Validated regional scale groundwater model Noardburgum

“Vitens, the largest water supply company in the Netherlands, supplies 330 million m3 of drinking water to domestic and industrial clients yearly. The main source for the production of this water is groundwater with salinity concentrations lower than 150 mg/L. In the province of Friesland, in the northern part of the Netherlands, problems have arisen with the abstraction of fresh groundwater due to salinization of wells by upcoming of brackish water. Public supply well field Noardburgum (Figure 1-1) was originally designed to produce 12 million m3 of drinking water per year, but suffered heavily from salinization of the production wells in the 1980s, leading to a complete production stop from 1993 onwards. Ever since, Vitens is looking for options to increase drinking water production in
the region.
The Freshkeeper concept was developed in the early 2000s as a solution for salinization of water wells and water well fields. The principle is that not only fresh groundwater is abstracted, but with a separate filter screen also the upconing brackish water. In that way, the fresh-brackish water interface is stabilized, preventing salinization of the fresh filter screen. The brackish groundwater can be disposed, for instance by injection into deeper aquifers, but it can also serve as an additional source for drinking water after desalination with reversed osmosis (RO).”

(Citaat: Reipkema, S., van Doorn, A., Oosterhof, A., Raat, K.J. – Validated regional scale groundwater model Noardburgum – SubSol D1.1 2017)