WellMa: Operation and maintenance of drinking water wells to optimise performance and water quality

Project partner

Berliner Wasserbetriebe; Veolia Eau; KompetenzZentrumWasser Berlin; Technical University of Berlin, Section Environmental Microbiology; pigadi GmbH

Project duration

02/2009 – 02/2012

Description

The capacity of drinking water wells, i.e. the yield for a given drawdown, is often decreasing after a certain time of operation. This effect is called well ageing and is due to different processes related to the geology and hydrochemistry at any given well site and to the construction and operation of these wells.

The Hydrogeology workgroup and partners investigate wells in Berlin and France in terms of their ageing behaviour with the aim to determine suitable measures helping to slow down well ageing processes and optimise strategies for well operation and maintenance. Four work packages have been defined:

1. Assessment of the impacts of intermittent pumping on iron deposits in drinking water wells,
2. Assessment of the effectiveness of the preventive maintenance with H2O2,
3. Development of decision support tools providing for optimised monitoring, early warning and pre-diagnosis, and economic considerations on well maintenance,
4. Decision support and test application for regeneration technologies in order to support the selection of the most efficient regeneration method.

The investigations are supplemented by the project WellMaDNA (11/2007 - 10/2010), using advanced methods of molecular biology to characterise clogging-inducing iron bacteria.

Project participants

Dr. Thomas Taute, Dipl.-Geol. Christian Menz, Dipl.-Geol. Ulrike Maiwald

Contact

Dr. Thomas Taute

 

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