As mentioned in the last-week article, water issue is at the heart of our department concerns and we are fully aware about the absolute necessity of saving and storing water. CERN consumes a considerable quantity of water but also releases water into the neighbouring watercourses, many of which are small and thus sensitive to the quality of the water they receive.

Both existing regulations and CERN environmental policy encourage to better look at flows, water quality, and release into the watercourse. With relation to that, for more than 20 years now, every new project includes retention pounds, either on the roof, or buried basin, or in open air when possible.

The new CERN’s retention basin BR2 (6000 m3), built near SPS-BA2 in 2020 and including hydrocarbon separator for treating pollution has proven its effectiveness in regulating the flow and managing the quality of water releases. Therefore, it has been decided to build an additional retention basin BR1 (3000 m3) on Prevessin site to manage surplus water. Construction works have started (behind the first crossroad) and this facility is springing out of the earth to help regulating the release flow into the watercourse.