Rosdorf quarry pond

Rosdorf quarry pond
Geographical location	Friedland (Lower Saxony) , southern Lower Saxony
Location close to the shore	Goettingen
	Data
Coordinates	51 ° 29 '42 " N , 9 ° 55' 11" E Coordinates: 51 ° 29 '42 " N , 9 ° 55' 11" E
surface	15 ha
length	800 m
width	300 m
Maximum depth	43 m

The Rosdorfer Baggersee (also Baggersee Rosdorf , Rosdorfer Kiessee , officially partly still Kiesteich Reinshof ) is a Baggersee south of Göttingen . It emerged from a gravel construction and today, together with its bank zones, serves as a local recreation area . In the population it is known under the name "Rosdorf Baggersee" due to its proximity to the village of Rosdorf , which is a few hundred meters away , but it is located in the municipality of Friedland and belongs to the district of Niedernjesa . The term “Kiessee” is usually avoided for this lake, as this term already refers to the Göttingen Kiessee in the south of the city, which is also close to the border with Rosdorf.

description

The lake is about 3 km south of Göttingen and 500 m south-east of Rosdorf. The water surface of the quarry pond is around 15 hectares, but is constantly being expanded to the north in the course of gravel mining. The water depth is up to 43 m. There are no overground water inflows and outflows, although the lake was created a few meters east of the Leine . When the water level is normal, an approximately 20–30 meter wide dam separates the river from the lake. Since the gravel is permeable to water, the lake and river always have the same water level. The dam can be flooded at high tide , so the lake is in the flood area of the Leine.

Ownership

The Reinshof estates, to which the Baggersee area belongs, were owned by the Augustinian convent in Weende before 1542 and were expropriated by Elisabeth von Calenberg during the Reformation and transferred to a foundation. The properties of this and other foundations of the later Kingdom of Hanover became the property of the General Hanover Monastery Fund, a foundation under public law. Their property is still managed today by the Hanover Monastery Chamber , a state authority in Lower Saxony. The property department in the Klosterrentamt in Northeim is responsible for the Reinshof site .

Mining operations

The lake was created in 1969 in the course of gravel mining , for which the company August Oppermann Kiesgewinnungs- und Vertriebs-GmbH was granted a basically unlimited concession in 1967 . Leinekies is mined in the opencast mine, which is described as high-quality and, according to the company, is mainly bought by house and garden owners in the area, but it is also sold as ornamental gravel as far as Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein . The operating company describes its location as "Rosdorf gravel works".

fishing

The fishing rights are leased by the monastery chamber to the Sport-Angelklub Göttingen eV, which issues fishing permits for this body of water.

Local recreation and dealing with the bathing ban

2013 installed barrier system and prohibition signs on the north-west bank

The lake created in the course of gravel mining has been used as a local recreation area since the 1970s, especially by the Göttingen and Rosdorf population. Access to the lake has always been free and free, nude bathing is common, but bathing and walking are officially prohibited. In summer, the number of people looking for local recreation is estimated to be up to 80,000 and thus in the range of visitor numbers for well-frequented Göttingen outdoor pools . Despite the high number of visitors, there are neither toilets nor regular waste disposal in the area .

Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to prevent illegal access to the lake. Since the lake is in the floodplain area of the Leine, the construction of fences is not permitted. In the spring of 1991 an attempt was made, without lasting success, to make bathing more difficult by planting around 2000 thorn bushes and using barbed wire at places with access to the lake. The barbed wire had to be removed again, the thorny bushes did not survive long.

Motorized traffic poses a problem. There are several roads leading to the lake that unauthorized persons are not allowed to use. The two most important branches from the Rosdorf bypass road - the access to the Leine is in the Rosdorf area - and from the B 27 (Friedland area there). The entrances are restricted and have signs indicating that the barriers are closed on workdays from 4 p.m. and on weekends. This prohibition is not observed, and the specified closing times are usually not adhered to. In the past, locked barriers were destroyed or damaged by vandalism . This meant that the barriers were also open outside of operating hours and that there were frequent cases of theft of cables in early 2013 . In response to this, new and more stable barriers were installed on the factory premises in April 2013 and a security service was commissioned to secure the premises. A few weeks later, two perpetrators were arrested by the police in a quarry also affected by cable theft in Emmenhausen, a few kilometers away .

The entrances are partially parked on both sides on hot summer days and prevent company and emergency vehicles from driving through. Police checks are carried out at regular intervals, but these are considered inefficient because the fine is too low and is not checked daily.

Attempts to produce ordered structures

No swimming sign 2014 in the north bank area

Already in 2006 citizens tried to persuade the district of Göttingen to support a semi-regulated waste disposal on a voluntary basis. This was rejected with reference to the ban on swimming and staying at the lake.

On July 22, 2013, the Left , referring to the intolerable conditions, again demanded that bathing at Rosdorf Baggersee be legalized and that regular waste disposal and the construction of sanitary facilities should be made possible. For this purpose, a request was submitted to the district council on August 21, 2013, inquiring about the plans after the end of the gravel mining. In the answer of August 26, 2013, the district administration again denied any responsibility that the recreational function should be restricted as much as possible and the access roads should be blocked. The dismantling permit was granted for an unlimited period. District Administrator Bernhard Reuter estimated the duration of the mining operation to be another 25-50 years and pointed out that afterwards a conversion of the mining area into a local recreation area including bathing water was not planned. Woods are planned around the lake.

In 2013, the State Health Office in Hanover asked the Göttingen district about the water quality report and whether it was a bathing lake within the meaning of the Bathing Water Directive . A television program had reported about the lake. The bathing water directive of the European Union requires regular water quality controls for bathing waters from the authorities, which is regulated in Lower Saxony by the bathing water ordinance of April 10, 2008. The required quality assessment of the district was not available. The authorities in Hanover pointed out that a lake where many people bathed should only not be classified as bathing water if bathing was prohibited there. The district's environmental agency then asked the Friedland community to forbid bathing by statute. In addition, parking should be prevented. In the new statute passed on June 5, 2014, bathing and walking on the ice surfaces of all bodies of water in the Friedland community was prohibited. The reason for the bathing ban was that, in the opposite case, the municipality would have to bear the costs for regular water testing and other safety measures. Friedland's mayor Andreas Friedrichs ( SPD ) then emphasized emphatically that swimming in the lake was prohibited. This prohibition is to be observed. However, these statements did not have any influence on the continued high number of bathers in the remainder of summer 2014.

In August 2014, the district council members of the Left and the Pirates demanded that bathing be officially permitted, sanitary facilities installed, regular waste disposal, the prescribed water quality tests and infrastructural measures. On December 17, 2014, both parties submitted a joint application to the district council on waste disposal and toilets .

Danger situation

Since the 1970s, no accident has been reported that had to do with the ongoing mining operation and was not due to gross negligence , for example parking vehicles on pebbles directly on the embankment.

Six deaths at the lake became known: two suicides (including a head shot ), one murder , one death from heat stroke , in May 2008 a swimmer was killed by sudden cardiac death . Furthermore, there was an accident on June 17, 2015, in which a 19-year-old was killed.

Serious conflicts between bathing and gravel mining have not yet become known, although bathing takes place in the immediate vicinity of the mining operation and the idle conveyor belt systems are often used as diving platforms outside of operating hours. The steeply sloping bank walls in the northern area of the lake can slide into the depths and thus represent a danger. For a few years this specific danger was pointed out on signs, but the 2014 signage was again only unspecifically limited to "Danger to life".