The End of The River

Water is precious essential for life a valuable commodity and harmoniously etched into our landscape. It flows like a lifeline through the whole of europe. Rivers are highly sensitive ecosystems that must keep flowing to make life possible for humans, for all animals and plants. Unfortunately, our rivers are no longer free-flowing. Today, European rivers are dotted with dams, locks and hydropower plants. At the beginning of the last century, and ever since man has begun to use hydropower to generate electricity, more and more hydropower plants have been placed in this highly sensitive ecosystem. Widespread opinion says that the generation of renewable energy from hydropower is green and environmentally friendly. But just how green and environmentally friendly is it really? On sunday September eleven I was at the *** river with my parents in law and my children. We just wanted to sit there and relax. Within about two hours the river level dropped drastically so that basically only a small trickle of water was left. When my children and I looked at the dried up area, we found dead and dying fish in puddles everywhere. So my children and I picked them up with our hands and put them back into the river, - or rather, into what was left of the ***. This was such an awful and sad sight. So many fish had died. And at the same time the channel that was diverted into the city of Gasthofen was full of water. When my father in law and I walked further along the ***, at the dam of Gasthofen, we passed a gigantic puddle that bubbled. My father in law said: 'Look, there is gas rising upwards'. But when we had a closer look we saw that this was not gas but a shoal of dying fish. And my father in law said: 'yes, nature is cruel'. I said, 'this is not nature. It"s mankind, which is cruel.' The water is simply being diverted into the channel so that the hydropower stations have enough for their needs. It is a scandal what is happening here but every cubic meter of water is money. And therefore the water has to be diverted. The *** and its original inhabitants get only a rivelet, nothing more. It was really a sad moment to see what was happening to water, which was needed to run a hydropower plant. If a small child catches a bullhead and takes it home to watch it, somebody could come along and say, that fish is a protected species. But if a hydropower plant holds back all the water, so that this protected species dies in dozens and hundreds then, well, that's ok then. This ultimately is an injustice to the animals and to the river. I have reported this incident to the river police. Now the operators of the hydropower stations are requested to answer. I am curious to see what they are going to say. Or, if they are going to say anything at all. Apparently, the good intention to produce clean energy has also its dark side. Responsible action towards the environment and nature does not seem to be that easy. People want to move away from nuclear energy, but what many don't know is, that it is not feasible everywhere to switch to hydropower. We do not yet have the knowledge we need to make hydropower more environmentally acceptable. This is a disaster. There is always a trade-off taking place. When I see how much electricity is produced in the hydropower plants all over Germany, and especially here in the Lahn, and what comes out of it, the so-called 'green energy', it is absolutely the wrong label. The amount of energy that comes out of it is minimal. You can forget that. When it comes to European rivers lots of money is made, regardless of the huge environmental damage it causes. As soon as a stream of water starts flowing, then the monetary stream also flows in the European stock exchanges. Beside the profit that you can generate from renewable energy, one of the important things is that renewable energy really is, as the word says 'sustainable', and that means that we have, I would say, zero impact on the nature. It cannot go on like this. We do not want any further expansion of these hydropower plants. And we want the existing facilities on the *** - that is the technology that has been put into the *** - to be reshaped so that it becomes more ecologically acceptable. More water must flow through the *** again. The fresh-water fish must get a chance again. Also the people who would like to live alongside the river, must get a chance again. The use of the hydropower has left its mark on the river ***. The *** has been transformed into a chain of dams. In many places nothing is left of the natural environment of the past. Can you imagine the way it was? The *** was up to four kilometers wide. That means there were countless channels and arms of the river. And between these channels and arms there were gravel and sandy beaches. It was a scenery, that we cannot recreate any more. In Europe, the *** is an alarming example of what happens if a river is developed radically and systematically in order to generate as much electricity as possible. This method is called 'hydro-peak'. That means the water in the *** is stored in lake Forgensee when the demand for electricity is low for example from Friday afternoon