In the ongoing dispute over the expansion of the protected area for the drinking water supply of the city of Munich in the Mangfalltal (Miesbach district), the government of Upper Bavaria and the Ministry of the Environment are now losing patience. On Friday, the district government finally asked Miesbacher District Administrator Olaf von Löwis (CSU) to finally ban manure and pasture in the narrower protection zone of the planned water protection area. This is to avoid any entry of hygienic and microbiological pollutants from agriculture into the groundwater.
“The Ministry of the Environment is behind the government of Upper Bavaria to protect the groundwater in the Miesbach district in the long term,” said a ministry spokesman. “The protection of drinking water is a central state task for the future.” Every citizen in town and country has the same right to clean water. “It belongs to everyone equally,” said the spokesman. “The drinking water supply must not be impaired in any part of the country.” The State Office for the Environment asked the Miesbach district two years ago to issue a ban on manure and pasture. After the change of district administrator in the 2020 local elections, the CSU man Löwis had declared that he first had to familiarize himself with the matter. He also announced a new report on the need to ban manure and pasture.
Löwis opposes the authorities with an expert opinion
The district government, the Ministry of the Environment and the Munich municipal utilities have been urging the expansion of the protection zone for many years – after all, the metropolis of Munich gets 80 percent of its drinking water from the Mangfall Valley. The local politicians in Miesbach and a citizens’ initiative called “Heimatwasser” vehemently oppose this with the support of high-ranking CSU politicians. They claim that they would be massively restricted by the extension of the protection zone. In addition, they fundamentally doubt that Munich is allowed to obtain drinking water from the Mangfall valley. Although the legal situation clearly requires the extension of the protected area, the local politicians and the citizens’ initiative have always succeeded in torpedoing the implementation of the project.
The reason why the district government and the environment ministry are now intervening so massively is, according to SZ information, the new report commissioned by District Administrator Löwis. It is now available and comes to the conclusion that neither the manure nor the pasture ban are necessary. This completely goes against the assessment of the experts at the Miesbach health department, but also at the state office for health and food safety. Löwis has announced a press conference for Monday. The fear of the district government and the environment ministerial was evidently that the district administrator would announce further resistance to the ban on manure and pasture and would refer to the report. The higher authorities wanted to forestall this with the renewed and ultimate request. The requested bans affect three landowners. They are compensated for all the disadvantages they have to accept as a result. District Administrator Löwis reacted surprised and now wants to get an idea of the new situation.