Municipal & industrial water treatment and incineration in Bitterfeld (1991 - 2004)

Detailed Description of Actual Services Provided by Your Staff:

• Technical Services within a PPP + Management Contract:
• Structurising procurement and supervision of a EPC Contract (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) and transaction of operations to a PPP (Public Private Partnership; Joint Company) STP (= Sewage Treatment Plant) company, 422,000 p. e.
• Implementation of technical and administrative operations (tariff formula, controlling etc.)

Project Details

Municipal & industrial water treatment and incineration in Bitterfeld (1991 - 2004)

The region of Bitterfeld in the former GDR is known as one of the most polluted and damaged industrial areas in Europe. Once the West-German law and European regulations were introduced in 1990, a very quick solution had to be found for the treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater for a total of 422,000 p. e.

For this project, Rudolph GmbH was appointed as the main advisor for the economical and technical services. In particular, the advisor was responsible for:

• The setting up the structure of the new private company, called GKW - Gemeinschafts¬klärwerk Bitterfeld-Wolfen GmbH, held by several regional water associations (52 %) and by industry (48 %). The private management is now fully responsible for the operations, organisation and administration of the company.
• The procurement, the process and detail design control of the wastewater treatment plant, consisting of a pre-treatment facility for the high toxic industrial wastewater and followed by a biological treatment of the pre-treated and raw municipal wastewater.
• Advising the client on available funding sources, aiming at maximisation of public funds: European, National and State contributions represented 75 % of the total investment, due to the high ecological and economical importance of this project.
• Obtaining of public permissions for the construction works and the wastewater discharge (including Environmental Impact Assessment).
• General supervision and cost optimisation of the investments related to the wastewater treatment plant and collection works (DEM 300 m out of total investment of DEM 380 m).
• Procurement, engineering-supervision and cost optimisation of an additional sludge incineration plant, which was organised as a pilot project by a German environmental protection agency (Umweltbundesamt) with an investment of DEM 49 m.
• Organisation and implementation of a training program for the administration and manage¬ment of the GKW, including an on-site assignment for one of the Rudolph GmbH's senior professionals for a total period of 20 months.
• Development and implementation of a benchmarking system to measure and evaluate the performance of the plant ("performance indicators").
• Development planning and implementation of an integrated computer system for the work-organisation of the GKW, linked to a Total Quality Management System and ISO 9001.

The successful privatisation of Bitterfeld's wastewater networks and sewage plants resulted in a total investment of DEM 380 m consisting of public funds and private financing. Currently, Rudolph GmbH is carrying out the reorganisation of the quality management system of the plant operation and administration for the company (TQM).