Holding Graz and Technical University collaborate on developing technologies for urban management–functional systems of analysis, data and spending. The term that came up again and again when talking with experts from these institutions was "clean water.” What is “clean” exactly?
In contrast to the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Tar Sands, or even the EU's ITER energy project, Graz's contestation of the ZSK was uniquely Austrian. While North Americans militarize against protesters opposed to non-renewal, fossil fuel energy, or the French protest against nuclear energy, the ZSK is the center of three parties that all fight environmental improvement, although each party has a different notion of what that entails. The city, represented by Holding Graz, aims to reduce the untreated wastewater entering the Mur. Their position is water quality. The hydropower plant hopes to produce renewable energy for Graz. And the activists are concerned for the ecological well-being of the river, fish, snakes and the trees.
The perception of hydropower plant is duplicitous because many Grazers deduce their intentions as strictly monetary. The fact that the second largest political party in Graz has traditionally been the Communist party, exaggerates the opposition to financial interest over environmental and social benefit. Compounded with the political negation of surveys and grassroots activists who mobilized a referendum on the issue, the frustration of impunity adds insult to injury. But, as Steve Weiss stated, the general perception in Austria of hydropower is positive. Even on a global level, hydropower is considered renewable energy. At COP24, the EU lauded hydropower as a clean source of energy (the political point was that COP24 was in Poland where the right-wing government is supporting the use of coal).
Dr. Kainz, who was the department chair and now the rector of the Technische Universitat, was the Godfather of the ZSK, brokering the benefits between Verbund, which needed traction for their hydro power plant, and Holding Graz, which needed a sewer extension. Kainz had directed me to Gruber as a contact who would speak about the TU’s involvement and design of the ZSK project. Gruber's research began in 2002, when his team began studying the quantities of sewer overflow in the Graz catchment area. His research video has been used in educational settings for the last decades, and I recognized some of the footage from Werner Sprung's presentation.
It was 2pm and overcast; the late-November daylight was bluing. Günter took us to the ZSK construction site. I was hoping to enter the ZSK. We started on a bridge to nowhere, a blockaded extension that overhung the Mur by a few meters. In rainy times, rainwater enters the same drainage canals in the sewers as is used by wastewater from houses and buildings. Because the surface of the city is polluted with toxins, it’s necessary to treat it, especially after the first rain. But excesses of both greywater and rainwater spill out of the channels along the sewers and join the flow of the covered creeks and river, exiting to the Mur at an outpoint. The Zentraler Speicherkanal spans 3 kilometers and connects to exists sewer overflow points, effectively catching the wastewater before it enters the Mur and stores it in compartments that are separated by movable weirs. When the wastewater treatment plant is no longer at capacity, the weirs drop, causing a wave motion, which causes the wastewater to disturb the settled sediments on the floor of the storage canal and wash everything down to the treatment plant. Günter explained all of this from his perch on the bridge, which he explained was used for dumping snow into the Mur. From the bridge he pointed out R 05, the first wastewater outpoint that he studied back in 2002. (Why untreated snow was being dumped into the river, given the polluted surfaces from which it is plowed, while rainwater is diverted, mixed with stored and requiring more funding in the name of the ZSK was not specified.)
It's curious that all three groups of interviewees–the activists Regelsberg and Ulls, Sprung and Gruber–all foresaw and called for the integration of green and blue solutions, like roof gardens, bioswells, and tree planting. The difference was the scale of efficacy that each party claimed. The activists implied blue and green initiatives could have substituted the net effect of the ZSK. Sprung suggested it would be necessary in the future. Gruber stated that it depended on the profile of the city, but that pipes were almost always necessary to solve the problem of flooding and surface pollution run off.
We crossed the pedestrian bridge to see the movable weirs that were under construction. The hydropower plant would raise the height of the Mur by 6 meters at the dam. I asked how close to the underside of the bridge it would be, and guest a few meters; he confirmed my estimate, but I presumed it was a translation issue.