Soil investigation programme natural gas production sites — refurbishment completed (WMS Service)

From July 2015 to May 2017, the LBEG carried out a systematic campaign to investigate soil pollution in the vicinity of natural gas production sites. A total of 200 of the 455 active natural gas production sites in Lower Saxony were sampled and investigated for possible exposures to heavy metals, different hydrocarbons, dioxins and furans. In addition, specific radioactivity was measured at selected locations. The programme took into account all the districts in which natural gas production sites are located. In addition to the district Rotenburg/Wümme, the locations were in the districts of Aurich, Celle, Cloppenburg, Diepholz, Emsland, County Bentheim, Heidekreis, Leer, Nienburg, Oldenburg, Vechta and Verden as well as in the city of Emden and the Hanover region. The funding places were selected in such a way that in each district a roughly equal proportion of the total available funding places were examined (approx. All investigations were carried out in accordance with the legal requirements of the Federal Soil Protection Ordinance.The results were presented by the LBEG at a press conference on 15 May 2017. The final report is available for download. On the basis of the results obtained, it was proposed, among other things, that further sediment studies should be carried out at all natural gas production sites that drain in surface waters (in particular those places not examined under the above-mentioned project (AG Hg I). The sediment tests are necessary because the studies carried out (AG Hg I) have markedly frequent exceedances of thresholds (OW) in sediments of dewatering-relevant surface waters. In the course of the further sediment studies, further orientative investigations were carried out in the summer of 2018 in the vicinity of a total of 42 natural gas production sites. Sampling was carried out at the entry points as well as in the inlet and outflow of the infeed points or the natural gas production points in dry trenches as well as in surface waters. The results were presented in November 2018 and summarised in the final report on further sediment studies (http://www.lbeg.niedersachsen.de/startseite/boden_grundwasser/schadstoffmessungen/untersuchungen_im_umfeld_von_erdgasfoerderplaetzen/untersuchungen-im-umfeld-von-erdgasfoerderplaetzen-135742.html).