Foundation of the Water Management Office of the Westphalian Miners’ Union Fund 100 Years Ago

The year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Water Management Office of the Westphalian Miners’ Union Fund. This institution still exists today, albeit in a modified form and under a different name. This fact underlines its importance for mining and post-mining. The history and the constantly changing tasks over the course of 100 years for this independent institution for the mining industry and government authorities verify its practical experience and the knowledge it has acquired.

1  Introduction

At the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century, many coal mines in the Ruhr area struggled with heavy mine water inflows. Sudden water inrushes regularly disrupted operations. Planning, cooperation or sharing of experience among mine operators regarding water control or geological and technical knowledge were generally non-existent. Almost nothing was known about the interrelationships between surface waters and mine waters as well as the mutual dependencies of mine water inflows from neighbouring mines. The mine operators realised that an independent institution had to be established to clarify these issues and to coordinate the activities of the various water control operations. On 28th February 1920, a meeting was held in the administration building of the Victor I/II pit in Castrop-Rauxel/Germany, for the purpose of establishing such an institution. In the presence of several mine operators as well as Paul Kukuk from the Westphalian Miners’ Union Fund (WBK), Otto Krawehl – at that time chairman of the mining board of the Victor mine – demanded that “the mines affected or endangered by this [meaning the water inrushes into various mines] should communicate with one another so that excessive damage can be avoided in the future” (1).

One organisation in which a research centre could be established to find answers to the water management questions in the mining industry was the above-mentioned WBK in Bochum/Germany, founded in 1864. It had been created by the merger of several mining relief funds that had been set up to finance the state mining offices and certain mining-related community tasks such as road construction, geological measurements or the advanced training of mining officials and the vocational training of pit foremen. The WBK’s tasks were twofold: the improvement of mining training and the conduct of research, especially with the objective of increasing safety in mining. The WBK founded a large number of training institutions focusing on mining (school of mining engineering, mining schools, mining vocational schools with vocational training schools, office of rock blasting experts, department of underground operations management – seminar for operations management). Various departments were set up at WBK for application-oriented research. They included the departments of Geology, Geophysics, Mine Surveying, Chemistry, Mine Ventilation, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, the Rope Testing Centre and others in Bochum as well as the test track in Dortmund/Germany (2).

The so-called Wasserwirtschaftsstelle (Water Management Office) was founded 100 years ago, on 1st February 1921, for the “scientific and technical research and treatment of all issues related to the water management of the coal measures and overburden” and was affiliated with the Geological Department of the WBK (3). Over the course of the decades since that time, this office has provided unparalleled services in water management in the coal industry and has produced as well countless expert reports and scientific publications on other water management topics. A detailed depiction of the work done by the Water Management Office can be found in the WBK’s annual reports. The following section describes briefly the 100-year history of this institution.

2  History of the Water Management Office

2.1  Werner Trümpelmann

In 1921, Karl Goetz was appointed to be the first head of the Water Management Office; he was the one who prepared the initial plan of the tasks that would become the subject of the office’s work (4). Only a short time later, Werner Trümpelmann (Figure 1) took over the leadership of the Water Management Office. His first step was to request regular records of the water drainage from the individual mines. A certain amount of persuasion was required before the mine operators could be convinced to document the water inflows accurately and hand the data over to the Water Management Office. Trümpelmann meticulously studied the water flow of the chalk overburden that, although important for mining, was at that time given little thought as well as the formation of depression cones caused by the pumping of mine water (5) (Figure 2) and wrote several publications on the subject, e. g. (6).

The “reduction in the number of civil servants” forced Trümpelmann to leave the Water Management Office again in 1924 (4). Trümpelmann’s publications document his ability to dive deeply into the complex subject matter, and his departure was a bitter loss for the cause of mining water management. The files of the Water Management Office were later stored in the Geological Department of the WBK. Although the post was reactivated by a board resolution of 9th March 1933 because serious problems in the area of mining water control continued, it was supervised solely by part-time managers. As a result, it fell into a deep sleep for years.

2.2  The Walter Semmler era

It was not until Walter Semmler (Figure 3) was hired on 1st October 1951 (7) that the Water Management Office became a recognised institution for hydrogeology and mining water management in the coal industry. The Water Management Office was presented to the mine operators in a circular from the WBK dated 10th October 1951. It outlined the following tasks that were also realised in the following years:

• counselling the mines on the improvement of water resources and the related reduction of costs;
• identification of potential hazards from water inflows and breakthroughs with suggestions for their prevention;
• determination of potential mining damage to the surface caused by changes in groundwater and disruptions of run-off capability due to mining impact;
• identification of ways to eliminate nuisance mineral deposits on pipes, pumps and installations;
• determination of the possibilities for water supply from the mine’s own waters; and
• research on the origin, movement, occurrence, discharge and control of the various waters through mapping, tracer experiments, etc., as well as on the quality and temperature of the waters (4, 7).

