Nitrate in groundwater?

Large parts of the Erding district "red area" - but are the measured values ​​correct?

Created: 12/22/2022 5:13 am

By: Hans Moritz

How does the nitrate get into the soil?

On the one hand through agriculture and its fertilization of the fields, but also in the forest: on larger windthrow or bark beetle areas, the nitrogen compound is washed out in higher doses.

© Philipp Schulze/dpa

After the district committee, the district council of Erding also passed a resolution with a large majority that opposes the expansion of large parts of the eastern district as a “red area” with excessive nitrate pollution in drinking water.

Erding - The main criticism: The measurements were unsuitable, the results are likely to be falsified.

For the farmers in the affected areas, this means for the time being: They have to use significantly less fertilizer and thus accept lower yields.

A heated debate preceded the 52:8 resolution – the Greens group rejected the resolution.

There was agreement that drinking water was the most valuable asset.

Criticism was sparked by the procedure by the State Office for the Environment and the Water Management Office.

Large parts of the Erding district are now “red areas”: district politicians are angry

As reported, the authorities have designated large parts of the eastern district and a strip from Lengdorf to Wartenberg as red areas - based on only two measuring points in Lengdorf and Fraunberg.

And even with those, according to District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer (CSU), the WWA admitted that they weren't intended for that.

Peter Stadick from the district administration reported that drinking water wells were offered as measuring points in the affected areas.

However, he had to admit that they had been classified as unsuitable because they went too deep.

The uppermost groundwater layer is relevant.

"Now we offer service water wells." Stadick reminded again that the measuring points used by the WWA are near gravel pits and a warehouse, so the nitrate input does not have to come from agriculture.

"We'll only find out if we sample more closely," says Stadick.

He assumes that the red areas would then be significantly smaller - now you have an area that extends from Lengdorf to the district of Altötting.

“No one knows if the nitrate levels are too high everywhere here.

We don't think so."

Fertilizer ban for farmers “also affects organic”

Sabine Berger (CSU) expressed the same concerns and pointed out that the areas around the measuring points were not used intensively for agriculture at all.

In addition, the practicing farmer warned of the serious consequences for her profession.

"It affects organic farmers in the same way," she said.

The peasantry will once again be held responsible for everything.

The cattle and pig stocks in Erdinger Land have declined by 25 percent in recent years.

Helga Stieglmeier and Stephan Glaubitz (Greens) declared that they would vote against the resolution.

The EU procedure began in 1991.

The Fertilizer Ordinance came into force at the beginning of 2021.

"Nobody can say that he was taken by surprise," said Stieglmeier.

Bayerstorfer countered: "We didn't know anything about the measuring points until the end."

Wolfgang Reiter (ÖDP) shared the criticism and saw the same mistakes in the procedure - but the blame was not on the offices, but on the state government.

"She failed," declared Reiter.

Thomas Bauer (CSU), on the other hand, saw the WWA's approach as questionable.

"Where there are more measuring points, there are also more differentiated results." Ludwig Kirmair (CSU) turned the tables: "If more precise measurements are taken, we also know where the nitrate inputs come from." Hans Wiesmaier (CSU) objected, " that agriculture is taken into clan custody".

It is fatal to restrict management so drastically on such a questionable basis - "at a time when we need regional food production more urgently than ever".

3. District Administrator Rainer Mehringer also expressed skepticism that agriculture was the only cause.

"In large clearings in the forests, large amounts of nitrate are washed out by wind damage or bark beetles because the trees are missing," reported the chairman of the forest owners' association.

Bayerstorfer spoke of "a catastrophe, just like the regulation itself".

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Incidentally, this came into force at the beginning of December, despite the protests from Erding.

Georg Els (FW) therefore said: "We can't undermine them here and now, but for a refinement." It is still unclear whether a lawsuit will be filed.

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