Important chemicals for water purification could soon be missing in Germany

Due to the energy crisis, sewage treatment plants nationwide lack the means to clean the wastewater - with possibly fatal consequences for rivers, reports the magazine "Spiegel". Chemical companies can therefore currently hardly supply precipitants.

During chemical water purification, the iron or aluminum salts bind dissolved phosphates in the waste water and prevent these nutrients from getting into rivers and canals in excessive concentrations with the treated waste water. Without any precipitants, municipal sewage treatment plants are forced to discharge wastewater with a high phosphate content and exceed limit values.

The environment ministries in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have initiated a corresponding permit, the “Spiegel” learned on request.

This could endanger the stressed German waters in some places after the dry summer and trigger uncontrolled growth of algae. Phosphates are fertilizers for algae. If there is a strong algal bloom, waters tip over due to insufficient oxygen content and living beings die, the magazine continues.

Problems would then quickly arise in individual bodies of water, according to the German Association for Water Management, Wastewater and Waste DWA. Experts even warn against “prescribed eutrophication”.

The main reason for the shortage of precipitants is the energy crisis. Due to high energy costs, many manufacturers hardly produce hydrochloric acid, a basic product for the production of precipitants.