District Administrator Olaf von Löwis wants to adhere to the report on the contamination of drinking water.
A dispute with higher authorities is foreseeable.
But further interesting details came to light at the press conference on Monday.
The result is clear, and the hydrogeology professor Uwe Tröger has now confirmed it once again: It was not grazing or fertilization that led to microbiological contamination of the drinking water in the Reisach version in 2020.
The Berlin scientist has now reiterated this at a press conference of the district office. To what extent this is good or bad news for the district remains to be seen.
Because Tröger assumes another cause for the drinking water pollution: floods and heavy rain events.
The reason for the pollution was possibly sewage treatment plants
And here the sewage treatment plants come into focus, which can no longer completely clarify all water in such weather conditions, sometimes even channel wastewater directly into the Mangfall - and thus impurities into the extraction plants of the city of Munich.
The facilities in Gmund and Miesbach are mentioned in the report.
District Administrator: "We have to look carefully."
What this statement means and what questions arise, for example who will pay for any upgrade, remains to be clarified.
This is exactly what District Administrator Olaf von Löwis (CSU) could not say: “We have to take a closer look.” Of course, he assumes that the systems meet all regulations.
But he is also aware of the responsibility for clean drinking water.
Tröger called the temporary knocking off of untreated water "a serious problem in our country - not only in Bavaria".
The expulsion procedure should be "transparent and open-ended"
As reported, the district office had wanted to present the Tröger report at the press conference and wanted to provide an update on the subject of the Thalham-Reisach-Gotzing water protection zone.
Löwis affirmed that it was very important to him that the deportation procedure was carried out "transparently and with open-ended results".
Higher authorities do not accept the result of the report
Therefore, he again expressed his lack of understanding that the State Office for the Environment (LfU) did not accept the result of the report and on Friday, via the Upper Bavarian government, again called for a grazing and fertilization ban in Zone IIa of the planned water protection area.
"The person, content and scope were carried out in close coordination with the government, the LfU and the Ministry of the Environment." He would have expected that further questions and criticism of the report would be discussed instead of coming up with an unsolicited order.
"That gambled away trust," said Löwis.
The Warngauer Klaus Thurnhuber as the representative of the mayor became clearer.
He spoke of "the arbitrariness of the higher authorities".
"I have serious doubts about the existence of the old rights."
Many have waited in vain for this statement for a long time: “I have considerable doubts about the existence of the old rights.” District Administrator Olaf von Löwis (CSU) said this sentence at the press conference on the water protection zone. For many years, these rights were hardly or not at all questioned by the district administration. The doubts that have now emerged are nourished by the connecting tunnels between the eastern (towards Mangfall) and western (Munich) discharge at the Reisach water catchment - built between 1924 and 1931 according to Löwis. The measure was possibly not approved at the time and could have increased the discharge capacity of the water catchment. As a change in the extraction system, this would not be covered by the old rights, which would mean that they would no longer exist.
The district office has therefore proposed that the city of Munich reapply for water rights. Because this would have to be done on the basis of current laws, the district office would have considerably more say.
Löwis meanwhile rejected the fact that the district wanted to turn off the water for the Munich residents as "completely absurd".
Rather, he had assured all agencies in writing that the supply to Munich would be maintained even during water rights proceedings.
And he is firmly convinced that such a thing would end positively for Munich.
But it just has to be based on current laws.
On behalf of the other affected municipalities, Miesbach has applied to determine the non-existence of the old rights.
The District Office has forwarded this application and the new findings to the higher-level authorities and is waiting for an answer.
Löwis expects news on the subject of old rights in the coming weeks: "My wish would be that these are judicially examined."
Löwis seeks conversation and expects the order to be withdrawn
He now has until December 1st.
Until then, he would like to have further talks with said higher authorities.
Löwis does not at all leave the impression of wanting to comply with the order: "I am convinced that the report takes up the right points." act.
Ultimately, he expects the higher authorities to withdraw their order.
Water protection zone not according to "general standard solutions"
Assuming that a ban on grazing and fertilization is not expedient, the district administrator reaffirmed his stance that he does not want to designate a protected area on the basis of “blanket standard solutions”.
In addition to the "current state of the art", which the higher authorities should also take into account, it is important to "assess the situation on site and take targeted measures that also mean real drinking water protection".
Here one could also “rethink the zoning”.
Scientist jumps aside the district administrator
To a certain extent, Löwis got support from Tröger here.
The professor, who was connected via video conference from Berlin, described his impression that “modern research results have not yet arrived in Germany”.
The 50-day line, for example, which marks the border of the narrower protection zone in this country, comes from the 1970s.
In other countries, this area of protection is more narrowly defined, reported Tröger.
Switzerland, for example, has reached a ten-day line.
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Flying the flag: Representatives of the “Unser Wasser” association and the “Heimatwasser” initiative took a stand in front of the district administration office - including the chairman of the association, Andreas Hallmannsecker (left) and Marion von Kameke from Gut Wallenburg (2nd from right).
District Administrator Olaf von Löwis was available to answer questions after the press conference.
© Thomas Plettenberg
A small protection zone - that much is clear - could avoid many conflicts.
Meanwhile, the issue of sewage treatment plants is taking water protection far beyond the boundaries of the protected area, something that critics of the restrictions have long failed to do.
The sewage system at Tegernsee is connected to the sewage treatment plant in Gmund, and the municipalities of Hausham and Schliersee are connected to that in Miesbach in addition to the city.
A time window, when a procedure for the designation of the water protection zone Thalham-Reisach-Gotzing will be restarted, was not mentioned on Monday.
The LfU left a request from our newspaper about the report yesterday unanswered.