German court backs K+S in dispute over potash waste storage

19 November 2010 16:42  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--A court in Germany on Friday ruled that fertilizer major K+S can continue its practice of storing underground saline waste water that is generated from its potash production.

An administrative state court in Hessen threw out objections from the town of Gerstungen. The town had sought immediate intervention to end to the underground storage, arguing that it posed a danger to its drinking water supplies.

However, the court in ruled that the underground storage posed no immediate danger to drinking water supplies.

K+S could continue the practice until the expiry of its current permit at the end of 2011, the court ruled.

Water authorities had approved the storage in 2006.

The town’s case was based on speculation about an “abstract potential for danger”, whereas K+S could rely on an expert assessment by Hessen’s environmental and geology office, which did not foresee a negative impact on drinking water supplies, the court said.

Only the prospect of “extreme danger” could have justified the court intervening on behalf of the town, it added.

K+S had suggested earlier that it may build a pipeline to the North Sea to dispose of waste water from its potash mines in central Germany. 

That plan, however, has been opposed by Germany's Lower Saxony state. The pipeline would be routed through that state and the waste water would be disposed off the state’s long North Sea coastline.

The ruling, written in German, is available on the court’s website.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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