The field of activity was soon expanded to include the areas of “qualitative and quantitative documentation of mine waters” and “environmental protection”. At the end of the 1950s, the Water Management Office had so many engagements that an “Activity Report of the Water Management Office Since 1st January 1958” (8), presumably written by Semmler, complains that the office could not accept any more engagements without hiring more staff and that Semmler, the head of the department, had not been able to take a single day of holiday in the past six years. Moreover, it is pointed out that the work of the Water Management Office had saved the mine operators more than 1 M DM within one year, above all by reducing water drainage costs. Semmler succeeded in recruiting additional staff (Hans-jürgen Classen, 1960 to 1987; Felix Birk, 1963 to 1993) in addition to his colleague Rolf Schmidt (1956 to 1987), and the office reached a high level of staffing and competence. This is documented in particular by a growing number of engagements.

In 1961, e. g., the Water Management Office was engaged by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to produce a set of hydrological maps for the Ruhr mining district (9, 10). The map series “Hydrological Map of the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal District” with a scale of 1:10,000, which was co-financed by the mining industry, was produced between 1962 and 1992. During this period, 57 sheets covering a total area of over 2,100 km² were published. The map project was initially managed by Klaus Kötter and later, from 1967, for twenty years by Felix Birk. In 1988, Rolf Geiersbach was in charge of the project for a short time before Wilhelm G. Coldewey took over in 1989; he continued in the position until the map series was discontinued. The last map was handed over to the representative of what was then the NRW State Office for Water and Waste on 8th March 1993 in the presence of many members of the staff. The “Hydrological Map of the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal District” set worldwide standards in terms of accuracy and content (11, 12). In 1964, a map series was also started for the Ibbenbüren coal district (13). In the same year, the Water Management Office was renamed the Institute for Water Management and Hydrogeology.

In the mid-1960s, the Institute was assigned environment-related tasks for the first time. Acting on behalf of what was then known as the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was engaged to produce a map on “Water Production and Storage of Waste Materials in the Ruhr Coal District” with a scale of 1:50,000. This map became the basis for the “orderly storage of domestic and industrial waste materials” (14, 15). Part of the engagement was the preparation of the map “Water Protection and Storage of Waste Materials in the Ruhr Coal District” with a scale of 1:50,000 (“Consequence Map”) in 1966, which served as a guide in support of decisions for the classification of waste deposit areas (15). In the early 1970s, this work was continued outside the Ruhr district by the Geological State Office of North Rhine-Westphalia and the RWTH Aachen University.

The measures taken by Pumpgemeinschaft Ruhr G. b. R., founded in 1964, and Ruhrkohle AG, founded in 1968, with its Central Water Control operational department (16) significantly reduced the major water control issues in the mines so that the Institute of Water Management and Hydrogeology was able to turn its attention to other hydrogeological topics. In the following years, more and more tasks were located in the environmental field such as pollution incidents involving substances hazardous to groundwater (oil, petrol, cyanide, etc.), contaminated sites, landfills and mine waste heaps in addition to the traditional issues. Expert assessments in the area of (drinking) water production as well as on mining damage were also prepared.

2.3  The Rolf Schmidt era

After Walter Semmler retired at the end of March 1969, his long-time colleague Rolf Schmidt (Figure 4) took over as head of the Institute until 1987 (17). Hansjürgen Classen became the head of the Mine Water Management division. Besides continuing the map series, Schmidt strengthened cooperation and collaboration with other institutions such as the North Rhine-Westphalia Geological State Office.

Rationalisation measures led to the merger in the WBK of the Geological Institute with the Institute of Water Management and Hydrogeology in 1972 to form the Institute of Applied Geology, which was headed by Rolf Schmidt and divided into the departments Geology, Geotechnics and Water Management and Hydrogeology.

A particularly challenging task for the Water Management and Hydrogeology department was the quicksand breakthrough at the Sophia-Jacoba mine in the Aachen coal district on 12/13 September 1975 (17, 18, 19, 20). Several years were required to resolve the issue, in part because there were problems with quicksand again in the 1980s (21).

