Everyone has the right to petition the state parliament, ideally in writing by post, fax or preferably online. Sometimes there is even an opportunity to hand over the petition directly in the Maximilianeum, but it is rather unusual for Landtag President Ilse Aigner (CSU) to pick up the papers herself. On Thursday afternoon, however, Aigner, who is also a local electoral district representative, was expected at the Miesbach town hall to take a petition from the city, the communities of Valley and Warngau, three local farmers and landowners and the “Unser Wasser” association. The submission revolves once again about drinking water, which the Münchner Stadtwerke is promoting in the Mangfall Valley and for which the experts in the higher-level authorities have long wanted to designate a larger protected area. But the municipalities and the farmers, who have already been compensated for their cautious and organic management, fear new restrictions and are reluctant to do their best.
They found a supporter in Miesbach District Administrator Olaf von Löwis (CSU), who was elected in 2020. Löwis’ green predecessor Wolfgang Rzehak had dutifully pushed ahead with the process, which had been abandoned for decades, at the behest of Munich and promptly failed due to the legal and political resistance flanked by the CSU. Löwis has now ordered an expert opinion together with the higher government of Upper Bavaria. In it, the hydrogeologist Uwe Tröger comes to the conclusion that the already extremely rare entry of germs at the Munich drinking water intake is not due to pasture farming, but rather to sewage treatment plants that overflow during heavy rain. The government has nevertheless asked the district office to issue a ban on pasture and fertilizer for the areas in anticipation of the expansion of the protected area by December 1 at the latest. Löwis resists and in turn receives support from the petitioners.
This instrument is known as “Lex Schuierer”
Already in the title of their petition, they are calling for the “rule of law to be safeguarded instead of the government of Upper Bavaria taking action”. The government has announced that it will issue the ban itself should Löwis continue to refuse. Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (FW) has to prevent such a self-entry, demands attorney Benno Ziegler on behalf of the petitioners – especially since this instrument known as “Lex Schuierer” has only been used twice, and twice in vain: once in 1985, against District Administrator Hans Schuierer to enforce the construction of the WAA in Wackersdorf, and once in the case of an expansion of the water protection area in the Franconian town of Uehlfeld, which the administrative court had declared unlawful at the beginning of October.
A conservative majority in the Environment Committee has shown itself to be favored by a similar group of petitioners as early as 2019, albeit without Glauber actually withdrawing the proceedings from Rzehak. Ziegler does not expect an immediate decision on the current petition and demands that the government of Upper Bavaria not issue a pasture ban for so long. And if it does? “Of course there would be a lawsuit against it.”