Abstract
Leaky sewers have to be considered as potential sources for groundwater contamination in urban areas. The medium-sized city of Rastatt in SWGermany with 50,000 inhabitants was subject of a series of investigations on sewer leakage which are summarized and discussed in this paper. Amongst others factors, the degree of pollution depends on the chemical composition of the wastewater and the amount of exfiltration. The groundwater underneath the city area showed anthropogenic influence resulting in elevated concentrations especially of boron, potassium and sodium as well as a generally increased electrical conductivity. Groundwater in the close vicinity of broken sewers showed typical sewage indicators such as iodated X-ray contrast media and microbiological parameters. Contamination with pharmaceutical residues and gadolinium could not be found in groundwater, despite significant concentrations of pharmaceuticals in wastewater. In autumn, the contents of boron and microbiological pollution were higher than in spring, indicating a higher ratio of wastewater in groundwater during times of less natural recharge. Groundwater monitoring wells near prominent leaks showed short-time fluctuations of EC and groundwater levels which could be correlated to changes of the wastewater composition and the flow regime in the pipe.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
REFERENCES
ATV-DVWK, 2001, Information brochure: Zustand der Kanalisation in Deutschland. Results of a survey of ATV-DVWK 2001.
Daughton, C., and Ternes, A., 1999, Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the environment: Agents of Subtle Change? Environmental Health Perspectives, Special Report, 107(6): 907–938.
DeSilva, D., Burn, S., Tjandraatmadja, G., Moglia, M., Davis, P., Wolf, L., Held, I., Vollertsen, J., Williams, W., and Hafskjold L., 2005, Sustainable Management of Leakage from Wastewater Pipelines. Water Science & Technology (IWA), 52(12):189–198.
Eiswirth, M., and Hötzl, H., 1997, The impact of leaking sewers on urban groundwater, in Groundwater in the Urban Environment Vol. 1: Problems, Processes and Management, J. Chilton et al., eds., Balkema, Rotterdam, 399–404.
Eiswirth, M., Held, I., Wolf, L., and Hötzl, H., 2003, Assessing and improving the sustainability of urban water resources and systems – AISUWRS work package 1 Background study. Commissioned Report to the EU, 30/08/2003.
Eiswirth, M., 2002, Bilanzierung der Stoffflüsse im urbanen Wasserkreislauf - Wege zur Nachhaltigkeit urbaner Wasserressourcen, Habilitation, University of Karlsruhe. Forschergruppe Kanalleckage, 2002, Gefährdungspotential von Abwasser aus undichten Kanälen auf Boden und Grundwasser. Arbeitsbericht der DFG-Forschergruppe an der Universität Karlsruhe, Interim Report of the German research group Kanalleckage, http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~iba/kanal/zwischenbericht.pdf, pp. 73–76.
Gutekunst, B., 2003, CKW-Verunreinigungen im Grundwasser entlang von Abwassersammlern in Rastatt, unpublished thesis.
Heberer, T., 1999, “Groβräumige Verteilung”, Chemiker haben Arzneimittelrückständen im Grund-, Brunnen- und sogar Trinkwasser festgestellt. Erklärt sich damit die nachlassende Wirkung von Antibiotika?, in: Spiegel 7/1999, 218–220, Springer Verlag Berlin.
Hua, J., Pinglin, A., Winter, J., and Gallert, C., 2003, Elimination of COD, microorganisms and pharmaceuticals from sewage by trickling through sandy soil below leaking sewers. Water Res. 37: 4395–4404.
Jekel, M., Olesky-Frenzel, J. and Hartig, C., 2000, Unerwünschte Überbleibsel: Röntgenkontrastmittel und Sulfonamide im Wasserkreislauf, Forschung Aktuell 1/2000, Technische Universität Berlin, 61–64.
Jekel, M., and Wischnak, S., 2000, Herkunft und Verhalten iodorganischer Verbindungen im Wasserkreislauf, in: Schriftenreihe Wasserforschung Bd. 6, Hrsg. B. Weigert, Chr. Steinberg, R. Brüggemann, Berlin: Wasserforschung e.V., 1998.
Mentzner, G., Lind, G., and Nitschke, L., 1999, Survey of boron levels in aquatic environments in Germany, Tenside. Surf. Det. 36:364–378.
Möller, P., Dulski, P., Bau, M., Knappe, A. Pekdeger, A., and Sommer-von-Jahrstedt C., 2000, Anthropogenic gadolinium as a conservative tracer in hydrology, Journal of Geochemical Exploration 69–70:409–414.
Moreau, J. F., Souissi, M., Chabriais, J., Cyna-Gorse, F. and Richard, O., 1989, New watersoluble iodinated contrast products, Presse Med. 18: 957–959.
Paul, M., Wolf, L., Fund, K., Held, I., Winter, J., Eiswirth, M., Gallert, C., and Hötzl, H., 2004, Microbiological condition of urban groundwater in the vicinity of leaky sewer systems, Acta Hydrochim. Hydrobiol. 32:351–360.
Scharf, S., Gans, O., and Sattelberger, R., 2002, Arzneimittelwirkstoffe im Zu- und Ablauf von Kläranlagen, Report BE-201, Umweltbundesamt/Federal Environmental Agency, Austria.
Scheytt, T., Grams, S., and Fell, H., 1998, Occurrence and behaviour of drugs in groundwater, in: Gambling with groundwater—physical, chemical, and biological aspects of aquifer-stream relations, J. V. Brahana, Y. Eckstein, L. K. Ongley, R. Schneider, and J. E. Moore, eds., American Institute of Hydrology, St. Paul, Minnesota, pp. 13–18.
Speck, U., 1992, Kontrastmittel. Springer Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London.
Steger-Hartmann, T., Länge, R. and Schweinfurth, H., 1999, Environmental risk assessment for the widely used iodinated x-ray contrast agent iopromide (Ultravist), Ecotox. Environ. Safety 42:274–281.
Tropf, V., 2001, Zwischenbericht vom 3.01.2001, Grundwasserverunreinigung im Bereich der Stadt Rastatt, Landratsamt Rastatt, Umweltamt, unpublished.
Wolf, L., Eiswirth, M., Hötzl, H., 2006, Assessing sewer-groundwater interaction at the city scale based on individual sewer defects and marker species distributions, Environ. Geol. 49(6):849–857.
Wolf, L., Held, I., Eiswirth, M., Hötzl, H., 2004, Impact of leaky sewers on groundwater quality. Acta Hydrochim. Hydrobiol. 32:361–373.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer
About this paper
Cite this paper
Held, I., Wolf, L., Eiswirth, M., Hötzl, H. (2006). IMPACTS OF SEWER LEAKAGE ON URBAN GROUNDWATER. In: Tellam, J.H., Rivett, M.O., Israfilov, R.G., Herringshaw, L.G. (eds) Urban Groundwater Management and Sustainability. NATO Science Series, vol 74. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5175-1_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5175-1_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-5173-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-5175-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)