Schwarzenbach_Wald Wastewater Treatment Plant, Schwarzenbach am Wald, Bavaria

Schwarzenbach_Wald is a former wastewater treatment plant located in Schwarzenbach am Wald, a town in the Landkreis Hof district of Bavaria, Germany. The facility served a population of approximately 1,871 people and was designed with a capacity of 4,000 cubic meters per day. It is now closed and no longer operational. The plant provided secondary treatment, which is the standard biological treatment required under the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) for agglomerations of this size. The directive mandates secondary treatment for populations between 2,000 and 10,000 in inland areas, and the plant's design capacity aligns with this regulatory framework. The plant's discharge volume was 473.50 cubic meters per day, which would have been released into the local water system. The area drains into the Rodach River, a tributary of the Main River, which ultimately flows into the Rhine and the North Sea.

The plant is located in the Franconian Forest region of Bavaria, a low mountain range with numerous small streams. The local watershed feeds into the Rodach River, which joins the Main River, a major tributary of the Rhine. The Rhine basin supports diverse aquatic life and is an important migratory corridor for fish. The plant's closure reduces local nutrient loading, benefiting downstream water quality in the Rodach and Main rivers.