In 1975, the North Rhine-Westphalia State Institute for Water and Waste commissioned the Institute to map areas that were suitable for the construction of hazardous waste landfills because of their subsurface characteristics and their hydrogeological and water management situation (22, 23). Since more and more mines were closed down, the problem of mine water inflows from these mines – located mainly on the southern edge of the Ruhr area – into the active mining areas to the north also played an increasingly important role in the Institute’s purview.

From the late 1970s onwards, the Department of Water Management and Hydrogeology became involved in the planning of the northern migration of the mining industry and closely guided and supported the measures in the 1980s. In particular, the largest groundwater flow models in the Lippe area at that time were used to assess the influence of mining on this body of water (see below).

At the beginning of the 1980s, a lysimeter facility was set up in Marl for the research project “Storage of Mine Waste – Development of Base Sealings for the Construction of Mine Waste Heaps in Groundwater Reservoirs”; it was used to gather important knowledge about dissolution and weathering processes during long-term accumulation of seepage water in mine waste heaps (20, 21, 24, 25). The study examined mine waste from the entire German mining industry as well as boiler ash.

From 1984 onwards, work was done in the research project “Permeability Determination of Geological Formations with Special Consideration of the Risk of Water Breakthroughs and Hydraulic Ground Failures”. It included development of a test facility to investigate the permeability of solid rocks under simulated natural conditions. Another research project in which numerical groundwater flow and material transport models were developed – “Computer-Aided Simulation of Material Discharge from Mine Waste Heaps in Water” – was launched. In addition, the compilation of a contaminated land register for the entire urban area of Leverkusen commenced in 1984 (25, 26).

From the mid-1980s onwards, tasks to assess the landfilling of residues from the coal and energy sector, e.g., boiler slag, gypsum from flue gas desulphurisation, sludges from pump sumps, in mines and galleries of the coal mining industry became more and more important as above-ground landfill opportunities decreased. The suitability of the mines as underground disposal sites was investigated from the point of view of environmental hazards using the water pathway as the starting point (26, 27, 28). This also includes the extensive work on the “Study on the Suitability of Coal Mines on the Right Bank of the Rhine in the Ruhr Coal District for the Underground Disposal of Waste and Residual Materials” commissioned by the NRW State Office for Water and Waste.

2.4  The Wilhelm G. Coldewey era

In 1986, work began on the research projects “Determination of Water Permeability in Mine Waste Heaps using Field Methods” and “Greening of Tailings Piles” (26). After Hansjürgen Classen left his position, Wilhelm G. Coldewey (Figure 5) took over the Mine Water Management Unit and later the Water and Soil Protection Unit as well until 1999. In addition, he launched the development of new laboratory and field equipment for the determination of hydrogeological parameters as well as numerical groundwater models within the framework of research projects.

At the beginning of 1990, the Westphalian Miners’ Union Fund in Bochum, the Bergbau-Forschung GmbH in Essen and the Versuchsgrubengesellschaft mbH in Dortmund were brought together under the umbrella of Deutsche Montan Technologie für Rohstoff, Energie, Umwelt e. V., and the DMT-Gesellschaft für Forschung und Prüfung mbH (DMT-FP, today DMT GmbH & Co. KG) as well as the DMT-Gesellschaft für Lehre und Bildung mbH (DMT-LB) were founded as operational units. The overall direction of the Institute, which was later renamed Business Unit, was subsequently the responsibility of various people.

Work in the new federal states (former German Democratic Republic) must be emphasised as being especially important during this period. It included such tasks as the investigation of contaminated sites on the properties of Mitteldeutsche Kali AG, the material transport model for the Zielitz potash mine, the investigation of the drainage of Wismut AG tailings ponds in Ronneburg and the groundwater flow models for the area of Potsdamer Platz, the government quarter and the traffic facilities in this part of Berlin (Holger Kories). The 1990s also saw the start of extensive and large-scale groundwater investigations and modelling for the framework operating plans with environmental impact assessment for coal mining and for the disentanglement and ecological restructuring of the water system in the Emscher and Lippe catchment areas (Holger Kories, Renke Ohlenbusch, Philip Mittelstädt). In the two decades after the turn of the century, a number of numerical mass transport models for large groundwater contamination were part of the research to find suitable safeguards and remediation options. Sorption and microbial degradation were not only considered for the models; special investigations for these sub-processes were also developed in cooperation with colleagues from adjacent departments for the quantification of their magnitudes (Holger Kories, Michael Eckart).

