The Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) reported in its bulletin on Monday evening that a leak had occurred at the Gonderange biogas plant at around 11.20am. The Echternach and Junglinster fire brigades were sent to the scene, as were the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Risk Group (CBRN), and the Logistics Support Centre. An ambulance was also called in as a precautionary measure, but the incident did not result in any injuries.
Interviewed by our colleagues from RTL.lu, Jean Schummer, the manager of Lënster Energie Sàrl, confirmed that over the course of Monday morning, the joint of a tank broke, causing the leakage of 1,000 to 1,500 cubic meters of fermentation residues. This is digestate, the fertiliser that results from the processing of liquid and solid manure, which is then used as fertiliser on the fields.
In a press release issued on Tuesday at noon by the Ministry of the Environment, the Water Management Authority, and the Environment, Nature, and Forestry Agency, it was reported that 3,000 cubic metres of digestate had been spilled. This is also the figure that was quoted by the Luxembourg Federation of Sport Fishermen (FLPS) in a Facebook post related to the incident.
However, the ministry’s figures and those of the biogas plant’s operator differ quite significantly.
The fire brigade was alerted immediately and tried to stop the leak. As they were unable to do so, they built a sort of protective wall with earth and dug a collection basin in the meadow where the fermentation residue was flowing. This prevented the fertiliser from flowing into the nearby Roudemerbaach, a local stream. The Water Management Authority confirmed to Schummer that the stream had not been polluted.
The fertiliser was then pumped directly from the meadow into lorries, before being either distributed to other fields, transported to a decentralised storage location, or pumped into another tank.
By midnight, no more fermentation residue was escaping from the tank. As the pipe was not at the lowest level of the container, not all of the tank’s contents had spilled. According to Schummer, it was between 1,000 and 1,500 cubic metres, which corresponds to 1 to 1.5 million litres.
Pumping work on the meadow resumed at 8am on Tuesday.
