Garzweiler surface mine

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The Garzweiler mine is an open pit lignite at RWE Power (until 2003 the RWE Rhein Braun AG ) in the northern Rhenish lignite mining area. The mining area extends between the cities Bedburg, Grevenbroich, Juechen, Erkelenz and Mönchengladbach in North Rhine -Westphalia.

The open pit was named after the village Garzweiler Named, which was relocated in the 1980s, for opencast mining.

History

Most Garzweiler mine (later called Garzweiler I) was established in 1983 by the merger of the existing mining fields Frimmersdorf -South and West - Frimmersdorf. Frimmersdorf -South was, in turn, emerged in 1960 from the merger of two pits ( pit mine Neurath and rear ), whose origins date back to the 19th century. The degradation by the RWE subsidiary RWE Power AG was previously in the first of two planned sections I and II Garzweiler Garzweiler I covers a 66.0 square kilometer area east of the now abgebaggerten route of the A44 motorway, the mining area Garzweiler II concerns the west A 44 preferred area and is 18 square miles smaller than Garzweiler I.

On 31 March 1995, the NRW State Government approved (then Cabinet Rau IV) lignite plan Garzweiler II In the state election six weeks later, the SPD lost its absolute majority in the Landtag NRW; she went ( for the first time in North Rhine-Westphalia ) is a red-green coalition a (Cabinet Rau V).

Due to the resistance of the population of the planned open pit Garzweiler II was reduced by the mining company for the approval: Originally a land requirement of 68 km2 was provided, that is, resettling up to 46 A at Erkelenz and Hochneukirch, later 48 km2 were claimed. The villages Wanlo Venrath, Kaulhausen, Wockerath Kückhoven and thus will not be dredged.

The coalition agreement was the final decision on Garzweiler II open until 2000 and thus wrote the status quo, despite opposition from the Greens against this project firmly. Even within the SPD NRW, there were differences of opinion on this issue: The former deputy NRW SPD regional chairman Christoph Zöpel was opposed to the project and said: " Garzweiler II is an anachronism "; the trade union wing was chosen. The Greens failed in 1997 with a constitutional complaint against the approval of Garzweiler II still during this legislative session.

On June 18, 2006 - since June 2005, ruled a black-yellow coalition under Jürgen Rüttgers - attacked the bucket wheel over to the new area. Affected is the first time with 40 square kilometers area area the city Erkelenz ( circle Heinberg ). About a third of the city area is claimed. 6.5 square kilometers lie in the field of community Juechen and about 1.5 square kilometer area of ​​the city Mönchengladbach; latter is thus for the first time claimed by mining.

The approved removal period runs from 2006 to 2045.

Given large changes in energy policy situation ( energy change ), lower prices in the wholesale electricity, but since May 2013 almost doubled price of CO2 emission rights is considering RWE in the fall of 2013 to shut down eleven of its lignite-fired power plant units. ( A power plant has several blocks, eg, the power plant Niederaußem nine blocks you are independently operable. ). Subsequently, the city Erkelenz on October 9, 2013 announced ( in an open letter to Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft ) to the immediate end of the preparation of further relocations.

In March 2014, the red-green NRW state government announced plans to reduce the future mining area. The so-called mining area 4 with the villages Holzweiler and Dackweiler be spared.

Geology of the deposit

Garzweiler II has lignite reserves of 1.3 billion tons. The lignite was across large forests and bogs that developed in the Lower Rhine Basin before 30 to 5 million years ago. The geology of the Lower Rhine Basin is characterized by long -lasting reduction movements in the last 30 million years ago, which led to the deposition of up to 1300 m thick sedimentary package through the North Sea and by many rivers, which today are up to 100 m thick lignite seams.

Use of coal

The degraded in Garzweiler Lignite is mainly burned at power plants in the region, the transport of Garzweiler to Frimmersdorf power plant and the power plant Neurath takes place both on the also known as the North - South railway railway RWE Power AG, and by belt promotion.

Traffic

Two motorways are within the planned mining area: A 44 and A 61 The A44 was closed in October 2005 for the traffic and stopped by June 2006. The A61, which accommodates 44 whose circulation since the closure of A, was previously developed at the expense of RWE Power to three lanes in each direction. With the construction of the new section of the A44 motorway between the triangles Jackerath and wood began on 30 May 2012. Following the A44 to accommodate the traffic of the A61, as this should then also be dredged.

Resettlement of villages

The lignite mine Garzweiler requires the relocation of entire villages. Twelve villages and 7,600 citizens are affected by the planned Garzweiler II. By judgment of 17 December 2013 the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that resettlement and expropriation for the extraction of lignite is not against the " fundamental right to a homeland " violated. The power supply and thus the degradation of (brown) coal are important for the common good.

