CONTRACTOR:
State Office for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas Schleswig-Holstein

LOCATION:
Germany

BEGINNING CONSTRUCTION:
2016

BUILDING END:
2017

As part of the systematic survey of drilling mud pits, a total of 111 indications of possible drilling mud pits were identified in Schleswig-Holstein by May 2016. Only some of these areas had already been inspected in the course of contaminated site management. In order to improve the overall level of knowledge regarding the hazard potential, the then Ministry for Energy Transition, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas (MELUR) initiated a project to ensure a recording and assessment of the hazard potential of all indication areas.

In this context, Mull & und Partner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, was commissioned in August 2016 by the State Office for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas (LLUR) to verify the history of use as well as to assess the hazard potential of former drilling mud pits of initially 82 sites in relation to the protected property. This number of cases increased to a total of 102 during the project period due to new findings.

Research was carried out to verify the location data and the history of use of the potential drilling and oil sludge pits. For this purpose, documents from the affected districts, municipalities and oil companies were evaluated, multi-temporal aerial photo and map evaluations as well as site visits and interviews with eyewitnesses were carried out. After completion of the research work, a standardised short report was prepared for each site, which was oriented to the specifications of the data entry form for contaminated sites, so that a nationwide uniform data management is guaranteed in the K3 module Soil and Contaminated Sites Cadastre. This basis was supplemented by a short description of the history of use, source information and an assessment of the hazard potential and the need for action related to the protected property.

As a result of the project, the state of knowledge about the drilling mud pits in Schleswig-Holstein was considerably improved. For the majority of the sites, it was possible to prove that there was no suspicion of contamination. In addition, the 18 areas suspected of being contaminated were selected for which further investigations are necessary in order to invalidate or substantiate the suspicion of danger.

Scope of services: Verification of the history of use of a total of 102 former drilling mud pits in Schleswig-Holstein with the implementation of file research, aerial photo evaluations and interviews with contemporary witnesses; preparation of short reports incl. evaluation of the hazard potential and the need for further action.