Town/City:

Dortmund

State/Province:

North-Rhine-Westfalia

Country:

Germany

Latitude/Longitude:

52 N / 07 E

Information supplied by

Dr. Eckehard Paul Loehnert

(c/o) prinz@uni-muenster.de

Gustav Freytag Str. 75, D-48161 Muenster, Germany

(+) 2533-3443

Dated Mon Apr 14 20:19:41 1997

Information Topics:

City Description:

Population is 0.64 million, major town in the Ruhr coal district, also famous for its breweries; highly industrialized region.

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Climate:

Humid condition with an annual precipitation of approx. 800 mm.

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Basic Hydrogeology:

Aquiferous Upper Cretaceous calcareous rocks overlying Carboniferous coal bearing strata. Piezometric heads lowered by coal mining for centuries.

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Water Use:

Public supply (approx. 80 million cbm/year) piped from the valley of the River Ruhr.

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Groundwater Issues:

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Groundwater Problems:

Areal contamination is established at shallow depth. Consequently, the drinking water supply depends on artificial recharge in the Ruhr valley, some 10 - 15 km to the SE. The system includes slow sand filtration and has been employed successfully since the end of the 19th century.

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Solutions:

River Ruhr water used for artificial recharge requires continuous thorough quality control. Artificial recharge techniques are being permanently improved.

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References and Other Author(s):

Frank, W.H. (1970): Fundamental variations in the
water Quality with percolation in infiltration
basins: Artificial groundwater recharge. Proc.
Conf. Univ. Reading, 169 - 197.

Schoettler, U. (1996): Artificial recharge of groundwater in 
Germany - State of the art in research and practice.
Nordic. Hydrol. Progr. NHP, Art. rech. of Groundw.,
38, 41 - 49.

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Contacts:

Dr. Uwe Schoettle, Institut fuer Wasserforschung GmbH, Zum Kellerbach 46, D-58239 Schwerte, Germany

Prof. W.G. Coldewey, DMT-Institut fuer Wasser- und Bodenschutz/Baugrundinstitut, Franz-Fischer Weg 61, Germany

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