District - The topic of water protection zone continues.
District Administrator Olaf von Löwis wants to stick to the report on contaminated drinking water.
It is unclear whether the long-announced conversation with District Administrator Olaf von Löwis on the proceedings around the Thalham-Reisach-Gotzing water protection area was the trigger for why the Upper Bavarian government has again issued a general decree on the ban on grazing and manure.
As von Löwis said, this happened in any case contrary to all agreements made, which were supposed to guarantee a transparent and constitutional procedure.
The district administrator actually only wanted to provide information on the current status of the water protection area proceedings and the old rights.
The order is all the more incomprehensible because an independent expert opinion has now confirmed that the contamination detected over four days in 2020 was not due to grazing or fertilization, but rather sewage treatment plants.
Ended after the public hearing at the end of 2018
"I would like to state very clearly that the newly started procedure is not an urban-rural conflict, but rather it is all about clean drinking water for all citizens, regardless of whether they live in Miesbach or Munich," von Löwis made clear at the beginning. As he explained, it had been agreed that the procedure for the re-designation or expansion of the water protection area, which was ended after the public hearing at the end of 2018, would be restarted by the district administration.
One reason was that a continuation of the procedure started in 2012 with outdated documents would not be expedient.
The Stadtwerke München were therefore asked to provide new documents.
According to the district administrator, these have not yet been received, but promised.
He emphasized that the District Office was acting as a state authority in coordination with the government and the State Office for Environmental Protection (LfU).
Incomprehension about the government of Upper Bavaria
The urgent order issued in January 2021 to ban fertilizers and grazing for zone IIa, which is ready for planning, then caused a lack of understanding. The reason given was that the process could not be completed in a timely manner and that in 2020 there were three days in February and one in August. Because grazing was ruled out earlier as a culprit in February, the higher authorities approved the appointment of an external expert and an extension of the deadline until the end of August 2021.
In consultation with all those involved, Uwe Tröger, professor emeritus for hydrology at the TU Berlin, was commissioned to prepare the report for Zone IIa.
Ulrich Szewzyk, head of the microbiology department at the TU Berlin, has re-read it.
The report has been available to the district office since the beginning of August and was sent to the government of Upper Bavaria three weeks later.
Expert suspects sewage as the cause
As Tröger said during the conversation via video conference, it is clear that in 2020 neither grazing nor fertilization have led to the microbiological pollution in the Reisach drinking water catchment. Rather, sewage treatment plants could be responsible for the contamination, some of which had to discharge wastewater during floods and heavy rain, which then ended up in the Mangfall. In particular, Tröger named the systems in Gmund and Müller am Baum. This new finding, emphasized District Administrator Olaf von Löwis, must now be addressed: "We have to take a closer look."
The fact that this data situation is apparently being ignored by the government was met with particularly angry response by von Löwis: “Instead, it is criticized that the expert does not deal sufficiently with the effects of grazing on the quality of drinking water.
It is certain that this is not the case. "
Recognize science and act
He therefore called on the State Office for the Environment, the Government of Upper Bavaria and all authorities involved in the process not to continue to work with blanket and outdated measures, but to recognize the state of the art and science and act accordingly: “Even if they agree Authorities that have been and are entrusted with the procedure in the past few years may not fit, a-we-have-always-done-so-does not help us in securing our number 1 food. "
Giving in is therefore out of the question for the district administrator.
He would like to use the deadline for implementing the new order until December 1 for talks.
He expects that the arrangement will be redeemed with proper reading of the report has to. "I'm going from the higher authorities and the government disappointed because I promised a transparent, open and legal process, but of course I am still willing to talk"
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