In the case of an environmental accident on the TU’s research campus in Garching, the warning system apparently failed. As the university admitted on request, a warning was triggered about the leaked kerosene, but this came to nothing. Meanwhile, work began on Monday to drill two wells through which the contaminated groundwater is to be pumped to the surface and cleaned. Fortunately, the kerosene only spread over a comparatively small radius of up to 30 meters.
On the weekend before last, more than 5000 liters of kerosene leaked from an underground tank on the TU campus, seeped out of the building into the surrounding soil and from there, a large part of it got into the groundwater. The criminal police are still investigating the cause of the environmental accident. At the end of June, a company renewed the pumping system on the tank. This pumps the fuel through an underground pipe into a laboratory building, which is mainly used by the Faculty of Aviation, Space and Geodesy. The scientists use kerosene for experiments with turbines.
As a spokesman for the TU explained, there is a sensor in the tank building that detects evaporating kerosene. On the weekend in question, this sensor triggered a warning, but only a warning at the lowest level – this is transmitted to the laboratory building, not to the central control system. Presumably, according to the TU, the higher warning level was not reached because the kerosene had already started to escape from the building. But the laboratory was not manned at the weekend.
When an employee of the TU finally discovered on Monday that kerosene had leaked from the tank, the extent of the damage was also not yet apparent. There was only a comparatively small amount of kerosene on the floor of the tank building, as most of it had now seeped away. The TU initially informed the company to stop the exit; In the course of the following investigations, the extent of the damage only became clear and the authorities were informed accordingly. The report at the district office was received on Tuesday around noon.
Among other things, the Greens criticize the fact that the TU’s report was delayed. You have announced that you will submit an inquiry to the state parliament about the course of the accident.