More than 200 litres of oil flows into the Lorze

More than 200 litres of oil flowed into the River Lorze from an overturned transformer. Several oil defence measures were initiated by the fire brigade, and no animals were harmed.

On Tuesday afternoon, 5 May, a transformer that was standing on a Euro pallet on the site of the old paper mill in the municipality of Cham overturned. As a result, between 200 and 250 litres of oil flowed from the device into the sewer, and from there further into the River Lorze, as the Zuger law enforcement authorities informed yesterday. The construction workers, who noticed the incident at 4.45 p.m., reacted immediately by alerting the fire brigade and initiating initial oil defence measures.

An oil barrier was set up in the Schönau area by the Zug fire brigade (FFZ), which is responsible for the oil defence on the River Lorze. Oil binding material was also scattered at the Hammergut and then vacuumed up using a so-called "skimmer".  This prevented any major water pollution.

Photo 1:  The oil flowing into the Lorze was vacuumed up.
Photo2:  The pallet probably did not withstand the weight of the transformer.

The Cham fire brigade, which was also deployed together with a specialist company, had to flush out the pipes that were contaminated by the oil. No animals were harmed. According to the investigations so far, the pallet could not support the weight of the transformer, which is why it overturned. A total of around 25 members of the Cham fire brigade and the Zug fire brigade (FFZ), a private cleaning company and employees of the Environmental Protection Office, the Office of Forests and Game and the Zug Police were on duty.