Energia - Środowisko
Dodatek promocyjno-reklamowy do "RZECZPOSPOLITEJ".
15 listopada 2005 r.

Water above all

Not many people know that Grodzisk Mazowiecki was one of the villages situated near Warsaw which boasted a health spa before Otwock did. As early as in 1884 Dr. Michał Bojasiński opened here a hydrotherapy resort around which an elegant villa district developed. We can still admire numerous residences which were once summer estates of affluent entrepreneurs from Warsaw.

Today Grodzisk Mazowiecki is a dynamically developing municipality of the Warsaw agglomeration. The town's authorities have been successfully dealing with municipality problems for many years. Recently, the most important problem that Grodzisk Mazowiecki faces is connected with supplies of water, which, as history shows, was never lacking here.

The town is supplied through a water main connected to three water treatment plants - "Cegielniana" (from quaternary water-bearing stratum), "Dąbrówka" and "Wólka Grodziska" (from tertiary Oligocene aquifer) and a supply system which delivers water to households and industrial customers. The town has also "Bałtycka" water treatment plant which was, however, closed down in 1983 and serves now as a back-up water supply.

"Cegielniana" and "Dąbrówka" water treatment plants are old and inefficient. They are based on outdated technology and their building structures and networks are exhausted. The materials used for their construction became worn out. Leaving these treatment plants unmodernized could have dire consequences for the town - namely smaller supplies of water of specific quality parameters. Also transmission water mains are in bad technical condition.

To improve the situation the town plans to develop its water supply network, construct a new water treatment plant in Czarny Las and modernize the existing water treatment plants.

The first step will consist in modernization of "Cegielniana" water treatment plant: fittings, filters, compressors, rinse pumps and other facilities will be replaced to raise the plant's efficiency. The capacity of the plant will rise from 300 cubic metres of water per hour to 400 cubic metres per hour.

The same will happen to "Dąbrówka" and "Bałtycka treatment plants. Although the scope of works will differ here slightly, the overall effect of the investments will be improvement in efficiency.

A very important element of these investments is the development of the existing water supply network in the municipality. New potable water mains will be constructed in the villages of Adamowizna, Czarny Las, Janinów, Książnice, Odrano Wola, Opypy and Szczęsne. The new network will consist mainly of 11-mm to 160-mm PE pipelines. It is worth adding that in order not to overload the existing water treatment plants, a new water intake in Czarny Las will be constructed. The investment will include construction of two groundwater deep wells with pressure intake lines, clean water containers and pumps as well as pipelines carrying grey water to treatment plants. It is difficult to describe in detail all the treatment processes and technologies which will be adopted, however, let me just say that the plant will use the newest and best technological solutions.

Improvement of the water management system in the town and municipality of Grodzisk Mazowiecki means not only new investments and modernizations. The Cohesion Fund project submitted to the European Union includes also comprehensive rationalization of the water management system. The project worth over 15.5 million euros will be financed in 73% (ca. 11 million euros) by the Cohesion Fund. The co-financing agreement signed in September this year with the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management - a managing authority for Cohesion Fund projects, gives access to EU funding.

Grodzisk Mazowiecki is covered mainly by a gravity sewage system with elements of a mixed system. There are sections of combined sewage system, stormwater drainage and sanitary sewage system. For example in Kopernika residential district wastewaters are jointly conveyed by two stormwater collectors, which are temporarily part of the sanitary sewage system, to the wastewater treatment plant. That is why the town plans to liquidate the existing connections of stormwater drains with sanitary sewers and to construct a 1200-mm collector pipe in the area of Orzeszkowa Street and Teligii Street junction to convey sewage through the northern part of the town into the Rokitnica river.

Wastewater delivered to the Combined Treatment Plant is a mixture of sewage generated by households and local industry with precipitation and infiltration waters. The treatment plant which was built in the 1970s no longer meets treatment standards and hence it needs to be modernized. The plant's modernization - which will be carried out in two phases - will improve living conditions of the town's inhabitants and will minimise inconveniences connected with waste collection from septic tanks by cesspool emptier trucks. Sludge (i.a. residue from wastewater treatment processes) management system will also be improved. Today, sludge is composted in Krasiczna Wola which sometimes causes unpleasant odours. That is why, in order to eliminate odours coming from the composting site, a sludge dryer will be installed in the wastewater treatment plant. Sludge drying will allow not only to utilize it better, but above all, to reduce space necessary for its storage as the volume of a dried sludge is four times lower. The best solution would be to incinerate it. However, this will be possible only after a sludge incinerator is built in the western part of Warsaw, thanks to which it will no longer be necessary to transport sludge many kilometres to the place of its recycling.

All of the above described ecological projects of Grodzisk Mazowiecki will be co-financed by the European Union's assistance programmes, the town's budget, bank loans and a loan provided by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. However, it needs to be stressed that without EU co-financing the project would not be possible. Undoubtedly, these investments will help Grodzisk Mazowiecki to win again on attractiveness..

Marek Tomaka

www.grodzisk.pl