The Saxony-Anhalt State Office for Geology and Mining (LAGB) approved the amendment to the final operating plan for the encapsulation of the Brüchau mining waste disposal facility applied for by Neptune Energy in October 2024.
As part of the incapsulation, both a permanently secure base cover and a surface seal will be constructed. The landfill will be encapsulated on site in accordance with the state of the art and will also be fully conditioned and any foreign deposits that can be removed will be separated and disposed of properly during the relocation.
The planned construction phases
In several construction phases, the landfill material is relocated and solidified on site while the base sealing is constructed at the same time (see aerial photo).
Once the securing process is complete, the technical sealing system meets the highest standards of a landfill for hazardous waste (so-called hazardous waste landfill) in accordance with the Landfill Ordinance to be used in waste legislation. This safeguarding alternative fulfils all site-specific requirements for the permanent preservation of protected assets (human health, soil, water and air) and creates the conditions for release from mining supervision.
Legacy from the GDR era - historical classification
It is a facility where residues from natural gas production, among other things, have been stored since the early 1970s in accordance with the official authorisations granted. The operator of the facility was a former GDR state-owned enterprise. Natural gas production in the Altmark began in 1969 and peaked in the 1970s and 1980s. Of the 224 billion cubic metres of natural gas produced by the end of 2023, around 87 percent was produced by 1994.
In addition to the residues from natural gas production, the authorities also instructed the then state-owned GDR company to accept waste from other industries from 1977 to 1990. In 1994, the former Erdöl-Erdgas Gommern GmbH was privatised. A predecessor company of Neptune Energy acquired the company from the Treuhandanstalt. The continued operation of the facility until it was shut down in 2012 was carried out in accordance with the law on the basis of official licences issued by the responsible mining authority with the involvement of specialist authorities and local authorities.
Of the total of approx. 100,000 m³ of stored materials, approx. 27,500 m³ were brought to the facility in the south-east backfill section after 1994, of which around 18,000 m³ originated from the remediation of old sites from mining obligations assumed under mining law. Based on the available results of the landfill investigations, the materials brought in after privatisation in 1994 are slightly contaminated and differ significantly from the partially highly contaminated deposits from the time before. These are detectable in the north-west backfill section and in the water-covered central section.
Neptune Energy assumes responsibility for plugging and abandonment
Neptune Energy continues to expressly support the final, sustainable and safe closure of the Brüchau mining waste disposal facility. In connection with the privatisation of the former Erdöl Erdgas Gommern GmbH in 1994, arrangements were made for the plugging and abandonment of existing operating plants and facilities. Neptune Energy is bound by these contractual agreements as the legal successor.
Neptune Energy has many years of experience in the plugging and abandonment of operating facilities that are no longer in use, primarily in Lower Saxony, but also in the federal states of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Since the privatisation of the state-owned GDR mining company, the company and its predecessor companies have dismantled well sites, pipelines and sludge pits there to the tune of over 400 million euros.
Thanks to these activities, mining supervision has been formally terminated for more than 450 properties since 1994.