Already resettled villages

• Reisdorf
• Garzweiler
• Priest Erath
• Stolzenberg
• Elfgen in Grevenbroich
• Belmen
• Morken - Harff
• Epprath
• Omagen
• Königshoven
• Otzenrath
• Spenrath
• Wood

Villages that are located in resettlement

• From the city Erkelenz Pesch
• Lützerath: resettlement in early 2006
• Immerath: resettlement in early 2006
• Borschemich: resettlement since 2006

Still umzusiedelnde towns

• From the city Erkelenz Berverath
• Keyenberg
• Kuckum
• Lower and upper Westrich

Social issue of resettlement

After the demolition of the villages Garzweiler and Otzenrath are currently Wood, Spenrath and Pesch leveled. Residents were to new locations in Juechen, Hochneukirch, as well as future resettled on the outskirts of Erkelenz. There emerged and created new housing estates have been taken into the only individual relics of the old country. While the Otzenrather are resettled to 80% to the new site, this did not happen in other places in comparable high degree. Farmers can not count on the necessary economic areas also at the new location. For the survival of the old village communities at the new location the voluntary sector plays a central role, which is accordingly supported by the mining operator.

In the villages Erkelenzer Borschemich and Immerath still persevering residents live with the negative consequences of the pending relocation. Houses are being abandoned; the villages do not develop more and deserted.

Environmental problems

Apart from the carbon dioxide emissions from combustion of brown coal in the neighboring lignite power plants and the lowering of ground water, which leads to damage of wetlands, the open pit operation was also blamed for a number of other environmental problems, so for the acidification of the soil by the dumping of overburden and for a high particulate pollution in the region.

The Sümpfungsmaßnahmen required to pump groundwater, far beyond the open pit beyond. So also the swamp forests are threatened by the lowering of the groundwater level in the natural park Maas -Schwalm -Nette. With great effort replacement water is pumped through a system of pipes and seepage ditches in this area.

Residual hole

After degradation of brown coal, the remaining hole is to be transformed in the western part of the open pit to a lake. As of 2045 around 60 million cubic meters of water are to be conducted annually from the Rhine into the hole about 40 years. This lake will be as deep as 185 m, have an area of ​​23 square kilometers and have a capacity of 2 billion cubic meters of water. The area of ​​the lake will be almost as large as the Steinhude in Lower Saxony, but up to 60 times as deep. Thus, the lake does not goes stale, the overburden lime is added today.

And again in conversation, the planned construction of a major airport in the region of is also (about 2035 again backfilled ) mining area.

Protest and resistance of mining opponents

Under the auspices of the initiatives of citizens gathered to protest the affected districts. Various complaints of cities Erkelenz and Viersen against open-pit mining in the years 1997 to 2001 before the Administrative Court of Aachen and by way of appeal before the Administrative Court of North Rhine -Westphalia were also rejected as a constitutional complaint to the Constitutional Court of the State of North Rhine -Westphalia in Münster. While the communities since then concentrate on the resettlement, the legal battles are not yet fully completed. The appeal against the continuation of the mine a Immerather citizen and the BUND before the Supreme Administrative Court were dismissed on 21 December 2007. BUND had as an open pit opponents orchard edge of the pit at Otzenrath. Against the refusal of the appeal submitted Insert the plaintiffs complaint. As a protest against the impending eviction they had erected a tent camp on the orchard. After nine days of occupation was forcibly evicted on 10 January 2008 and 87 fruit trees then removed from the surface mining operator. In December 2008 the BUND and the citizens Immerather Deputy Director resistance continued legal and laid each complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court. On 17 December 2013, the First Senate in Karlsruhe ruled that the mining was not constitutionally objectionable because the Basic Law provides for no right to a homeland. The expropriation of the orchard of the BUND, however, was criticized as flawed because it was not possible in the process, timely appeal. ( Az 1BvR 3139/ 08 and 1BvR 3386/ 08)

Garzweiler as a topic in the media

The process of relocation of the village Otzenrath has been repeatedly documented on film. Directed by Jens Schanze both the resettlement process accompanying documentaries emerged Otzenrather jump ( 2001) and Otzenrath 3 ° colder (2007). The first film was awarded the Grimme Award, the second the Phoenix Documentary Award 2009. 2005 / was established in 2006, the film Otzenrath, Last Day of 2002. He is the final project of Martijn Smits at the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam and won the 2006 Audience Award in the Documentary and Short Film Festival in Bilbao, Spain.

Published in 1999, Kurt Lehmkuhl his thriller Buried in Garzweiler II The abandoned place Otzenrath provided the backdrop for the 2004 WDR - Tatort production abrasions with Klaus J. Behrendt and Dietmar Bär. 2011 appeared The Pit of Ingrid Bachér that tells the repetitive stories of resettlement Garzweiler and Borschemich the example of a fictional family.