A protected torrent in the Allgäu is largely destroyed by excavation work over a distance of one and a half kilometres. The focus is now on a person responsible for an alpine cooperative. The police see a lot of work ahead of them and hope for help.
Oberstdorf (dpa / lby) – After probably not permitted construction work on a protected torrent in the Allgäu Alps, the police are expecting lengthy investigations. “We expect the procedure to take several weeks or even months before we can present a new investigation status,” said a spokesman for the police headquarters in Kempten of the German Press Agency. A week ago, investigators searched the premises of a suspect and a company and secured possible evidence.
In order to be able to reconstruct the course of the work on the Rappenalpbach near Oberstdorf more precisely, the police are hoping for help from excursionists in the region. The investigators had already received more than two dozen submissions with recordings of the work on the creek. The data situation is still sparse, especially around the presumed start of the excavator operation in September, said the police spokesman. “What would actually interest us are the last days before the work or the first days of the work. There doesn’t have to be an excavator in the pictures.”
So far, the police have assumed that the alpine cooperative had no official approval for the work on the water. It was initially unclear for what purpose the area by the creek was dredged. First of all, a person responsible for the cooperative is seen as the accused, he had already been questioned in the course of the searches. The police spokesman did not want to give any information about the content of his statements. It is determined because of the suspicion of endangering areas in need of protection. So far, the employees of the company are only witnesses in the case.
The Bund Naturschutz in Bayern (BN) had announced that the strictly protected Rappenalpbach near Oberstdorf had been largely destroyed by dredging over a length of one and a half kilometers. The case is now also occupying the state parliament in Munich. Environment Minister Thorsten Faithr (free voters) visited the area in November and spoke of the fact that the once branched stream resembled a crater landscape after the work. Conservationists are calling for those responsible to be punished and for the original, natural course of the stream to be restored.
