SONNENBÜHL. The water line from the Erpfingen waterworks to the elevated reservoir in Stetten must be rehabilitated. “Leaks have been found there,” says Mayor Uwe Morgenstern. And this results in water losses. The association assembly of Albwasserversorgungsgruppe 15, Erpfgruppe for short, has therefore decided to renovate the pipeline, but the Erpfgruppe has to take out a loan for this.
At the end of July, the water masters noticed water losses, a disproportionate amount of drinking water disappeared at night, i.e. at unusual times. “The line is in a damp environment,” says Uwe Morgenstern, in the ground parallel to the Erpf. The 50-year-old pipe is corroded on the outside in several places, so that clean drinking water seeps out, and in one place there was a major burst pipe. To ensure that the drinking water in Stetten and Hörschwag does not flow into the households, the quality of the water was checked, and an approx. 1.3 km long, above-ground emergency supply line was laid from the waterworks in Erpfingen to the elevated reservoir in Stetten. Although the supply of the two parts of Burlading is secured, this cannot be a permanent solution, especially not if a severe winter brings prolonged frost.
Cast iron pipe corroded on the outside
When the water pipe was finally out of order, it could be examined with a camera – the pipe has a diameter of 15 centimeters. If water flows through it, unlike sewers, this is not possible. In addition, an approximately one meter long section was removed in front of Stetten, which was heavily corroded in several places. This water pipe is around 50 years old. When it was laid in the early 1970s, cast iron pipes were used that were cemented on the inside as corrosion protection, but not on the outside. And that is now noticeable.
“If you had to dig up, it would be really time-consuming,” says Uwe Morgenstern. Since it is damp along the Erpf and further along the Lauchert in Stetten, the trenches would have to be constantly pumped empty. The renovation would “hardly be possible before winter”. The solution is to do the work in a closed construction. A so-called inliner is drawn in, which is self-supporting and stable. This will reduce the diameter of the water pipe from 150 to 123 millimeters, “but that is definitely sufficient for the supply”, even with a 100 pipe there would still be enough water. “We hope to be able to renovate in mid / end of September,” says Morgenstern.
Despite this less elaborate and cheaper variant, for which the association assembly of the Erpfgruppe voted, the renovation costs a lot of money. In figures, this means: a total of at least 221,000 euros will be paid to the erpfgruppe, of which 7,000 euros will be spent on camera use, including the fact that digging has to be carried out in some places, the pulling in of the inline skates alone costs 157,420 euros ( net). The contract was awarded to the Keimer company from Pfronstetten. That is why the association meeting also discussed increasing the credit authorization and taking out a loan of 250,000 euros. This includes a reserve in order to be prepared for the unforeseen. “We need a loan for it, we don’t have that much money on the high edge,” says Morgenstern. “Fortunately, something like that doesn’t happen every few days.” But now you have to consider whether it is not time to take a close look at the entire water supply network. Because when a pipe breaks, “it’s already too late”.
Around 13,000 residents are supplied with water by the Erpfgruppe. 660,000 cubic meters of water are given off every year, 60,000 cubic meters of which, i.e. ten percent, is Lake Constance water. Two years ago, however, the Erpfgruppe secured higher purchase rights, for safety reasons, in the event that their own water volume should not be sufficient. Most of the water is own water, sources of supply are the Lange Brunnen between Stetten and Hörschwag and the Mühlhalden- and Schlosshaldenquelle in Erpfingen. The Erpfgruppe includes the municipality of Sonnenbühl with its four districts: Undingen, Genkingen, Willmandingen and Erpfingen, the city of Burladingen with the districts of Stetten and Hörschwag, Melchingen, Salmendingen and Ringingen, and Mössingen with the district of Talheim and the hamlet of Ziegelhütte.
Erpfgruppe has existed for 110 years
The Albwasserversorgungsgruppe 15 was established in 1911, at that time across kingdom borders, today’s Sonnenbühler districts, at that time independent communities Undingen, Genkingen, Willmandingen and Erpfingen belonged to Württemberg, Ringingen and Salmendingen were Prussian, the other communities were only added from the 1960s . There are a total of 15 elevated tanks in the association area.
Mayor Uwe Morgenstern speaks of a “fruitful association work”. The assembly is grateful for the work and assistance in the run-up to the renovation of water foreman Daniel Dreher and the work of the Miltenberger planning office. The camera inspection was realized and offers were obtained within a short period of time. (cofi)
– .
