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Federal Environment Agency awards sensitive study to coal group Leag

2021-01-08T21:46:39.119Z


The Federal Environment Agency commissions a subsidiary of the coal operator Leag to conduct a study on opencast mines. This is to determine what consequences the coal phase-out in Lausitz has on the water balance. Critics suspect foul play.


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Jänschwalde open-cast lignite mine: How can it be renatured after mining?

Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa

The Federal Environment Agency (Uba) in

Dessau-Roßlau is not exactly known for its coal-friendly attitude.

Now, of all people, the authority has commissioned a subsidiary of the Lausitz coal company Leag with a sensitive study on the consequences of the coal phase-out.

The GmB GmbH is to collect data in order to examine the water balance in the region after the end of lignite mining.

Due to the coal phase-out, the region will lack water in the future.

River levels could drop, drinking water could become scarce - and that also in the nearby capital Berlin.

So far it is unclear who should assume this damage.

The Leag company heads a consortium of engineering offices that were awarded the contract for the € 400,000 study.

The Lusatian parent company Leag must end the mining and burning of lignite by 2038.

This is regulated by the coal phase-out law passed by the federal government about a year ago.

Leag receives a total of 1.75 billion euros in compensation for the early exit.

The money is to flow into the renaturation of the landscapes destroyed by the lignite mining.

Anything in excess of this amount has to be paid by the company itself.

A particularly sensitive point is the water balance, which is to be examined in the new study.

The operators need large quantities of it to renaturate the opencast mine holes - a total of 5.5 billion cubic meters, according to a cautious estimate by the Saxon Ministry of the Environment.

That is a little more than the amount of water from Lake Starnberg and Lake Chiemsee combined.

That could be expensive, because a region like Lausitz is currently losing water reserves, especially in the summer months, also due to climate change.

So far there is no plan B for renaturation of the mine holes.

"Nobody has any idea where the billions of cubic meters of water should come from," says Felix Matthes from the Öko-Institut and a former member of the coal commission.

If so, then the Leag would have to pay the costs of providing the huge amounts of water or the alternatives for renaturation - and not the taxpayers.

"Suspicion of bias"

Critics doubt whether this can succeed if the coal operators themselves take part in the scientific studies on the water balance in Lusatia.

"For me, the impression is created that the Leag is given the opportunity to write the report itself, so to speak," comments Martin Kühne, long-time Green City Councilor in Cottbus and Leag critic.

He fears that part of the renaturation could ultimately be passed on to the taxpayer.

"In any case, in local politics we already practice a different procedure when there is suspicion of bias," says Kühne, commenting on the awarding practice of the Uba.

Kühne also considers the remaining experts to be biased: some engineering offices and experts in the consortium are long-term contractors of Leag.

One example is Wilfried Uhlmann, a qualified hydrogeologist who has been writing reports on opencast mines for the State of Brandenburg and Leag for years.

In the meantime, Uhlmann has also appeared publicly with his contractors - not only in the new Uba contract.

The hydrogeologist is also on the board of the newly founded »Water Cluster Lausitz«.

The association wants to accompany »the transformation process in Lusatia in the area of ​​water management«.

Thomas Koch, employed by the Leag subsidiary GmB GmbH, who is now also in charge of the Uba study, is among the board members in the »water cluster«.

The otherwise rather critical Federal Environment Agency defends the award to the Leag subsidiary to SPIEGEL: "The fact that GmB GmbH belongs to Leag is not an exclusion criterion in the award procedure," explains Jörg Frauenstein.

The research project would be carried out "neutrally and with open-ended results", assures UBA employee Frauenstein.

They want to "look closely" and create transparency.

35 new lakes and not a drop of water

However, it is undisputed that data and forecasts about rivers, lakes and groundwater reserves in Lusatia are urgently needed.

The results also give an indication of what the restoration of the crater landscapes will ultimately cost.

The main reason for the lack of water is the lignite mining: When old open-cast mines are closed, there is no need to pump groundwater from the lignite hole into adjacent bodies of water.

Their water levels are therefore falling.

In addition, the Leag wants to fill most of the devastated coal holes with river water in order to renature the landscape.

That is why over 30 new lakes were created in Lusatia alone - according to the company, “Europe's largest man-made lake landscape.” Several large lakes still have to be filled.

Without enough water, the company's post-coal utopia is wasted.

"Everyone involved is currently very perplexed," said coal expert Felix Matthes.

Politicians and the Leag must therefore first know where how much water is missing and how rivers like the Spree can be prevented from falling dry.

This is what the study commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency is supposed to find out.

"Strictly speaking, we are developing a forecasting instrument," says Jörg Frauenstein from the Federal Environment Agency.

Experts warn that the water shortage after the coal phase-out could even hit the capital, some 200 kilometers away.

"Even in Berlin you can already see the water shortage," confirms Felix Matthes from the Öko-Institut.

Some rivers, such as the 180-kilometer-long Black Elster, have already partially dried up, local media reported in December.

Water is scarce and expensive

The instruction for the study comes from a central point.

In its answer to a small inquiry from the left a few weeks ago, the federal government wrote: The study should "determine the extent of the water management measures that are not to be carried out by the open pit operators".

In other words, it is also about what money the state and what funds the company should spend on renaturation.

Since the open pit operator is now participating in the research project himself, he can possibly determine himself which measures and "management options" he wants to take and which he does not.

In concrete terms, for example, it could be a question of which water problems are attributable to mining and which are due to ongoing climate change.

Both problems are already developing into a risky cocktail: the fact that rivers like the Schwarze Elster have run dry is also due to the low rainfall in recent years.

And the following applies to the opencast mine: the larger the body of water, the more water evaporates due to high temperatures.

Some disused opencast mines also have problems getting filled at all.

One example is the »Baltic Sea«, currently the largest Leag project in the »Lake Landscape«.

Because there was little rain in 2019 and 2020, the lake has hardly been filled so far.

The Leag still writes: The lake is filling according to plan.

Assistance: Marc Theodor

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-01-08

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