 |
| One of the Perfect Pool and Riffle Sequences at Risk of being Dredged Out |
 |
| Grayling and Trout thriving in this Miniature River |
All these are to go if this company is allowed to proceed with its ghastly plan to feed a micro-hydro power scheme capable of a maximum output of 4kw!
The proposed turbine will turn fish into slush and will be killing a fish every few seconds for the next fifty years!
It gets worse. The dredging will cause more water to flow down this channel instead of down the main river bed. Half a mile of the main river will lose 35% of its water to this hydro scheme. The resulting depleted reach will be reduced to a silty trickle. The traditional spawning gravels in this reach will cease to be of any use to spawning trout. The good population of adult trout in Bakewell will have no new recruits once this area of the river is depleted and in a few short years will become just a memory of the days before hydro power came to Victoria Mill in Bakewell.
It is only natural for most of us today to default to a supporting position for renewable energy and the proposers of this scheme have set out to capitalise on this by trying to get public opinion behind their plans. Well this scheme will wreck too much of the best habitat in the Bakewell area for it to be allowed to go ahead without a fight.
There is a blog for folk to register on and to use the comment facility to make their opinions known. I've registered and hope I can persuade you to help with your comments and blog presences.
Please click on http://bakewellgreen.blogspot.com/ and make your feelings known. Thank you.
Regular Rod
Dear RR
ReplyDeleteis there nothing the Angling Trust can do to mediate? I have my concerns about alternative energy schemes e.g. windpower, and didnt realize until recently that the energy created by them cannot be stored. According to one national newspaper one of these companies has just been paid £2.2 million from the Government in compensation for energy produced but not required by the National Grid. Is this scheme necessary I ask myself?
regards
Arden
Angling Trust are overwhelmed by the scale of this problem all over the country. We are past the point of mediation because there is no room for any compromise. Wild life cannot compromise. It is either there and thriving or else it is dead and absent. There is no happy middle ground so the scheme needs to be cancelled and other more suitable sites in the area used instead (there are two such sites that would be ideal and cause no problems to the river or its inhabitants).
ReplyDeleteRegular Rod
I believe that you should still inform the Angling Trust, they at least will confirm their support. Also try and get the support of the WTT, Natural England and Derbys Wildlife Trust. The more allies the better for your case. I'm sure you'll get support amongst the blogs to spread the word - I'll do my bit.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Finish them off for all our sake.Sorry so little precident exists, good luck at making it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the campaign RR. It is an irony that so many "green" energy projects are neither environmentally respectful in intent nor in execution. Bureaucrats incentivize and people figure out a way to derive short-term profit. The river and the ecosystem are a treasure to be preserved always, and micro-hydro could run off sewage rather than the Wye. There are post-industrial wastelands that can be redeemed, rather than messing with a flourishing ecosystem. This sounds like "Yes Prime Minister" taken to its illogical conclusion.
ReplyDeleteHugh
wow....you're starting to here more and more stories like that these days. We've got to keep fighting the good fight. I wish i could personally save all the land and all the waters...
ReplyDeleteYou are so right there Tom. I'm starting to think John Geirach has a point when he says that the best thing Man can do for the land is to "keep the f**k off of it".
ReplyDeleteWe've had an election since these schemes were first sponsored by the Labour Government but the new government has simply carried on doling out our own money to crooks who destroy habitat and the creatures that depend on it for a few measely kw. If I wanted to start a power station and proposed to fire it with oil and kill a few creatures with occasional oil spills, folks would be right in hanging me up by the heels and setting fire to my hair, but this sort of destruction gets called "green" and "sustainable" when it is worse than an oil spill as it goes on and on for decades killing a fish every few seconds and ruining the watercourses for all the other species that depend on them for their very existence. The scoundrel who heads up the scheme in Bakewell says that there has to be a compromise between the wildlife and the scheme! I explained to him that there is no such thing as compromise for wildlife. That wildlife is either there and thriving or else it is dead. There is no middle ground for the species threatened by the hydro scheme.
The fight continues.
Regular Rod
This is true...recently I’ve gotten very involved with our local chapter of 'Trout Unlimited.' a Coldwater conservation group here in the states. We do stream clean ups, and work the waters as best we can...but when I turn on the news and see our presidential candidates talking about economic recovery by way of decimating wildlife refuge for oil drilling it breaks my heart. Right off the bat, our unemployed people will want it, but I had done a project in college once, the numbers don’t add up. It might be a quick hit for econ recovery, but long term, not much help and we’d be destroying something that wouldn’t make a comeback…I’m rambling now.
ReplyDeleteWe just need to do what we can, say what we can, and keep writing and stay united…