Spiesermühltal waterworks
The Spiesermühltal waterworks is located on the southern edge of Spiesen-Elversberg towards Rohrbach , just a little above the Spieser Mühle at around 275 m above sea level. It has been supplying the north and west of the Saarland communities with drinking water since 1900 . The factory premises in the valley of the Spieser Mühlenbach , a tributary of the Kleberbach , is crossed by the L 241 in a north-south direction, to the west of this street are the factory buildings, to the east the well area.
history
The construction of the Spiesermühltal waterworks became necessary because the Saarbrücken-Malstatt waterworks, operated by Saarbergwerke since 1881 and last expanded between 1889 and 1895, with a daily output of 5400 m³, was no longer able to cope with the increasing water consumption - also because the supply area grew larger and larger. There were also six cases of typhoid in the 1890s that could not be traced back to the water, but on detailed investigations the Fresenius Institute in Wiesbaden found a very high nitric acid value. In addition, the water quality of the Saar fell due to industrial and domestic sewage, and more and more pipe bursts occurred due to subsidence on the 18 km long pressure pipe into the Fischbachtal , so that a safe water supply was no longer guaranteed.
A location in the eastern supply area was deliberately chosen for the construction. An initial search for a location in the Rohrbach valley between St. Ingbert and Rohrbach had failed. The objection came from the local forest and ironworks owner Oskar Krämer , who feared restrictions for his own plant located below the city and refused purchase requests for a pipe route through his forest. New well bores in the Sulzbachtal were out of the question, as the existing springs could hardly provide the required amount of water. Test drillings around the location of the Heinitz pit were also negative.
In September 1897, the Friedrichsthal municipal council and the Rentrisch municipality commissioned an expert report in which the “Well Commission” formed by the council was to be supported in finding a location. Already in October of the same year there was growing interest in the Spiesermühltal on the part of the Friedrichsthal community. At the same time, the view from the mine side was directed towards this valley away from major traffic routes or other infrastructure. In October 1897, the Friedrichsthal community bought the Spieser Mühle for 18,000 marks, promised to hire the former mill owner Johann Gergen as a machine operator, and began test drilling.
The mine management did not give up the hope of obtaining water in the Spiesermühltal:
"Only after the Friedrichsthal community had bought the mill with the associated mill ditch and other property and a secret commission appearing in hunting costume after inspecting the first borehole made by the Friedrichsthal community had convinced itself of the good result of the water supply from the spring, the mining administration stepped in closer to the intention to also build a waterworks in Spieser-Mühlental. The mine management then had the brewery owner Schmidt in Neunkirchen buy meadows in the mill and snake valleys. The purpose of these purchases was not admitted, but no one had doubted that it was only a question of land for a large waterworks plant which, it was said, was supposed to ensure the water supply of the entire upper Saar district. "
The conflict between the Halbergerhütte in Brebach and the community of St. Johann made national headlines in matters of water . In order to prevent later conflicts in the water supply, the mountain tax authorities tried in two ways to dig the municipalities' water from their own waterworks. On the one hand, he caused the district committee in Trier to prohibit the approval of the pre-instance district committee for a loan from Landesbank Düsseldorf . This on the grounds that, as the bearer of large municipal burdens, he was very interested in the sensible use of tax revenues. On the other hand, he tried to influence the municipalities, to found water cooperatives and thus to involve the municipalities in water extraction. However, since the Friedrichsthal community advocated an independent water supply, they did not respond to this suggestion to the mountain tax authorities. For its part, the community offered the mines the supply of water, also on condition that their works could be enlarged for this purpose. Since the municipal council was filled with many employees of the mine, it prevailed over the long term and after tough negotiations. Friedrichsthal received the water at the “wholesale price”, Spiesen, through which the water had to be passed, received it at “cost price”. Friedrichsthal could not or did not want to give this offer to his neighboring municipality of Spiesen.
