Im Oktober 2006 wurde das NASRI (Natural and Artificial Systems for Recharge and Infiltration) Projekt, ein Vorhaben der Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin gGmbH, endgültig mit einer öffentlichen Präsentation der wichtigsten Ergebnisse abgeschlossen. In fast vier Jahren interdisziplinäre Forschungstätigkeit untersuchten mehr als 40 Wissenschaftler aus mehreren Berliner Universitäten und dem Umweltbundesland, gemeinsam mit den Berliner Wasserbetrieben die Prozesse während der Uferfiltration und künstlichen Grundwasseranreicherung. Es war ein Hauptziel des Projektes ein umfassendes Prozessverständnis zu entwickeln, um so die nachhaltige Nutzung der Uferfiltration und künstlichen Grundwasseranreicherung unter Berücksichtigung zukünftiger Anforderungen und Bedrohungen langfristig sicherzustellen.

The transect of the bank filtration site at Lake Tegel is characterized with regards to their redox conditions using a Cluster analysis. Four different groups of observation wells could be found, enabling the derivation of a redox zoning with horizontal boundaries, which are moving downward during winter time. At the same site, Regression analysis served to examine influencing variables on the reduction of the pharmaceutical Carbamazepin during bank filtration. Two different regression models for summer and winter time were found, with each of them including the standardized temperature and the travel time as influencing variables. Whereas during winter time the redox conditions seem to have a significant influence on the reduction of Carbamazepin, the same influence could not be found for the reduction of Carbamazepin during summer time.

Bank filtration and artificial ground water recharge are important, effective, and cheap techniques for surface water treatment and removal of microbes, as well as inorganic, and some organic, contaminants. Nevertheless, physical, chemical, and biological processes of the removal of impurities are not understood sufficiently. A research project titled Natural and Artificial Systems for Recharge and Infiltration attempts to provide more clarity in the processes affecting the removal of these contaminants. The project focuses on the fate and transport of selected emerging contaminants during bank filtration at two transects in Berlin, Germany. Several detections of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in ground water samples from bank filtration sites in Germany led to furthering research on the removal of these compounds during bank filtration. In this study, six PhACs including the analgesic drugs diclofenac and propyphenazone, the antiepileptic drugs carbamazepine and primidone, and the drug metabolites clofibric acid and 1-acetyl–1-methyl–2-dimethyloxamoyl– 2-phenylhydrazide were found to leach from the contaminated streams and lakes into the ground water. These compounds were also detected at low concentrations in receiving public supply wells. Bank filtration either decreased the concentrations by dilution (e.g., for carbamazepine and primidone) and partial removal (e.g., for diclofenac), or totally removed PhACs (e.g., bezafibrate, indomethacine, antibiotics, and estrogens). Several PhACs, such as carbamazepine and especially primidone, were readily transported during bank filtration. They are thought to be good indicators for evaluating whether surface water is impacted by contamination from municipal sewage effluent or whether contamination associated with sewage effluent can be transported into ground water at ground water recharge sites.

The spatial distribution of confining layers within a system of two aquifers strongly affects the hydraulics and sensitivity to pollution. The test site is located close to a well field. Wells are switched with short intervals and hydraulic heads are recorded in several observation wells. Because the absolute levels of simulated hydraulic heads do not always coincide with the measurements, the model is calibrated with short term head variations. The characteristic shape of the hydraulic heads at each observation wells contains sensitive information about the structure of the aquifer. A numerical technique is developed which enables to simulate the spatial distribution of the confining layer. The method comprises the use of pilot points and regularisation technique. Cross validation is carried out in order to show the results are physically based. The method is shown to provide significant results even under non optimal conditions.

The city of Berlin is using bank filtered surface water and artificially recharged water for drinking water production. As far as some hydrological trends and development of anthropogenic pollutants may threat the future of the ground water resource in Berlin, it is important to measure the capacity of ground filtration to answer to such developments, and to secure the use of this systems through the development of the most appropriate practices and the related technologies. This was an obvious reason to initiate a multidisciplinary cooperation project at the Berlin Centre of Competence with the topic "bank filtration and artificial recharge" named Natural and Artificial Systems for Recharge and Infiltration (NASRI). It will focus, for example on questions of the emergence and removal of pharmaceutical residues during bank filtration. The fate and the destination of other specific trace substances as well as of bacteria and viruses are other objectives of the research programme (KWB 2002).

The present report characterizes the field sites Lake Tegel and Lake Wannsee as well as the artificial recharge site GWA Tegel in terms of their clogging layer, sedimentary, hydraulic and hydrochemical properties. As a result, a solid basis for the interpretation of specific compounds evaluated within NASRI and for subsequent modeling and quantification of the data is given. Major problems or difficulties where identified, in order to focus investigations on aspects not fully understood to date in the next project phase. The combination of different tracers enables the interpretation of the flow regime. With the help of T/He analysis, ages of different water bodies can be estimated. The analysis of tracer showing distinct seasonal variations is used to estimate travel times while water constituents which are either mainly present in the bank filtrate or the background water are used for mixing calculations. The proportions of treated wastewater in the surface water were estimated in front of the transects. The surface water composition varies largely both in time and space, which is a problem at Wannsee, where the surface water sampling point is not representative for the bank filtration input. Estimates for travel times of the bank filtrate to individual observation and production wells are given and vary between days and several months. The production wells are a mixture of bank filtrate and water from inland of the wells and deeper aquifers, proportions of bank filtrate are given where possible to differentiate between contaminant removal and dilution. They vary between < 20 and > 80 %. The new observation wells enable a vertical differentiation of the infiltrate. It becomes clear that at Tegel and Wannsee, there is a strong vertical succession towards larger proportions of considerably older bank filtrate with depth. At the Wannsee transect, the observation wells deeper than the lake do not reflect the surface water signal at all. It will be important to combine the new information with hydraulic information of existing flow models (mainly of the IGB “model” group). The evaluation of the redox conditions shows that redox successions proceed with depth rather than (only) in flow direction. In addition, the redox zoning (as characterised by the appearance or disappearance of redox sensitive species) is very transient. The zones are much wider in winter than in summer, in particular at the artificial recharge site GWA Tegel, probably due to temperature effects. This poses a challenge for the desired modelling and the interpretation of data from redoxsensitive substances.