The trouble in Hohenbrunn is great: soon gravel trucks will roll through the community center as soon as the gravel quarrying starts on the Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunner part of the Muna site. The neighboring community had to approve the dismantling there, but through an urban planning contract they obtained a ban on trucks passing through their own town centre. Hohenbrunn’s Mayor Stefan Straßmair (CSU) now promised at the citizens’ meeting that his community would go to court against it.
Once the gravel quarrying starts, up to 216 trucks will drive to and from the gravel pit every week. Since they bring the material to the north and east of the Muna, they have to drive through the Luitpoldsiedlung and the center of Hohenbrunn. The people of Hohenbrunn are angry: dust and dirt end up with them, the trade tax goes to Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, although a company based in Hohenbrunn is mining there.
The tax issue must be examined, District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) promised the around 60 people present at the meeting and explained that the district office had to intervene when Hohenbrunn’s neighboring community wanted to prevent the gravel quarrying; this one is privileged. “We need far more than we produce in the district,” says Göbel. His authority had to approve the excavation because the test showed that it did not emit any emissions. Other public concerns, such as a possible threat to groundwater, did not take effect either.
Dismantling is limited to 2035, after which the pit must be filled with rubble.
Nevertheless, Stefan Straßmair is certain that the permit for gravel quarrying is illegal in terms of development, emission protection and, above all, water law issues. There is already too much traffic on the M24 county road. In addition, Siegertsbrunner Straße leads past the elementary school on the way to the town centre. And those who live on Luitpoldstrasse are also exposed to high dust emissions six days a week, as are residents and companies in the industrial park near the Muna. The latter would face high costs for technical upgrades such as dust filters and increasing operating and maintenance costs. The Hohenbrunn entrepreneur, who is allowed to dig 25 meters deep for gravel in the Muna site for up to 14 years, wants to build a wheel washing facility. Straßmair doubts that this can meet the water law environmental protection requirements.
For the time being, the gravel mining is approved. It occurs in three phases ending on September 28th of the years 2028, 2031 and 2035. Within two years after each of these phases, the pit has to be backfilled with unpolluted rubble, according to Göbel.