Drinking Water in Germany: A Case Study of High Quality Drinking Water - Global Drinking Water Management and Conservation - page 256

rst common
framework for water protection was established in Germany (Seeger 1999 ).
However, wastewater treatment in Germany faced an excess of sludge due to urban
extension. It meant that

When the Federal Water Act came into force in 1957, the

huge amounts of sludge forced the abandonment of the
dewatering of the digested sludge on drying beds

“

” (Seeger 1999 ). Accordingly,

arti cial sludge dewatering was added to the sewage plants during the 1960s. In

1979, the First General Regulations Concerning the Discharge of Municipal
Wastewater set up target values for the parameters BOD (Biological Oxygen
Demand) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand). In the 1980s, the method for
tertiary wastewater treatment was developed, and was put

into operation. For

example, the first municipal sewage plant in Berlin was able to conduct denitrifi- -

cation to remove nitrogen compounds during this period (P pel et al. 1997 ). As a

statutory requirement for tertiary wastewater treatment, the amendment of the First
General Regulations Concerning the Discharge of Municipal Wastewater issued
target values for nitrogen and phosphorus in 1989. Consequently, the requirement
of nutrient removal for all municipal sewage plants became the

ö

final step in current

wastewater treatment.

12.4.2 Current Wastewater Treatment in Germany

The goal of water protection in Germany is to conserve or restore unimpaired
ecological functioning of all water bodies. The discharge of untreated wastewater
into rivers and lakes is not permitted in Germany. According to Article 57 of the
Federal Water Act,

discharges of wastewater into water bodies is only permissible
if the pollution load of the wastewater is kept to the lowest level achievable by
means of the best technology available

“

” (BMU 2014 ). The Federal Ministry for the

Environment states that Germany is the European country with the highest

wastewater reprocessing and recycling rate.

“

” Furthermore, according to a 2011

Pro le of the German Water Sector, more than 77 percent of customers were

extremely satis ed with the services of their wastewater disposal utilities

in 2007, indicating that the overall satisfaction of customers with wastewater dis-
posal remained high.

ed or satis

12.4.2.1 Wastewater Treatment in Public Sewage Plants

Currently, there are more than 6,900 municipal wastewater disposal companies and
almost 10,000 wastewater treatment plants in Germany. The municipal sewage
plants are largely located in small population areas, with approximately 55 percent
of these plants serving fewer than 5,000 people and merely 0.4 percent serving
more than 100,000 people (see Fig. 12.5 ). A total of 78 million inhabitants are
connected to centralized municipal sewage plants (Umweltbundesamt, the German
Federal Environment Agency 2014 ).