Concern for fish health (From Herald Series)
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Concern for fish health
9:30am Saturday 2nd June 2012 in Abingdon
A fishing organisation has heavily criticised a controversial decision to allow a hydropower development on the River Thames in Abingdon.
Members of the Angling Trust have reacted angrily to the news the Environment Agency has approved an application without what they say is any meaningful protection for fish and fishing.
Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the trust, said: “The agency should be standing up for fish and fishing, not waving through inadequate applications which have no monitoring in place.”
Dave Wales and Richard Knowles, of the Upper Thames Fisheries Consultative, said: “The Environment Agency has done everything possible to ensure that all hydropower applications are approved – despite the damage to the ecology of the river.”
Environment Agency spokesman Caroline Juby said: “The scale of this particular scheme does not require a full environmental impact assessment and it would be unreasonable to expect the developers to do this.”
Comments(3)
Cityview
says...
5:28pm Sat 2 Jun 12
Andrew:Oxford
says...
6:49pm Sat 2 Jun 12
Cityview wrote:They are Archimides Screws rather than turbines.
Not clear from the article how the turbines would cause damage to the fish or river. Presumably will have fish screens like the pumps at Farmoor. Will have no impact on flow rates so what is the problem? I would have thought with the crayfish, cormorants and otters on this stretch there are very few fish left to be harmed.
The screws operate at a lower speed than a turbine and don't "chop up" the water. So should have a low chance of harm to the the fish.
John Lamb says...
11:06am Sat 2 Jun 12