Cross-boundary Groundwater

Management: Effects of Extraction

and Open Pit Mining on Rode Beek /

Saeffeler Bach

Eric Castenmiller

Province of Limburg

Limburg

Capitol:

Maastricht

Inhabitants:

+/- 1 million

Delft

Delft

Rode Beek and

Saeffeler Bach

Rode Beek

Saeffeler Bach

A story …

Once upon a time, 10 – 20 million years ago there was ….

organic material.

Which became:

Lignite – Braunkohle –

Bruinkool

Garzweiler

Hambach

Open pit mining

Lowering groundwater table 250 – 300 meter

Each pit > 100 million m³/year

Measures to compensate effects

Extensive monitoring

- Wetlands

- Catchment-areas

Roer Valley Graben

Geological profile

clay

fine sand

sand

50 km

300 m

Head in deep aquifer (near Weert)

2200

2300

2400

2500

2600

2700

2800

2900

3000

1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2008 2013

cm

abo

ve

se

a le

ve

l

Rur Valley Graben

Important aquifers for drinking water

- Province of Northern Brabant

- Flanders

- Province of Limburg

- Germany

Multiple boundaries cross border influence

No cross-boundary groundwatermodel available

Groundwatermodel

In Limburg IBRAHYM

In Germany RWE - model

to small

no real cross-border calibration

Complex hydrology

demands larger

groundwatermodel

Objectives

Groundwatermodel of the relevant area

All relevant parties agree on the quality of the new model +

the result of the calculations

Run scenario’s to:

- Understand what causes lower groundwaterlevels or -heads

- What measures are possible and effective

No hidden agenda political, high economical stakes

Participants

Challenges

Cross border geology - tuning

Expansion of aquifers and aquitards

Collecting data groundwater extractions border conditions

for pit instead of extractions

Units m/s or m/day

Permeability of faults

Conceptual challenges

Permeability and storage

coefficients (calibration)

– zones

– geological formation

Calibration

- Points Netherlands

- Isohypses Germany

Calibration in progress

Check for:

- waterbalance (flow over faults)

- heads and isohypses

One iteration cycle takes 13 - 15 hours

Results (preliminary): trend is good, differences between

calculated and measured head

Finished this month

Next steps

1 Agreement on:

- usefulness of the model specialists

- scenarios and the results

- conclusions

- measures politicians

2 Political support

Next steps

Expansion to Flanders and Province of Northern Brabant

Technical and political

Real cross border water management in line with the

European Water Framework Directive

and than, hopefully, …….

…. we will live happily ever after, with enough water

for everybody.

The End