Steingaden joins the Lechbruck-Bernbeuren wastewater association - a "huge win for everyone"

Created: 12/21/2022, 12:02 p.m

By: Theresa Kuchler

The sewage treatment plant in Lechbruck will soon treat all waste water from Steingaden.

© Archive/ Oliver Sommer

The Lechbruck-Bernbeuren wastewater association officially has one more member in the new year: the community of Steingaden joins its neighbours' special-purpose association.

The mayors of the three communities see a benefit for everyone in the merger.

Bernbeuren/Lechbruck/Steingaden – The municipality of Steingaden has been sending wastewater from Urspring to its neighbors in the west since October.

The sewage flows through a pipe under the Lech into the sewage treatment plant in Lechbruck, which treats and cleans it and releases it into the Lech.

From May, the entire Steingaden wastewater is to be treated in the Lechbruck plant.

As reported, Steingaden decided in 2018 to join the existing Lechbruck-Bernbeuren wastewater association.

The company's own sewage treatment plant was getting on in years and would have had to be rebuilt for capacity and modernization reasons.

Instead of constructing a costly new building, the municipality joined the Lechbruck-Bernbeuren sewage association, which has existed since the mid-1990s.

Steingaden wants to benefit from synergy effects - the mayor generally sees advantages in special-purpose associations

In this way, Steingaden wants to benefit from synergy effects – for example in terms of personnel – and save operating costs.

"This is a step in the right direction," said Mayor Max Bertl when asked by our newspaper.

He took over the project from his predecessor Xaver Wörle and believes that smaller communities generally benefit when they pull together - not just when it comes to wastewater.

Bertl is thinking, for example, of areas such as water supply, building yards or local heating, where the synergy effects of special-purpose associations could be used.

The sewage treatment plant in Lechbruck was expanded accordingly for the merger, for example a new secondary clarifier was built in order to be able to clean the additional wastewater.

After all, the system was once designed for 11,000 residents.

In the future, the capacity should be enough for 14,000 residents, with a buffer of 20 percent being retained.

Happy to have successfully brought the "Kindl" to its destination

The municipality of Steingaden will bear the costs for the conversion.

As Martin Köpf from the building administration of the Steingaden administrative community stated when asked, the expansion of the sewage treatment plant cost 3.5 million euros, the line construction cost a total of 750,000 euros.

The costs for a new pumping station in Steingaden amounted to 550,000 euros.

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As Lechbruck's mayor Werner Moll explains, the structural measures have been completed so far, the only thing missing in the plant is the mechanical and electrical engineering.

Moll is happy that the "Kindl", which he and his counterparts from Steingaden and Bernbeuern inherited from their predecessors, has now successfully reached its goal.

New name from January: "Lechbruck-Bernbeuren-Steingaden Wastewater Association"

Bernbeuren's Mayor Karl Schleich is also happy about the growth of the wastewater association.

"It's a huge win for everyone that we're merging the wastewater," said the mayor at the most recent municipal council meeting.

That evening, the Auerberg community officially approved Steingaden's accession to the sewage association - a formality that the councils in Lechbruck wanted to complete on Tuesday.

If both communities agree, Steingaden will be an official member of the special-purpose association from January, which will then be renamed “Lechbruck-Bernbeuren-Steingaden Wastewater Association”.

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The Council of the Wastewater Association takes care of issues such as the operating and investment costs of the association or the on-call service of the pumping stations.

This will continue to consist of ten people, with Lechbruck providing five, Bernbeuren two and Steingaden three association councillors.

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