Waterworks on the Grind

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Control room of the waterworks Auf dem Grind

The Auf dem Grind waterworks is the only water extraction system operated by the Niederrheinisch-Bergisches Gemeinschaftswasserwerk GmbH. It is located in a loop of the Rhine in the Dormagen-Zons area across from Düsseldorf - Benrath and supplies the Stadtwerke Düsseldorf and Wuppertaler Stadtwerke with raw water .

history

In 1951, the Stadtwerke Düsseldorf and WSW Wuppertaler Stadtwerke founded the “Niederrheinisch-Bergisches Gemeinschaftswasserwerk GmbH”, each with a 50% stake. The object of the company was a joint water extraction system consisting of a horizontal filter well and associated substation and control room "Auf dem Grind", in the Rheinschleife opposite Düsseldorf-Benrath.

In-depth geohydrological investigations in what was then Zons (today the Dormagen part of the municipality of Zons), on a 4.6 km² nature reserve surrounded by the Rhine in a peninsula-like manner in the "Auf dem Grind" district, resulted in at least 400,000 cubic meters of water being withdrawn daily, even from the lowest Rhine - and groundwater levels detected. To explore the site, the Düsseldorf municipal utilities already used the geo-electrical method on a large scale in the early 1950s.

As the first large waterworks in the Federal Republic of Germany, the system only worked from horizontal filter wells . From the five-meter-wide well shafts, filter pipes 40 to 100 meters long were driven horizontally in a star shape into the water-bearing gravel and sand layers at a depth of 20 to 30 meters. The pumping stations installed in the floodplain of the Rhine in the foreland of the dike were centrally supplied with electricity, remotely controlled and monitored from a flood-free switch point behind the bank dike . Underwater television cameras used for the first time checked the horizontal filter pipes.

Before the first groundbreaking on the site of the new water extraction system was done, a culvert with a nominal diameter of 1,200 mm was built on October 7th and 8th, 1951 for the future transport of the water through the Rhine. With a total length of 608 meters, of which 430 meters of pipe were laid at least three meters below the riverbed , this culvert was not only the longest on the Rhine at the time, but also the largest such pipe construction project in Europe to date . Ball joint sleeves built into the culvert, a technical innovation developed by Stadtwerke Düsseldorf, made it possible to bend the pipe coil up to 20 degrees.

Due to the increasing demand for water, a second culvert, this time 1,400 mm wide, was laid in the Rhine in 1960. There was resistance to this project. Farmers in the area expected the vegetation to be impaired due to the sinking groundwater level and local politicians feared incorporation into Düsseldorf. Neither took place, Zons as the city ​​of Zons became a district of Dormagen .

The first expansion stage was completed in 1954 and comprised two pumping stations, each with a daily output of 65,000 cubic meters. In 1955 the plant was in operation all year round for the first time. In the same year, the installation of a third pump increased the daily machine output from 90,000 cubic meters to 130,000 cubic meters. Four more pumping stations had been built by 1973, so that the total capacity increased to around 385,000 cubic meters per day with average Rhine water levels. By the beginning of 1976, a total of DM 26,650,700 had been invested in the community waterworks. 16 raw water pumps are currently in operation “Auf dem Grind”.

In 1999 new water rights were granted for the Auf dem Grind waterworks (Niederrheinisch-Bergisches Community waterworks) of 65 million cubic meters per year until 2029.

Coverage area

The drinking water supply area of ​​the Düsseldorf waterworks comprises 600,000 people, trade and industry in Düsseldorf, Erkrath and Mettmann . In total, around 50 million cubic meters (m³) of drinking water are distributed in one year, which is an average of 140,000 cubic meters - 140 million liters per day. The daily charge varies between 120,000 cubic meters in winter and up to 250,000 cubic meters on a hot summer day.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stadtwerke Düsseldorf: Clearly drinking water - basic material of life. (PDF) Retrieved September 26, 2016 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 31 ″  N , 6 ° 50 ′ 27 ″  E