The Kiliansteich (literally " St. Kilian's Pond") is one of the oldest

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

s in Germany. The reservoir is located near

Straßberg (Harz) Straßberg may refer to: Places in Germany *Straßberg, Saxony-Anhalt, a town in the district of Harz of Saxony-Anhalt *Straßberg, Zollernalbkreis, a town in the Zollernalbkreis of Baden-Württemberg *Straßberg, one of the communities amalgamated ...

in the German state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

and supplies drinking water. It impounds the Büschengraben stream. The lake is part of the heritage area (''Flächendenkmal'') of the

Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System Within the Lower Harz region (in the counties of Harz and Mansfeld-Südharz in central Germany) are still many traces of the historical water management facilities used by the mining industry. In addition to water-carrying ditches and ponds, there ...

. The reservoir has a

rockfill dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

with a watertight clay core that sits on a

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

bedrock.

History

Originally there were four small ponds in a row on the site of the present-day reservoir that had been built for the

mining industry Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a la ...

. Two of those were broken in 1901 and 1944 and all were in a poor condition. As a result, from 1989-1994 a new, higher dam was built at the site of the lowest dam; the two middle ponds were removed and the upper one, the Upper Kilian Pond (''Oberer Kiliansteich''), built in 1703, was upgraded into a

pre-dam A forebay is an artificial basin or pool of water situated upstream of a larger water body such as a reservoir, lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is lo ...

(''Vorsperre''). Originally laid as a drinking water reservoir, the lake is used today for flood and drought protection. The dam on the original "Lower Kilian Pond" (''Unterer Kiliansteich'') was about 10 m high and had a retaining capacity of 165,000 m³. During the course of renovation the old wooden bottom outlet was salvaged on 25 September 1990 as the result on an initiative by Erika and Siegfried Lorenz. Following long-term conservation work at the ''

Harzwasserwerke The Harzwasserwerke GmbH (; English: Harz Water Works Limited) is a major German water company and dam operator based in Hildesheim, located within the German federal state of Lower Saxony. History Founded in 1928, the Harzwasserwerke were task ...

n'' in

Clausthal-Zellerfeld Clausthal-Zellerfeld () is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The town hosts the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort is locate ...

, who paid for the cost of transports and conservation, it was returned on 19 August 2010 to Straßberg. The wooden raceway is now a museum piece in the

Glasebach Pit The Glasebach Pit () is a mining museum and former pit in the Harz fluorspar mining area near Straßberg (Harz), Straßberg in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is run by the East Harz Mining Society (''Montanverein Ostharz e. V.''). The ...

Sources

Talsperren in Sachsen-Anhalt, Autorenkollegium, Hrsg. Talsperrenmeisterei des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt 1994

External links

*
Kiliansteich Dam

Saxony-Anhalt Department of the Environment: Dams according to § 88 of the State Water Law
{{Authority control RKiliansteich Buildings and structures completed in the 17th century Infrastructure completed in 1994 Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System Reservoirs in Saxony-Anhalt

History

See also

Sources

External links