System solutions for Water treatment plants Bielefeld

Water treatment Bielefeld: Where does Bielefeld’s drinking water come from?

Around 50 percent of the raw water used to treat Bielefeld’s drinking water is extracted from wells close to the surface at depths of around 20 to 40 meters. Around 40 percent of the raw water comes from deep wells. The deepest produces it from 630 meters below ground. Around ten percent of the water volume comes from the solid rock of the Teutoburg Forest at a depth of around 100 meters.

The most important water catchment area is the Senne – a large heath and mixed landscape with moors, forests, rough grasslands and bodies of water. It borders on the foothills of the Teutoburg Forest and on Bielefeld. Large parts of the water extraction area in the Senne are forested. Here, safeguarding groundwater quality takes precedence over forestry yields. The original coniferous forest is being replaced more and more by deciduous or mixed forest. Deciduous forest soil is characterized by less acid input.

Regulation and control devices in water treatment Bielefeld

Water treatment of the raw water from the Senne takes place in 14 of Bielefeld’s 15 waterworks. These include the Furbachtal, Lipperreihe, Sennestadt, Sennestadt-West, Windelsbleiche and Windfang waterworks plus several other waterworks and deep wells in Stufenbrock-Senne. The Senne waterworks thus cover around 90 percent of Bielefeld’s drinking water requirements. The city is thus supplied almost entirely from the nearby region. The remainder comes from the Teutoburg Forest.

Water from the region has a long tradition: The Bielefeld water treatment plant on the outskirts of the city looks back on more than 125 years of history. At the end of the 19th century, the first waterworks was opened in the Senne region – plus two water tanks and the first drinking water pipeline to Bielefeld. From these humble beginnings, a massive drinking water network and water treatment plant with state-of-the-art measurement, control and control technology have evolved.

In the Senne, the raw water generally already has a very high water quality. Therefore, in only three of the 14 waterworks do foreign substances such as iron, aluminum or acidifiers have to be removed by filtration plants. In one of the water treatment plants, this is done in an aeration plant. The Sennestadt waterworks uses calcium carbonate (CaCO3) to adjust the pH value.
Two waterworks disinfect the raw water by UV treatment. This treatment combats microbiological impairments (a prerequisite is the use of state-of-the-art UV systems for water disinfection such as those from Neomeris, Hildesheim). In rare cases and only if the measuring instruments show appropriate values, chlorine is temporarily added to the drinking water for disinfection. Even after chlorination, the water meets the highest hygienic standards and complies with the limit values. Monitoring of the limit values is possible, for example, by means of the Testomat 2000 CLF/CLT or sensor technology from the portfolio of the second umbrella brand Neomeris.

All processes at Wasseraufbereitung Bielefeld take place using the most precise measurement, control and regulation technology as well as system solutions for process monitoring for industrial water treatment.

What do the water hardness meters in Bielefeld show? Depending on the city area and its origin, drinking water in Bielefeld has two hardness ranges: medium with 8.4 to 14 °dH and hard with an average of over 14 °dH (German hardness). Whether medium or hard, Bielefeld’s drinking water is not only healthy, but also cheaper and more environmentally friendly than bottled mineral water. Continuous monitoring of the current water hardness is possible here, for example, by using the Testomat EVO TH. The Testomat EVO TH represents the latest generation of online measuring devices for monitoring water hardness and, in addition to highly accurate measurement, also impresses with various practical functionalities. According to official data, tap water generates less than one percent of the environmental impact caused by the production, transport and bottle cleaning of mineral water. In addition, the tap eliminates the need for home transportation and lugging boxes.

Water treatment and control for drinking water Bielefeld

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Regularly, the Bielefeld Health Department monitors water extraction plants and water quality. On-site inspections of the waterworks as well as chemical and bacteriological controls in the city area take place constantly. Over 1,500 samples and 9,500 analyses are carried out each year by independent institutes – using the latest measuring technology and state-of-the-art sensors. The tap water that is fed into the house connections always falls well below the limit values of the German Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV). In addition, the municipal utilities are certified for technical safety management of the DVGW (Deutsche Vereinigung des Gas- und Wasserfaches e. V.).

Few households are not or only partially connected to the drinking water network of the municipal utility. They supply themselves mainly with domestic wells. Each private well must be registered with the health department and is regularly controlled. The Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV) prescribes an inspection once a year for bacteriological aspects and every three years for chemical inputs. Only accredited laboratories and service providers are used for this – along with state-of-the-art measuring technology and drinking water analysis equipment (source of data: Stadtwerke Bielefeld, 2020).

Drinking water Bielefeld – with high-tech measurement, control and regulation technology. Neomeris, Hildesheim