german remediation group
DESCRIPTION
German Remediation GroupTRANSCRIPT
Restoring your environment
Experience, Safety and Quality made in Germany
Dear Reader,
All countries with a legacy of industrial development and natural resource
extraction must sooner or later get to grips with the strain on their natu-
ral environments. Germany, too, has a long history in this regard.
Almost two decades ago, Germany began to invest heavily in innovative
techniques to revitalise swathes of land which had come to lie waste
due to their past use. It also had to create institutions and partnerships
who could do the job. Our Remediation Group brings together Germa-
ny’s leading experts on all aspects of large-scale landscape remediation
– from conceptual planning, engineering skills and technology to project
management.
In Germany, versatile countryside is emerging from areas once scarred
by many years of mining and industry. But for an unprecedented re-
mediation effort, these regions would still be unproductive wasteland.
We were behind a bundle of regeneration measures that became the
largest and most ambitious project of its kind in Europe. In close co-op-
eration with the German State, we implemented and oversaw the work
from start to finish.
In order to thoroughly remove barriers to investment for the long term,
a multitude of issues have to be addressed in these types of regions,
and the approach needs to be a coordinated one. For example, business
requires legal certainty as well as modern, safe infrastructure and sur-
roundings in which employees can live healthily. Our work in Germany
shows that regenerated areas can not only become a desirable location
for businesses and clean industrial production, but they can also offer
prime residential development, expansive natural habitat as well as new
opportunities for tourism. An investment in the land is an investment in
the people it sustains.
Our collective expertise, developed over decades at the biggest and
most complex remediation sites in Europe, extends to all aspects of de-
signing a newly revived landscape in which people can once more live
and prosper. We would like to offer you the benefit of our experience.
The German Remediation Group
German Remediation Group Experience, Safety and Quality Made in Germany
INTRODUCTION
Sample project I
Historic industrial
sites are character-
ised both by obso-
lete industry and
by extensive soil
and groundwater
contamination. Long-
term remediation
and regeneration of
such sites can only
be ensured by the
maintenance of in-
dustrial productivity.
This requires complex
revitalisation and
remediation strate-
gies. In Germany,
such strategies have
been developed and
implemented by
the members of the
GRemG at several
sites, including the
Bitterfeld megasite.
Please do not hesitate to contact the German Remediation Group:
ExpertiseIntegrated
conceptional
planning, legal and
regulatory expertise
Investing in Remediation
removes significant regional barriers to further investment
kick-starts the economic revival of an area and structural change
ensures suitability for high quality residential development
can also be developed into an attractive tourist destination
Our service is to help you to
reverse the trend of structural decline, and redefine the economics and public
health of a region
reduce pollution and reclaim land for productive use
achieve health benefits for local residents, and reduce pollution-related illness
down-stream
Remediation on three pillars
EngineeringTechnology,
engineering and
environmental
project management
ExperienceUnique experience
in breadth, depth
and scale, excellent
safety record
German Remediation Group Experience, Safety and Quality Made in Germany
SERVICE
Sample project II
Between 1908 and
1991, more than one
billion m³ mine spoil
and more than 500
million tons of lignite
were mined at three
open-cast lignite
mines of Holzweißig-
East, Holzweißig-
West und Goitzsche.
The remediation of
the area commenced
after the mines were
closed in spring 1991.
In their place was
created a 25 km² lake
district, with 66 km
of shoreline. This
complete redesigning
of a heavily strip-
mined region became
a unique landscaping
project, the largest in
the world of its kind.
German Remediation Group Experience, Safety and Quality Made in Germany
ABOUT US
LMBV international owns the rights to exploit LMBV‘s
know-how. Since German reunification LMBV has been
charged with rehabilitating the sites of 32 former open-
cast mines and 88 processing plants (power stations,
gasworks, briquette and coking plants). This involved
the creation of over 50 lakes with an overall surface
area of 28,000 hectares, the rejuvenation of 14,000
hectares of contaminated wasteland, and the removal
of millions of tonnes of waste as well as the transport
of many millions of tonnes of soil.
