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PRESS RELEASE , June 25 1998, ERN, Roberto.A. EPPLE
France: DAM ON THE UPPER ALLIER DISMANTLED FOR SALMON
The Saint-Etienne-du-Vigan dam on the Upper Allier river, the main tributary of the Loire river, collapsed on June 24 at 5 P.M. It is the first time in France that a dam operated by Electricité de France (the French state-owned electricity utility) has been destroyed in an effort to restore salmon habitat.
Located near the sources of the Allier River, the Saint-Etienne-du-Vigan Dam sterilized 70 acres of the basin's best salmon spawning grounds. Before this 44-foot-high dam was built in the late XIXth century, the surrounding villages produced approximately 10 tons of salmon per year, which contributed heavily to the local economy. The dam produced just 35 MWh per year.
In the fall 1997 , the dam reservoir was emptied when a flood of about 2,800 cubic feet per second (80 cubic meters/sec.) occurred, which washed out the accumulated silt in the reservoir and minimized damage on the ecosystem downstream. Studies found no evidence of sudden pollution downstream, due to the low level of pollution of the reservoir sediments, as the reservoir is located in very little urbanized area and suffers hardly no pollution. The global cost of the demolition is an estimated FF14 million ($2,3 million*), including FF 7,2 million ($1,2 million) to replace professional taxes formerly paid by EDF. This money will go for measures to improve the village’s habitat and tourism infrastructures.
The decision to remove the dam was taken on January 4, 1994, when the « Plan Loire Grandeur Nature » was launched by the French government. This program, spurred by widespread opposition coordinated by the Loire Vivante network to a series of projected dams on the Loire river basin, planned several measures to save the remaining salmon population of the Loire basin, including demolition of another dam on the Loire basin, construction of a hatchery on the Upper Allier, suspension of all fishing and elimination of other obstacles to salmon migration.
The other dam to be dismantled is the Maisons-Rouges, on the Vienne river, another tributary of the Loire river. The process has been slowed by the opposition of local politicians but the current French government has now scheduled a timetable for taking down this 15-foot-high hydroelectric dam which destroyed the Vienne river basin's entire 1,900 acres of spawning grounds : the works will begin next September.
The goal of the program to restore salmon population on the Loire basin is to have 6,000 adults return to the Loire estuary in 10 years. In the XIXth century, approximately 100,000 Atlantic salmon would make the annual journey to their spawning grounds in the headwaters of France’s Loire River and its tributaries. After travelling an amazing 4,000 miles from Greenland in the North Atlantic ocean, they would swim upriver to spawn in clear waters.
In 1997, only 389 salmon were counted on the middle Allier River, the sole tributary in the Loire basin where salmon still return to spawn. Dams were the main cause for the spectacular drop in the salmon population. Young smolts swimming downstream to the ocean get lost in the slack waters of the reservoirs or chopped up in turbines or pumps; adults swimming upstream are foiled by dam walls or indequate fish ladders. Numerous dams in the Loire basin have destroyed habitat and blocked the fish from their spawning grounds.
Atlantic salmon have disappeared from all large rivers on the European Atlantic coast: the Rhine, the Thames, the Elbe, and others. This makes the tiny Loire stock a precious genetic pool for reintroducing salmon in other large European rivers because it the only salmon in Europe which is able to swim upriver for such long distances (more than 600 miles).
* rate used : 1$ = 6 FF
For photos and more information contact:
ERN - European Rivers Network
Roberto A. EPPLE Executive Director,
e-mail : ern@rivernet.org website: http://www.rivernet.org
Main & Westeuropean Office:
8 Rue Crozatier, 43000 Le Puy, France Tel +33 (0) 471 02 08 14 Fax +33 (0) 471 02 60 99
<bold><bigger>Roberto A. EPPLE
</bigger></bold>Executive Director, ERN-European Rivers Network
e-mail : ern@rivernet.org website: http://www.rivernet.org
<italic><underline>Main & Westeuropean Office:
</underline></italic>8 Rue Crozatier, 43000 Le Puy, France
Tel +33 (0) 471 02 08 14 Fax +33 (0) 471 02 60 99
<italic><underline>North-European Office:
</underline></italic>Poststrasse 7 c/o Projekt Lebendige Elbe, DUH
D - 06366 Koethen, Deutschland
Tel +49 (0) 3496 21 00 09 Fax +49 (0) 3496 21 00 08