1. Recommendations for the management and monitoring
OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME SLOVENIA-HUNGARY 2007 – 2013 :
Recommendations for the management and monitoring
of the joint transboundary thermal water body
Mura - Zala
Teodóra Szőcs
Geological Institute of Hungary
Joerg Prestor
Geological Survey of Slovenia
Annamária Nádor, Ágnes Rotár-Szalkai, György Tóth (MÁFI)
Nina Rman, Andrej Lapanje, M.Sc. (GeoZS)
FINAL CONFERENCE OF T-JAM project , September 16, 2011, Budapest Business School, Division of Economics, Zalaegerszeg

2. Transboundary Thermal GroundWater Body (TTGWB)
Mura-Zala
Extent of the groundwater body
Objectives – environmental & renewable energy use
Status
Measures to reach the objectives
Monitoring 2

3. Extent of the TTGWB Mura - Zala
4,974 km2 ( = significant in Danube River Basin Management scale)
Slovenia 1,151 km Hungary 3,823 km2
Groundwater layer:
Depths: 500 m to approximately m
Thickness: from less than 100 to locally up to m
90 x 55 km
Shared international boundary length (km): 108 km 3

4. Objectives (Environmental - Energy)
Environmental objectives
maintaining the good status / prevention of actual status deterioration
Maintaining the long term positive water balance:
Abstraction should not exceed 70 % of the renewable volume of groundwater
2) Maintaining the groundwater flow direction:
Abstraction should not exceed the recharge surplus from Slovenia to the Hungarian side 4

5. Objectives (Environmental - Energy)
Environmental objectives
maintaining the good status / prevention of actual status deterioration
3) Abstraction from individual well should not affect the neighbouring well
4) Increase of abstraction should not worsen the conditions of exploitation in the future 5

6. Objectives (Environmental - Energy)
Renewable energy utilization: Geothermal energy
Country’s objectives (Directive 2009/28/EC)
Contribution from TTGWB Zala - Mura
Geothermal heat production- (PJ)
Country SI HU
SI + HU
2008
0.92 4
4.92
2010
1.11
4.23
5.34
2015
2.48
6.15
8.63
2020
3.42
14.95
18.37
Geothermal heat production- (PJ)
TTGWB Mura-Zala SI HU
SI + HU
2008
0.422 (45.9%)
0.666 (16.7%)
1.088 (22.1%)
2020
1.57
2.49
4.06 6

7. Status of TTGWB Mura Zala
Water balance between Slovenia and Hungary:
Without abstraction - strongly positive for Hungary:
5,137 m3/day (59.5 l/s) water surplus from Slovenia.
At the present production:
Surplus from SI decreased to 4,330 m3/day (50.1 l/s).
At the production scenario of 5x higher abstractions:
only 649 m3/day (7.5 l/s) would remain the surplus from Slovenia. 7

8. Status of TTGWB Mura Zala
In 2020 the use of geothermal energy for heat production is planned to be 3.7 times higher than in 2008.
3.5 times higher abstraction rate in the future would theoretically enable to follow the renewable energy utilization and environmental objectives until 2020.
However, the priority should be to increase actually low utilization efficiency:
! decreasing the waste water quantity and temperature ! 8

9. regarding the monitoring data !
Measures to reach the environmental objectives (1)
Water rights for new or additional abstractions in Mura-Zala basin could be granted depending on the trend of water level taking into account the critical level point and critical point of abstraction.
- recommended critical level point is 30 meters below the original level before any exploitation.
abstraction should not be increased more than 3.5 times higher than actual abstraction in the border region:
in the area 20 km from the state border.
! available thermal water balance and critical level point have to be updated at least every 6 years,
regarding the monitoring data ! 9

10. Measures to reach the environmental objectives (2)
Water right for individual well should define:
the depth of the water intake (production section).
whether the production section of the well is entirely or partly situated in TTGWB Mura Zala.
activation of new aquifer layers in the existing well should be reported if this activation could affect TTGWB Mura Zala. 10

11. Measures to reach the environmental objectives (3)
Geothermal energy productions from TTGWB Mura – Zala have to be reported yearly in the form of following tables:
Geothermal heat production- (PJ)
Country SI HU
SI + HU
2008
0.92 4
4.92
2010
1.11
4.23
5.34
2012
2013
Geothermal heat production- (PJ)
TTGWB Mura-Zala SI HU
SI + HU
2008
0.422 (45.9%)
0.666 (16.7%)
1.088 (22.1%)
2012
Use (kg/s) SI HU
SI+HU
Flow rate at maximum utilization
295
596
891
33%
67%
Average flow rate
124
103
227
55%
45% 11

12. Measures to reach the environmental objectives (4)
Thermal efficiency has to be increased on both sides
(step by step from 30 % … ….70 %...)
-set up of adequate rate of thermal efficiency increments by future mutual agreement
-to promote the BAT as priority instead of abstraction increment.
! research and development of re-injection technologies have to be highly promoted by adequate incentives, especially financial ! 12

13. Information has to be regularly exchanged between both sides:
Measures to reach the environmental objectives (5)
Information has to be regularly exchanged between both sides:
- of intended abstraction increment
- of intended drilling activities within the Mura – Újfalu/Zagyva aquifer in the 20 km border area on each side. 13

14. Measures to reach the environmental objectives (6)
Common management and monitoring have to be approved by the permanent bilateral Slovenian – Hungarian water management commission.
The accessibility of data from different monitoring networks has to establish:
time intervals
which data will have free access, restricted access or no access. 14

15. Monitoring of TTGWB Mura-Zala
Proposed common monitoring network:
17 observation wells
5 observation wells in Slovenia + 12 in Hungary. 15

16. Monitoring – observation wells16

17. Monitoring of TTGWB Mura-Zala
The establishment of a joint monitoring system is one of the key elements for:
harmonized sustainable thermal groundwater management,
realization of the environmental goals and
renewable energy utilization goals. 17

18. Thank you for attention! More about T-JAM – www.t-jam.eu
Moravske Toplice – spa
Thank you for attention! More about T-JAM –
Murska Sobota district heating
Dobrovnik – orchids greenhouse
Lendava – de-iceing 18