It’s not yet dry: Bavaria’s largest gypsum mine, which the Main-Franconian family concern Knauf and the world’s largest gypsum finisher with an annual turnover of more than ten billion euros and over 35,000 employees on all continents, wants to build in the west of Wrzburg. We have summarized everything important for the major project.
Was Knauf plant
According to the company’s plans, the mine should be built in four years between Altertheim, Helmstadt and Waldbrunn, in the “Altertheimer Mulde” in the Wrzburg district. A labyrinth of underground tunnels between 70 and 130 meters deep, with an area of 7.4 square kilometers. Dismantling is scheduled to begin in 2025. Knauf wants to get 300,000 tons of gypsum per year from the “Grube Franken”. A total of 70 million tons of natural gypsum are available underground. The engineers have calculated that around 40 million of these should actually be recoverable. Knauf expects an investment volume of 43 million euros before the first chunk of gypsum is even transported from the mine to Iphofen, says Manfred Grundke, personally liable partner (general partner) of the Knauf Group.
How it could fail
But also to the west of Wrzburg, between Zell am Main and Altertheim, water-rich groundwater streams flow underground. Since 1915, not only half of Wrzburg’s population, around 65,000 people, have been getting their drinking water from this water reservoir, which gushes out into the daylight in the Zell spring tunnels. The drinking water wells of Altertheim and Waldbrunn (district of Wrzburg) are also attached to the aquifers. In order to protect this in the long term, the drinking water protection area is now to be expanded from currently seven to 66 square kilometers, according to the plan of the drinking water supply Wrzburg GmbH.
Explosive: The planned “Grube Franken” lies in the middle of the newly designated drinking water protection area. According to the Water Protection Area Ordinance underground mining in a water protection area is prohibited. An exemption is necessary.
However, neither the procedure for the designation of the drinking water protection area nor the approval procedure for the “Grube Franken” has been initiated. Rather, the approval process for the mine initiated in December 2017 is suspended at the North Bavaria Mining Authority in Bayreuth, which is part of the government of Upper Franconia. Because the government of Lower Franconia has stepped on the brakes.
What still needs to be clarified from the government’s point of view
The higher state planning authority of the government of Lower Franconia insisted on a spatial planning procedure. And asked for nine different expert reports before it opened, including on hydrogeology, traffic, noise, dust and species protection. Knauf delivered all the reports in November 2019.
There are obviously only one point of doubt about the mine: namely, the all-important question of the extent to which the mine could not have an impact on the groundwater. Only when the water management office is convinced that there is no risk to groundwater in the long term will the regional planning procedure be opened, according to a spokesman for the government of Lower Franconia when asked. But then things can happen quickly.
What the decision of the mining authority depends on
The Mining Authority confirms that they have agreed to integrate the regional planning procedure into the mining law procedure when the time comes. “Special attention of all authorities and departments is on the protection of the groundwater”, replied a spokeswoman for the government of Upper Franconia when asked. Regardless of whether the pit will be located in a drinking water protection area in the future or not. Therefore, it is not a question of which procedure (mine or water protection area) is now completed faster.
What the point of view of the water management office still has to be checked
According to Jens Reimer, the responsible project manager and mining engineer at Knauf, the underground tunnels should have a safety distance of nine meters from the aquifer above. In addition, 70 boreholes from 1997 to 2019 have already been hydrogeologically evaluated by an engineering company. In addition, water ingress is a financial disaster for the company and makes it more difficult to extract raw materials, says Reimer.
Nevertheless, the Aschaffenburg Water Management Office is not yet convinced. Because it’s not just about water that could seep into the pit. Rather, the authority insists that “a long-term endangerment of the drinking water supply of the communities Altertheim, Waldbrunn and the Zeller tunnels of the drinking water supply Wrzburg with regard to the water availability (quantity) as well as the water quality must be excluded”.
Therefore, it is now being investigated whether “changes in the waterways” – meaning the permeability of the subsoil, which could change due to the mine – can occur that “lead to higher sulphate levels in the groundwater and drinking water or to a reduction in the amount of water” Head of Water Management Herbert Walter.
What is happening right now
Therefore, 18 new boreholes are currently being drilled in accordance with the specifications of the water management authority. 17 of them are to be upgraded to groundwater measuring points and also to permanently monitor subsequent operation, insofar as it is approved. With the data obtained from this, possible effects on groundwater and drinking water are to be examined in various scenarios.
At Knauf, it is expected that the investigations will be completed in February 2022. The data will then be evaluated by mid-2022. The new drilling program, for which Knauf has commissioned DMT, a subsidiary of TV Nord AG, will cost the group an extra two million euros. And means: a year and a half delay for the project.
What Knauf says
Time that is very precious in the construction industry. Because with Germany’s exit from coal, Knauf is running out of gypsum. More precisely, the so-called REA gypsum. The synthetic raw material, which is protected for its purity, is produced in plants for flue gas desulphurisation (FGD for short) in coal-fired power plants. FGD gypsum still has a market share of 43 percent in Germany. But Knauf fears that by 2030 there will only be residual amounts of FGD gypsum.
“If the project fails, it would not be a question of existence for Knauf, but possibly for the Iphofen location.”
Manfred Grundke, general partner of the Knauf Group–
Only around three percent of the required amount of gypsum can be covered by recycling. And transporting natural gypsum from southern Spain or North Africa to Iphofen is not worthwhile. Manfred Grundke says: “If the project fails, it wouldn’t be a question of existence for Knauf, but possibly for the Iphofen location.” But one does not want to think about that at the moment. “We are confident that the dismantling project in Altertheim will be approved by the authorities.”
Despite all the optimism, Baldwin Knauf emphasizes: “We take people’s concerns very seriously.” And partner Manfred Grundke adds: “We assume that we are not endangering the groundwater. If it were a risk, we would not do it.”
When the drinking water protection area could come
The hydrogeological studies to determine the boundaries of the future 66 square kilometer drinking water protection area have been going on since 1992. But things could go ahead this year: According to the environmental department of the Wrzburg district office, the drinking water supplier is currently working on the details of individual water protection zones, restrictions and bans. The documents should be submitted in the second half of 2021. The district office will then initiate the formal procedure.
Quelle: akl
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