Another year has passed. And there is still water in the cellars of 40 Schwabing houses between the Mittlerer Ring in the south and Karl-Arnold-Weg in the north. And you can still hear it splashing. In the old swimming pool and in the boiler room of the Genter Straße 13 af monument built in 1972 by architect Otto Steidle, the water pump runs continuously.
The residents hardly notice the noise anymore. It has been part of their everyday life for a long time. This has been the case since June 2020. That makes everyone who live there wear down. Even more. It goes to the substance of the people who are fighting to make something change.
The interest group (IG) Grundwasser called for quick help. She has started a petition that the Environment Committee in the Bavarian state parliament – and that is rare – unanimously supports. But the city of Munich and the Department for Climate and Environmental Protection (RKU) are still looking for the causes while the water ripples and ripples. Analyze experts from the interest group, experts from the city.
Living with water in the basement and in the underground car park: everyday life in the affected Biedersteiner estate.
(Photo: Catherina Hess)
As a walker, you can regularly see the Munich City Drainage (MSE) carriages on Karl-Arnold-Weg and in the English Garden. They take samples, examine water levels. And an ongoing mediation process between the city and the IG has not yet brought any improvement to the situation – even if the water has just receded slightly due to the weather.
“No matter who is to blame, we want immediate aid,” said IG spokeswoman Franziska von Gagern. And she adds: “We have been talking about these immediate measures for a year and a half now.” Immediately they say that the city will continue to pump out the water until “a great solution” has been found. Disappointment and anger resonate in her voice.
Maybe the black paint is leaking
At the five-meter-deep and three-meter-wide rain outlet canal, which runs under Karl-Arnold-Weg and acts like an underground dam, the groundwater flowing from the south-west accumulates on the canal wall. A reading that IG experts have confirmed. Also, the bed of the Schwarze Lacke stream between Amsterdamer Strasse and Genter Strasse might be leaking after all.
Christian Hierneis (Greens) pointed out at the latest meeting of the State Parliament’s Environment Committee, which was streamed publicly: Two runoff investigations by the Water Management Authority (WWA) had shown that 60 to 140 liters of water per second were missing at one point. The panel decided that further “results and consequences resulting from the investigation of the potential exfiltration from the black paints” should be submitted to the Environment Committee.
It was also agreed in the mediation process to pump over the culverts in the rain outlet canal, i.e. to pump the large amount of groundwater in the accumulation area over the canal. Here, too, the Environment Committee demanded that the results be presented – as well as concrete planning “for the complete implementation of the petition”. As the RKU reports, “a specialist planning” is currently in progress for the overpumping attempts by an engineering office. The results would then be presented to the experts involved in the mediation process and to the WWA.
Michael Haug from the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment stated at the meeting that the city of Munich was “not prepared to act outside of legal obligations”. With regard to the remedial measures, the further development is based only on the mediation process. And he added that “regardless of the mediation process”, the state government was unable to get the city of Munich to be ready.
The pumping tests are planned for the first quarter of 2022. Whether that is actually done depends not least on the financing. However, this is exactly what the city council still has to decide. When that will be has not yet been determined. “If the city council has not financed the pumping tests,” says Franzika von Gagern, “we’ll start all over again.”
The state parliament feels “ignored” by the authorities
“It’s all a drama,” says Green Party politician Christian Hierneis. Nothing concrete was done to help the residents quickly. The state parliament also feels “ignored” by the authorities and the city of Munich. The state parliament, city council and the Schwabing-Freimann district committee want a solution. The latter once again called in a resolution in December that a “solution to the Genter Strasse groundwater problem should be promoted and that no further delay be allowed”.
The floodplain settlement in Freimann, the Schillerstraße in the city center – there are more and more groundwater problems in the city. The spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament also refers to this and calls for new groundwater models that adapt to the current situation in the city.
Only apparent idyll on Genter Straße in Schwabing: Franziska von Gagern won’t let go of worries.
(Photo: private)
Franziska von Gagern can’t help it. She perceives the ongoing delays as a clear “delaying tactic”. The IG is therefore considering joining forces with other people affected in the city to form an association. “A word of power,” says Christian Hierneis, the mayor now has to speak.