benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes. But MTBE , an additive in petrol , was also found. The values ​​are particularly high in the area of ​​the former loading stations of the tank farm. The BTEX values ​​were 12,000 times as high as the permissible limit value. Since 2010, 16,000 kg of pollutants have been removed from the underground as part of a groundwater remediation. The citizens' initiative repeatedly demanded the publication of the reports on the environmental damage.

"But here the authorities find themselves in a dilemma: The federal government that owns the site forbids it to publish it, because the warehouse is to be sold soon."

- Elina Hoepken : Danger from the tank farm . In: Sunday courier of the Weser-Kurier on April 7, 2013, p. 11.

In April 2014, a study called for by the citizens' initiative was published on possible connections with cancer in the affected area. This study was carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in collaboration with the Bremen Cancer Registry . The conclusion of the analysis says:

“A slight increase in the incidence of leukemia and lymphoma can still be observed in the investigation region. However, the observed differences between the number of cases that occurred and the number of cases expected by calculation are in the range of what one would expect based on chance alone. An upward trend assumed according to the results of the preliminary report has not been confirmed. "

The remediation of the contaminated groundwater began in 2010 and is expected to last until 2034. By 2014 only 24 tons of pollutants had been disposed of, many times more of which is still in the ground. The groundwater contamination is a long-term threat to the Blumenthal water protection area, from which around 6 million m³ of drinking water are taken annually to supply the district. The removal of ordnance from World War II is carried out at the same time. At least 5 bombs were found and disposed of in 2016 alone, and three more by June 2017.

Single receipts

  1. ↑ a b c Danger from the tank farm . In: Sunday courier of the Weser courier . April 7, 2013, p. 11 .
  2. ^ Edgar S. Hasse: A heavy Nazi legacy - the largest underground tank farm in the world is a contaminated site for Bremen . In: The world . February 18, 2013 ( welt.de [accessed June 11, 2016]).
  3. ↑ a b c documents health department and geoinformation Bremen
  4. ↑ a b Remembering the bombs. In: Osterholzer-Kreisblatt / Weser-Kurier . March 21, 2013, p. 7 ( weser-kurier.de [accessed on June 11, 2016]).
  5. ↑ Christina Denker: "Deafening Bang" . Karl-Heinz Schönberger witnessed the attack on Farge. In: Osterholzer Kreisblatt . March 21, 2013, p. 7 ( weser-kurier.de [accessed on June 11, 2016]).
  6. ↑ Farge tank farm is closed . In: Osterholzer Kreisblatt . March 22, 2014 ( weser-kurier.de [accessed June 11, 2016]).
  7. ↑ Homepage of the BI tank farm in Farge. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .
  8. ↑ The Senator for Environment, Building and Transport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen: Report of the administration for the meeting of the Deputation for Environment, Building, Transport, Urban Development, Energy and Agriculture (S) on June 8th, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2017 (PDF, 962 KB).
  9. ^ The Senator for Environment, Building and Transport: Status report for 2017. July 13, 2018, accessed on August 29, 2018 (PDF, 117 KB).
  10. ↑ Klaus Grunewald: Catch or pump out pollutants? In: The North German . No. 46 , February 24, 2016, p. 2 .
  11. ↑ Michael Brandt: Double the burden . In: The North German . No. 284 , March 12, 2016, p. 1 .
  12. ↑ Bomb blown in Farge . In: The North German . No. 136 , June 14, 2017, p. 1 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Farge Tank Farm  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 12 ′ 36 ″  N , 8 ° 33 ′ 8 ″  E