Water disposal – sewage treatment plant plans of the water association Strausberg-Erkner before the end
Thu 08/10/23 | 5:11 p.m. | By Martin Krauss
rbb/Fred Pilarski
Video: rbb24 Brandenburg current | 09.08.2023 | F. Pilarski/M. Krauss | Image: rbb/Fred Pilarski
The water association Strausberg-Erkner wants to build its own industrial sewage treatment plant near the Tesla factory. But the Ministry of the Environment has completely different views on the task, capacity and location of such a plant. By Martin Krauss
The plans of the Strausberg-Erkner water association (WSE) to build an industrial sewage treatment plant are on the verge of collapse. This was the result of research by the rbb studios in Frankfurt (Oder).
Despite years of consultations about a possible sewage treatment plant in the area of the Freienbrink freight village, where the US electric car manufacturer Tesla also operates its European production facility, the WSE, the Brandenburg Ministry of the Environment and the municipality of Grünheide (Oder-Spree) are still at odds the task, the capacity and the location of such a plant. Time is of the essence, as other actors also report.
Capacities in Münchehofe 2028 exhausted
So far, the WSE has disposed of its waste water in the Münchehofe sewage treatment plant, a district of the municipality of Hoppegarten (Märkisch-Oderland). The operator of the plant is the Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB). Around 7 million cubic meters of waste water from the WSE were cleaned in Münchehofe in 2022, says BWB press spokesman Stephan Natz. By 2028, this volume should increase by another million: “But that would also be the limit,” says Natz. For this reason, the BWB would like a quick decision on the creation of new capacities in order to be able to ensure further development in the south-eastern area around Berlin”.
BWB spokesman Stephan Natz | Image: rbb/Fred Pilarski
Because this region has grown in recent years, which can also be explained by the settlement of Tesla. For this reason, the responsible supplier and waste disposal company, WSE, started looking for a suitable location for its own sewage treatment plant in the immediate vicinity of the Tesla factory at an early stage – and finally found it.
In 2021 it became known that negotiations with the state of Brandenburg had begun. Because: The property in question in the Spreeau district of Grünheide belonged to the state forestry company and thus to the state of Brandenburg. In the meantime, the tough negotiations have come to an end and the state parliament has approved the sale of the property.
Department of the Environment: Plans canceled by WSE
But contrary to what was previously assumed, the plans for an industrial sewage treatment plant for this location are said to have been canceled a long time ago, according to a response from the Ministry of the Environment to an rbb inquiry this week. It says: “The WSE had already decided in 2021 to cancel the plans to build an industrial sewage treatment plant at the Spreeau site.”
However, since the eastern area around Berlin needs new sewage treatment plant capacities, the Ministry of the Environment advocates a different use of the property in question: “The Spreeau sewage treatment plant site […] is still an option from the state’s point of view as part of the strategic wastewater target planning – but for a purely municipal sewage treatment plant,” says the ministry. This position is also represented in discussions with the WSE and its member municipalities in the working group “Water Perspectives for the Eastern Berlin Surroundings”. “It is crucial that the municipalities create the legal planning basis for this,” according to the ministry.
WSE disagrees
However, this is contradicted by Henryk Pilz (CDU), chairman of the WSE association assembly and mayor of Erkner (Oder-Spree). Confronted with the statement from the Ministry of the Environment, Pilz says: “The statement surprises me that we already voted out the project in 2021, so to speak, because at that time we only acquired the property – from the state, by the way.”
Henryk Pilz, Mayor of Erkner | Image: rbb
In addition, the WSE would have spoken again and again after 2021 – also within the framework of the working group mentioned – of an “industrial sewage treatment plant” that the association would continue to plan for this location. “Therefore, there is no decision on our part not to pursue this goal any further, nor any other interests.” Such a rejection does not exist from the association itself, confirms Pilz.
reasons for the assessment
But how does such an assessment come about on the part of the Ministry of the Environment? When asked by rbb, the Brandenburg Ministry of the Environment replied in writing: “According to its own statements, the WSE had stopped the engineering planning for an industrial sewage treatment plant at the Spreeau site. This was confirmed, among other things, in the fourth consultation of the AG Wasserperspecten on April 26, 2022 (see item 2.1 : [www.mluk.brandenburg.de]). Furthermore, the funding application for this was withdrawn. Likewise, we are not aware of any further activities of the WSE in relation to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) to be carried out.”
However, under the mentioned agenda item 2.1 – “Status of the comparison of variants for the ‘Spreeau sewage treatment plant'” – these statements were made by the Ministry of the Environment itself and not by the WSE, as can be seen from the minutes. In addition, there is no wording to be found that indicates that the WSE had stopped planning.
Different views
When asked about this, Henryk Pilz, who himself took part in the meeting, reports that both the application for funding and the tender for the engineering planning had actually been withdrawn by the WSE because the property had not been purchased or sold to date. However, both should be done again as soon as the surveying work currently taking place in Spreeau has been completed.
The same applies to the required EIA. According to Pilz, after Tesla’s decision to treat its own waste water with the applied waste water recycling plant, all figures for the expected waste water that the sewage treatment plant should process should be looked at again. “We’re talking about several industrial settlements at this location. And not just about Tesla.” This is the only way to decide whether an industrial sewage treatment plant would continue to make sense at this point.
According to Pilz, the WSE and the approval authority – the State Office for the Environment – decide together whether an industrial sewage treatment plant – i.e. a sewage treatment plant for the treatment of industrial wastewater – or a municipal sewage treatment plant is to be built at this location. “And for this we absolutely need the waste water target planning of the state of Brandenburg – without it it doesn’t work,” says Pilz.
Grünheide against municipal sewage treatment plant
But it already seems clear that the construction of a purely municipal sewage treatment plant, which would particularly clean wastewater from private households, is unlikely at the Spreeau site. According to rbb information, Grünheide’s mayor Arne Christiani (independent), whose community is partly a member of the Strausberg-Erkner water association, does not see a majority for such a project within the municipal council. However, this would have to agree to the preparation of a development plan. Because it is only with such a system that the construction of a sewage treatment plant – whether for industrial or municipal wastewater – is even possible at the Spreeau site.
Contribution by Martin Krauss