At the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of the Real Estate Industry (BBA), our board member and lawyer Marcus Pikarek and his co-lecturer and drinking water expert Claudia Wagner will provide information for the 7th time on innovations from technical standardization, legislation and administrative practice relating to the so-called legionella test, according to which all owners of large-scale systems for heating drinking water must have their drinking water regularly tested for legionella. The workshop will take place on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. at the BBA premises in the Roxypalast in Berlin. The target group are specialists and managers who have to take care of the system safety of existing drinking water installations. The updated recommendations of the Federal Environment Agency on legionella testing and risk assessment in the event of legionella contamination, which were published at the end of 2025, will be discussed in detail.

The workshop repeats and deepens for all “newcomers” the changes relevant to the real estate industry that have been introduced by the amendment to the Drinking Water Ordinance in June 2023, such as

  • New structure, new terms, new obligations
  • Measures again from 100 colony forming units(CFU)
  • Hazard analysis becomes risk assessment
  • Removal requirement for lead pipes

In particular, the decommissioning and removal requirement for lead pipes is still highly topical, as the deadline expired on January 12 of this year and the health authorities have sent out the first fines.

New compared to the last workshop from 2025 are the updated recommendations of the Federal Environment Agency dated October 13, 2025, once for legionella testing and once for risk assessment, published in the Bundesgesundheitsblatt in December 2025.

Here, the new regulation that residential samples must be taken at the end of the riser with the “shortest possible connection line” is somewhat explosive, as it means moving away from the “place of nebulization”. The risk assessment is once again tightened insofar as the Federal Environment Agency expects it to be in the form of a structured report.

  • When will the new DVGW worksheet W 551?

The draft of the updated DVGW Code of Practice W 551, which had long been discussed in the professional community, was surprisingly canceled in December 2025. Just in time for the BBA workshop, the DVGW has announced the publication of the new yellow print for end of May 2026 announced. Our speakers will evaluate the draft from a technical and legal perspective and discuss it with the participants.

Finally, the current administrative practice of the health authorities in enforcing the Drinking Water Ordinance is also discussed.

Registration is still possible until June 15, 2026, directly with the BBA at https://www.bba-campus.de/weiterbildung/detail/trinkwasseruntersuchungen-auf-legionellen-in-theorie-und-praxis-5/

For all participants who are required to attend further training, it should also be mentioned that 7 teaching units can be taken into account in accordance with § 34 c GewO in conjunction with § 15b MaBV.