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The value of animal waste as a fertilizer is well known. As the plants consume by far most of the fertilizer in springtime storage containers are needed. The methods of disposal and storage of liquid manure are very different world-wide. Different types and sizes of farms and various climatic conditions cause this.

There are lots of regulations dealing with the building of slurry, dung and silage containers. It is the purpose of these regulations to avoid negative effects on the environment. From the authorities' point of view the problem focuses on the question whether these containers are "tight" or not. To clarify this question, tests with slurry, liquid manure, water and concrete blocks of a defined quality were carried out. For the first time it could be proved that slurry is a material which can close tiny slits in concrete by its dry matter content. The concrete blocks did not allow passage of either water or slurry in any of the studies.

A new 1,500 m3 slurry container was built in the Test Station of the Federal Agricultural Research Centre (FAL) in Germany with a leakage control system. Extremely heavy rainfalls in August 2004 lead to the very much higher groundwater table than usual within few days. Effluent with particles of soil from surroundings of the container flooded the system. No slurry components could be found in the control pits by chemical analysis. This proves that the construction as well as the connection of the container to the runoff system is innocuous to the environment.