The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) issued an unfavorable opinion on EDP’s project to pump water from the Touvedo reservoir to the Alto Lindoso reservoir, in Ponte da Barca, in the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG).
On day 1, the opinion of the evaluation commission of the Environmental Impact Assessment (AIA) procedure of the Alto Lindoso hydroelectric development project (AHAL) was issued, on the Lima River, in the municipality of Ponte da Barca, district of Viana do Castelo . of October.
The document, to which Lusa had access this Wednesday, highlights that during the public consultation, which took place between June 6 and July 18, “clear opposition was expressed” to the project by the municipalities of Ponte da Barca and Arcos de Valdevez. “There was a high level of protest expressed in the public consultation, including the municipalities where the project is locatedwhich can make the implementation of the project unfeasible or difficult,” reads the 83-page document.
The project “consists of creating the necessary conditions to make it possible Pump water from the Touvedo reservoir to the Alto Lindoso reservoirreinforcing it in a later period,” the opinion states.
Despite recognizing “the benefits of the project, in achieving national energy objectives and promoting renewable energies”The APA says that “a significant impact is expected on the community of native fish integrated in the PNPG and in the Special Zone of Conservation (SAC) of Peneda-Gerês.”
“The fact that there is not much experience and solid technical and scientific informationWith regard to minimizing the impacts associated with pumping reservoir flows from downstream to upstream, with the possibility of increased mortality of fish species and/or the transfer of invasive/exotic species, it implies that “They have incorporated measures to minimize these negative and significant impacts on the project,” the opinion highlights.
Although “the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) provides for three types of measures to minimize the artificialization of banks and the change in flow conditions resulting from pumping (reversal of direction),” the APA says that “the project does not “It includes measures that allow direct mortality of fish fauna to be minimized, potentially causing a change in the proportion of native species, with a possible impact on the state of the water mass.”
It also points out that “the impact associated with the transportation and deposit in a single place (more than 20 kilometers) of material resulting from excavations is negative and significant, without concrete measures being presented to promote the recirculation and reuse of surplus material.”
“Negative impacts were not adequately evaluatedin the sound environment, resulting from the circulation, on national and municipal roads, of a high number of heavy vehicles (between six and seven trucks per hour, depending on the stage of work), he adds.
For the APA, “conducting long-term studies (during construction and operation), which may support the implementation of minimization measures in the future, does not constitute a viable minimization measure.” The APA adds that “there is an incompatibility of uses, under the terms of the applicable Municipal Master Plans.”
The project still does not comply with two articles of the PNPG Management Plan, and “the execution of the project is considered prohibited” according to an article of the National Ecological Reserve (REN) regime, “due to non-compliance with what is defined in the management plan.” of the national park,” he observes.
The EDP dam in Lindoso was inaugurated in 1992, its construction took 10 years and cost 650 million euros. With this project, the company intended to produce more energy. The Alto Lindoso hydroelectric dam reservoir is located on the Lima River, between the parishes of Lindoso and Soajo (communities of Ponte da Barca and Arcos de Valdevez, respectively), within the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG).
Source: Observadora
