The winner of the Mülheim Water Award 2006

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In 2006, the first Mülheim Water Award was given to the terraLink GmbH from Zürich, represented by Dipl.-Ing. Martin Holzapfel for innovative, local wastewater disposal and re-use in alpine areas.

The Mayor of Mülheim Dagmar Mühlenfeld handed over the award and 20.000€ price money, sponsored by RWE Aqua GmbH and RWW Rheinisch Westfälische Wasserwerksgesellschaft mbH to Dipl. Ing. Martin Holzapfel from terraLink.

The project delivers an innovative approach for local disposal in alpine areas and is called “Decentralized Treatment and Re-use of Toilet Wastewater in Alpine Areas”. During the course of the project, a full-biological wastewater treatment plant, working on the basis of membrane technology with re-use of the treated wastewater was run in the skiing region of Zermatt, Canton Wallis. Due to the re-cycling and the biological and physical treatment of the wastewater, which exclusively comprises urine, the negative effects from wastewater on the sensitive mountain area were minimised. The project illustrates specific questions regarding the increase of salinity and the colour of the treated wastewater, the problems caused by the highly seasonal variability in terms of waste load, the nitrogen elimination in case of low COD/N ratio, the sludge disposal, as well as the year-round maintenance of activated sludge basins.

The award ceremony was held on 6th of February during the 3rd AQUA Colloquium held in the course of the E-world energy & water 2007 in Essen, Germany.