Austria’s largest contaminated site remediation “Kokerei Linz” completed

Around 850,000 tons of excavated material were moved, 1,800 tons of pollutants removed from the ground, 30,000 kilos of volatile pollutants extracted and 3,000 kilos of pollutants such as pure tar oil removed from the groundwater. The total costs amounted to 163 million euros, the office of oö informed. Environment Councilor Stefan Kaineder (Greens) on Wednesday.

The coking plant had existed since 1942. After being destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt and put into operation. As it turned out later, the bombing caused the underground to be poisoned on an “unprecedented scale,” according to Kaineder.

In 2009, the “Kokerei Linz” was classified in the highest priority class for the remediation of contaminated sites, and the remediation began in 2012. The federal government assumed 95 percent of the total costs. At the project completion ceremony in the voestalpine Stahlwelt on Wednesday, the provincial council thanked “those responsible at voestalpine and all those involved in the project who pushed ahead with and implemented this renovation to protect our environment”.