Environmental monitoring

Groundwater monitoring Königstein Source: Wismut GmbH

Within recent years and decades, environmental protection issues became increasingly relevant for human mankind and its habitat. Negative and harmful impacts of human activities require the implementation of environmental protection as well as continuous observation and monitoring measures. In order to provide the legal framework for these activities, governmental authorities have approved environmental regulations and guidelines, such as the Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Sites Ordinance or the Water Framework Directive.

As one of the largest real estate owners in Germany, the Federal Government has to ensure that utilization of its property is following environmental standards and that remediation measures are implemented in case areas fail to meet these standards. Generally, the pollution of natural resources such as soil, atmosphere, groundwater and surface water must be avoided. However, if environment damage is evident, it must be prevented that utilization interests of adjacent owners are negatively affected. In order to meet this requirement, the Federal Government is obliged to document environmental impacts of its exploitation and remediation activities. Generally, the applied remediation strategies aim to obtain high standards of environmental protection by investing economically justifiable resources. BGR focus on the most efficient technical and economical remediation solutions and reviews selected remediation projects, by taking the respective laws and regulations into account.

One of the biggest remediation projects carried out on Federal State property is the decontamination and remediation of areas in Saxony and Thuringia, which have been severely affected by the previous uranium mining of the Soviet-German company SDAG Wismut. Since the German reunification, the new Federal Governmental-owned company Wismut GmbH has developed and implemented strategies to decontaminate and remediate these affected areas. In this context, BGR advises the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) in geoscientific, engineering as well as economic aspects with regard to decommissioning, cleanup, and rehabilitation of previous uranium ore mining and processing sites. This includes the evaluation of the ongoing environmental monitoring programme as well as further long-term tasks (e.g., mine safety, water treatment).

On the international level BGR is active in various IAEA-coordinated groups on the remediation of uranium legacy sites.

Current projects:

• GEORAD - Geogenic radionuclides in groundwater resources - process understanding and risk assessment based on national and international case studies
• Wismut GmbH: Evaluation and appraisal of the Wismut GmbH remediation project

Find a compilation of all groundwater related projects in the English or German project list.