GICON is an international leader in environmental and
geotechnical engineering and groundwater manage-
ment, including modelling, remediation and monitoring.
GICON also advises on planning and regulatory issues
in the investment context. GICON has extensive expe-
rience in the field of complex groundwater contamina-
tion remediation, so called megasites.
WISUTEC’s know-how goes back to its parent Wismut,
which for several decades was a globally leading pro-
ducer of uranium but for almost twenty years now has
been charged with one of the world’s largest closure
and environmental cleanup and rehabilitation programs
of a uranium milling site. The site included dozens of
tailings ponds, waste rock dumps and underground and
surface mines, affecting a densely populated area of
3,400 hectares. WISUTEC has applied the know-how
from Wismut’s standard-setting activities to numerous
international remediation projects.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is an international
law firm that supports the German Remediation Group
from time to time in individual major cases and complex
matters. Freshfields has offices and local partners all
over the world. Its Environment, Planning and Regula-
tory team is consistently ranked as a European leader
with internationally recognised lawyers. This legal
team’s experience includes structuring and managing
complex permitting procedures as well as coordinating
the work of public authorities and other stakeholders.
Members’ Profiles
Sample project III
The open pit mine at
Berzdorf was flooded,
generating an attrac-
tive local recreation
area. Covering an
area of 960 ha with
a water volume of
330 million m³, it is
one of the largest
lakes in the Ger-
man federal state of
Saxony. The flooding
was achieved with a
pipeline from the river
Neiße, with a flux of
up to 10 m³/s. High
water quality require-
ments presented
special challenges for
this project.
Legal Partner
Sample project IV
The Ronneburg
open pit, which was
developed inmidst of
a densely populated
region, was closed
by backfilling waste
rock, covering and
revegetating the sur-
face. What is more,
the rehabilitated
area was selected to
host the 2007 Federal
Garden and Land-
scape Architecture
Show. Environmental
remediation of the
heavily polluted Ura-
nium mining sites has
thus laid the ground
for the economic and
social revitalisation of
an entire region.
“Bitterfeld-Wolfen has become a tourist destination — unthinkable when I was young.”Werner Rauball, Mayor of Bitterfeld-Wolfen
“Mine Remediation in Germany: A success story.”
Sigmar Gabriel, German Minister of the Environment
“The concerted efforts of federal government remediation com-panies to restore, together with communities, the environment of regions devastated in the past
by unrestrained mining and industrial activities have laid the foundations for economic and social revitalisation and future development. The achievements of East German regions can be regarded as an international benchmark for success. The remediation companies within the German Remediation Group have been instrumental in this success story and dem-onstrate Germany’s first-class competence in environmental restoration.”Michael Glos, German Minister of Economics and Technology
“China could profit a lot from the know-how of the German
Remediation Group.” Huang Zhiguang, General Secretary Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) Shantou
German Remediation Group Experience, Safety and Quality Made in Germany
VOICES
Sample project V
When large-scale
Uranium mining in
the Schlema area
ceased in 1990 it was
unthinkable that in
2004 the small town
would have returned
to its old glory as one
of the world’s most
renowned Radon spa.
The concerted efforts
of WISUTEC’s parent
Wismut, the govern-
ment and local com-
munities to restore
the environment have
even turned mining
liabilities into assets
of the recreational
concept. For example,
golf courses have
been developed on
carefully remediated
mining waste dumps.
German Remediation Group Experience, Safety and Quality Made in Germany
INFORMATION
Cover: Christian Prochaska; TheGreatEscape [M]; Photos: Gicon (5); B. Blume/Helga Lade; Wismut GmbH (3); LMBV; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; archiv (2); www.marco-urban.de; WISUTEC Wismut Umwelttechnik GmbH
supported by
www.gremg.com
Legal Partner