In 1898, the required property was acquired by the mine administration, and the following year drilling began for three sinks , which served as collection wells . In addition, the well house was built and two electric motors were installed. These engines were powered by a 5000 V overhead line from the Heinitz mine, where excess steam from the local coking plant was converted into electricity. In the waterworks, the electric motors transmitted their power to the double plunger pumps . One of these pumps can still be viewed on site. The extracted water was pumped to the elevated tank on the Bildstocker Höhe. At the same time as the inauguration of the Spiesermühltal waterworks, the Brefeld pumping station was shut down and the water from Malstatt was no longer conveyed to Bildstock. In 1900 754 households were connected, which consumed 139,000 m³ of water. All public wells were closed on November 1, 1899, the day the Spiesermühltal was taken over.
The cesspools were built five meters wide and between five and six and a half meters deep. In addition, 22 additional boreholes for water extraction were drilled , which were between 13 and 108 meters deep. The water was pumped by mammoth and centrifugal pumps .
The pits Heinitz, Dechen , Friedrichsthal , Maybach , Göttelborn , König , Kohlwald , Reden , Itzenplitz , Brefeld , Camphausen and Altenwald as well as the places Holz , Wahlschied , Qui individual , Uchtelfangen , Wiesbach , Humes , Hierscheid , Kaisen , Wustweiler , were attached to this waterworks . Merchweiler , Spiesen and Elversberg connected. Since 1893 there were contracts between the Saar mines and the municipalities for the supply of drinking water, initially with the Friedrichsthal community. First of all, it was used to feed a fire hydrant and two wells in the wayside shrine. With the operation of this far-reaching and supra-regional supply option, a correspondingly oriented supply company was founded.
After the completion of this operation, the construction of a third waterworks in Lauterbach began to supply the western mine area. It went into operation in 1910.
By the 1970s, a total of almost 100 boreholes had been carried out, of which 61 were still being drilled in 2012. In total, a network of 370 km in length with 13 elevated tanks was available, with which 33 million m³ of water was transported to the consumers. A control room at the Saarbrücken port controlled and monitored all systems. With the decline of the Saar mining the considered Saarbergwerke AG not this business segment more than their core business and retired on 31 July 1998 with the founding of Saar GmbH water from the water supply back.
technology
In the pump house there were two double plunger pumps with a delivery rate of 144 m³ / h each at a delivery height of 180 m, which were operated by two 150 HP asynchronous three-phase motors. Two more plunger pumps coupled with 150 hp motors were in reserve. These four pressure pumps from Maschinenfabrik Ehrhardt & Sehmer, Saarbrücken , were able to convey 11,000 m³ of water per day, the electrical equipment came from AEG . The air chambers of the piston pumps were filled by a 5 HP compressor; two more of these compressors were used for the constant 4 atm operating pressure of the pneumatic pumps.
Before the pumped water flowed with a natural gradient into the 700 m³ collecting tank, it was de-ironed . The system required for this, like the one in Malstatt, was supplied by the company Wasser- und Abwasserreinigung GmbH in Neustadt and was imposing. Six so-called carboferrite candy press filters running in parallel were required. The cylinders of the filter system had a diameter of 2.60 m and were 2.20 m high. Each of these filters could clean 800 m³ per day. Mild steel sheets were used in the cylinder at a distance of 1440 mm to separate the different sediments from one another. The filling consisted of different coarse layers of gravel, in which a 1040 mm thick layer of carboferrite was inserted. The well water was pressed into the filter with a slight excess pressure and enriched with oxygen and flowed at the lower end to the pure water chamber.
This technology was in operation until 1974 and was then replaced by a more modern system at the same location.
literature
- Hans-Henning Krämer: From the village well to the waterworks. Gollenstein-Verlag, Blieskastel 1999, ISBN 3-933389-07-0 .
- Rainer Slotta : The development of technology in the Saarland coal mining. In: The Saarland coal mining industry. Vol. 2, Krüger, Dillingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-9814952-1-8 , pp. 362-364.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Hans-Henning Krämer: From the village well to the waterworks. Gollenstein-Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-933389-07-0 .
- ^ Fritz Edelmann: The origin and development of the waterworks of the community Friedrichsthal to Spiesermühle. Festschrift for the 25th anniversary. In: Wilhelm Schaetzing: Friedrichsthal-wayside shrine. A local history. Friedrichsthal 1926, pp. 24-42.
- ↑ Happy leisure tours
Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′ 59 " N , 7 ° 9 ′ 35" E