Jean-Paul Lickes, the director of the Water Management Authority, confirmed upon enquiry that, according to the Authority’s preliminary assessment, the stream’s pollution can be traced back to a “glycol-based liquid”. This type of liquid is 100% soluble and mixes with water, Lickes added.
The Water Management Authority sent out a task force to the site on Wednesday to further assess the situation. The elaborate analyses of the samples are still ongoing, and the Authority has even contracted an external lab to double check the samples. The precise origin of the pollution is still unknown.
The Authority does not rule out the possibility that the collecting basin at Luxembourg Airport may have something to do with the pollution. The Airport uses this basin to collect the wastewater created, among other things, when plane wings are de-iced. This would then raise the question whether there is a leak in the basin or whether one of the valves potentially malfunctioned.
The Water Management Authority intends to work alongside the Airport administration and the municipal authorities of Luxembourg City to look into the exact origins of the pollution.
The municipality of Luxembourg City manages a number of sources as well as a processing plant in Birelergrund.
The pollution was reported to the emergency services by people walking through Birelergrund on Tuesday. It mainly affected the Stackelgesgriecht, a small stream which flows into the Birelerbaach near Neihaischen and eventually into the Syr near Schrassig.
