Schwedt has been a des­ig­nat­ed indus­tri­al loca­tion since the 1960s. The indus­tri­al cores of the petro­chem­i­cal and paper indus­tries have man­aged the tran­si­tion from a social­ist planned econ­o­my to a social mar­ket econ­o­my with com­par­a­tive suc­cess. Despite a dras­tic reduc­tion in the work­force as a result of an equal­ly dras­tic increase in pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, Schwedt remains an impor­tant indus­tri­al loca­tion in Brandenburg.

On the Pol­ish side, south of Greifen­hagen (Gryfi­no), there is a large coal-fired pow­er sta­tion that has been oper­at­ing with a mod­ern flue gas desul­phuri­sa­tion sys­tem for sev­er­al years. Some time ago there was spec­u­la­tion in the Pol­ish press that this could be the loca­tion for a first Pol­ish nuclear pow­er plant.

The impact of indus­try on the envi­ron­ment, i.e. soil, air and water, is con­sid­er­able. How­ev­er, through the use of the most mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy, in par­tic­u­lar fil­ter tech­nol­o­gy, they can be min­i­mized to such an extent that an order­ly coex­is­tence of econ­o­my and nature con­ser­va­tion is pos­si­ble after weigh­ing the eco­nom­ic and eco­log­i­cal require­ments. There are still enough for­mer indus­tri­al areas avail­able for fur­ther settlements.

After pass­ing through the sewage treat­ment plant, the waste­water from the large Schwedt indus­tri­al com­pa­nies is chan­neled through a thick sew­er under the Hohen­saat­en-Friedrich­sthaler Wasser­straße through the Fid­di­chow­er Pold­er (10) to the Stro­mod­er. The new pipeline laid after the fall of the Wall and its sup­ply route run­ning par­al­lel are a seri­ous encroach­ment on the heart of the nation­al park. Although the indus­try empha­sized again and again dur­ing the new con­struc­tion of the plant that the treat­ed waste­water was almost of drink­ing water qual­i­ty, the direct dis­charge into the Hohen­saat­en-Friedrich­sthal water­way favored by nature con­ser­va­tion under these con­di­tions was reject­ed because of its low flow speed and the sev­er­al kilo­me­ters long sewage pipe across built through the nation­al park to the Stromoder.

In the Low­er Oder Val­ley, nature con­ser­va­tion and indus­try have always tried to focus on what they have in com­mon, despite all the bur­dens. The rep­re­sen­ta­tive pho­to book of the Nation­al Park Foun­da­tion Unteres Oder­tal with the title „Nation­al­parksym­phonie Unteres Oder­tal“ sup­port­ed at the time by the two paper mills (LEIPA Georg Lein­felder GmbH, UPM GmbH Schwedt). It is still avail­able today in book­shops or in the association’s office.