2.5  The time following the millenial

After the turn of the century, a simulation programme (brand name Boxmodell) was also developed for processing numerical mine water models (Michael Eckart). Boxmodell was used to investigate and optimise the flooding concepts for the recently closed coalfields in the Ruhr area (Figure 6), Saarland and Ibbenbüren and other activities. This knowledge was also marketed internationally.

In the 2010s, a large number of tasks relating to groundwater management, e. g., as a consequence of the sealing of the public sewage system, were completed in addition to the investigations for an ecological improvement of the water system in the Ruhr area (Manuel Koch, Holger Stubbe).

Other projects included the further development of numerical models for heat transport either for the field of geothermal energy or for the landfilling of exothermically reacting waste materials. Moreover, the wealth of experience acquired when dealing with mine subsidence from coal mining was also transferred to cavern storage facilities (Holger Kories, Viktoria Kaul).

3  Important projects of the Water Management Office during the last 30 years

A selection of (research) projects conducted from the 1990s onwards include:

• Hydrochemistry and genesis of deep waters in the Ruhr area (1993: Marec Wedewardt).
• Collection and further processing of data with respect to the remediation of contaminated sites (1994: Wilhelm G. Colde-wey, Christoph L. Wagner).
• Mobilisation behaviour of inorganic pollutants in the vicinity of underground backfill areas using the example of residues from waste incineration plants in the coal measures of the Ruhr Carboniferous (1994: Christoph Klinger).
• Investigations to determine the geochemical barrier of rocks from the vicinity of underground backfill areas in Ruhr Carboniferous coal mining (1997: Norbert Paas).
• Effects of urbanisation on groundwater recharge in the Ruhr area (1997: Johannes Messer).
• Middle-term development of the chemism and density stratification of mine water in mines and their impact on usable groundwater and surface water (1999: Wilhelm G. Coldewey, Ralf Hewig, Ralf Richter, Peter Rüterkamp, Marec Wedewardt).
• Study on the reasons for and possibilities of influencing precipitation products during mine water drainage (1998 to 2002: Wilhelm G. Coldewey, Hans-Christian Haarmann-Kühn, Christoph Klinger, Peter Rüterkamp, Michael Würfels).
• Creation of numerical models for the calculation of density stratification during a rise in mine water (2004: Holger Kories, Achim Rübel, Peter Rüterkamp, Michael Sippel).
• Determination of relevant influencing factors for the function of water transfer points in the Ruhr area (2006: Ralf Hewig, Ralf Richter, Peter Rüterkamp).
• Determination of the water management conflict potential and development of a monitoring system for the rising of mine water (2008: Ralf Hewig, Holger Kories, Timo Raabe, Peter Rüterkamp, Joachim ten Thoren).
• Development of suitable on-site measurement technology for online monitoring of chemical/physical processes during the flooding of mine buildings in the coal mining industry (2010: Christoph Klinger, Achim Rübel, Peter Rüterkamp, Klaus Siever, Joachim ten Thoren).
• Application-oriented prediction methods for setting and maintaining density stratification in flooded mines (2012: Michael Eckart, Holger Kories, Peter Rüterkamp).
• Model-based sensitivity analysis of influencing factors on flooding processes and mine water grades (2012: Michael Eckart, Christoph Klinger, Holger Kories, Peter Rüterkamp).
• Development of methods for the direct coupling of numerical groundwater and mine water models (from 2019: Michael Eckart, Holger Kories, Peter Rüterkamp).

There has also been (and still is) international collaboration on various research projects, e. g.:

• Development of tools for managing the impacts on surface due to changing hydrological regimes surrounding closed underground coal mines (TOOLDEVELOPMENT).
• Optimisation of mine water discharge by monitoring and modelling of geochemical processes and development of measures to protect aquifers and active mining areas from mine water contamination (WATERCHEM).
• Underground coal gasification in operating mines and areas of high vulnerability (COGAR).
• Flooding management for underground coal mines considering regional mining networks (FLOMINET).
• Scale-up of solution for mining water sulfate control with side-product recovery (SO4-CONTROL).
• Management tool for continuous mine closure (CLOSUREMATIC).

These examples illustrate the special features of the Water Management Office and its successor institutions, namely, the mixture of basic hydrogeological and hydrochemical work, geohydraulic tests, scientific research work and sophisticated numerical modelling. In its role as an independent advisory and research body, the Water Management Office has been and remains invaluable for the mining industry. To this day, the successor institution acts as a consultant, nationally and internationally, in the fields of mining, post-mining and hydrogeology; it is one of the oldest institutions still operating in the German coal industry and its extensive knowledge and wealth of experience will continue to secure its position as an indispensable body for German coal mining.