until Sunday. And then on Monday-Tuesday, at times of increased energy demand, the sluice is opened via remote control from the city of Landsberg. Then the reserve water flows through the turbines, and the energy is sold on the European Energy Exchange. So one can generate highly prized energy in the *** river, and sell it. And this is exactly what has been done. The German energy provider 'E.ON' is active in this field. It covers the area south of the city of Augsburg up to the north of Augsburg. And nowadays the energy providers 'LEW' and 'BEW' generate peak-time energy in the *** for the Leipzig Energy Exchange. That means that the *** basically is not driven by rainfall anymore. But in reality it's water level is strongly controlled by the energy exchange in the city of Leipzig. We're standing here in Gersthofen, a little bit north of Augsburg. Here they divert all the water from the *** river into the channel behind me. As you will see the main river is almost dry. Now we are 20 metres from the channel right above here. As you can see, the main river is totally dry. The only stream of water that's running comes from the fish pass right there on the left side of the dam. Through the main weir nothing is running at all. Not even a cubic metre. When I first came here to the river meadows of *** more than 30 years ago, I must say, I was fascinated by this world. I come from Franconia. This alpine, or low alpine, river country that you can still perceive today, has simply fascinated me. I have walked upstream and downstream many times, even to the source. I must say this wild river, especially as it has once been, has fascinated me from the very beginning. Today the *** is the most obstructed river in the whole low alpine country. I have to say concerning both the *** as well as the other alpine rivers, they have paid their dues - one chain of dams and locks after the other. Unfortunately, they are all ecologically in a wretched state. Today on the *** between Füssen and Augsburg there are twenty dams all-in-all. Only one single dam has a fairly, to some degree, functioning fish pass. Just imagine that. The old dams are outdated and must be improved ecologically and technically. Fish migrate upstream as well as downstream. This natural behavior can mean death for many fish. The public cannot see what is happening, because it all happens under water. Only very occasionally does this mismanagement become visible for us all to see. Often it is argued that you need to have several waterways, in order to protect the fish, in order to make sure they go around the power plant. But now in a very perverse way it's actually done in such way, that the fish are directed straight into the plant - into their death so to say. It is frustrating, in a way, to see that the rules, that were done with good intention when implemented can have an adverse effect. So, thats why my message is, let's take inspiration from the good examples. The promises of the hydropower plant operators to protect fish sound good, but often do not function in practice. Gratings are in place to stop fish and floating debris from ending up in the turbines. These gratings are said to be an environmentally friendly measure. However, in the debris we still find the victims, that did not manage to use the fish pass. And day after day the victims of this power production disappear in containers, unnoticed by the public. This can even lead to a complete and unseen disappearance of an aquatic animal species. And because it happens under the water surface, it is not visible. Fish do not shout. They are simply not present in the scenery. As a layman you cannot judge whether the water is really alive or not. The problem is, that a change takes place in the water body, which is not realized at all by the public. Another problem, besides the desertification, of the diverted river stretches, is the increase of thermal stress. We are increasingly worried about that. We have determined that our rivers have become warmer. Rising temperature of one to two degrees, has already spelled the death sentence for greyling. Of course long reservoir areas contribute to warming as well. That means a rise of the thermal loading of our rivers. Due to the dammed-back water there is no natural waterborne transport any more. The gravel spawning species are affected by this. We also detect a rise of the pH values in the last number of years, as well as high algae production. Algae that grow and die at some point. The result is a depletion of oxygen in the water. The algae photosynthesis means also changes in the pH values, causing strong peak pH values, especially during the day. These are also problems that have to be considered in a comprehensive survey, and that we increasingly worry about. The fact that hydropower plants also contribute to the development of greenhouse gas like methane is another negative side-effect not known to the public. This is a bay in the river Lahn. When you look at the bubbles you see that gas is rising up. In this bay there is a current in the water causing all the detritus to collect on the bottom and rot. With this rotting, the oxygen of the surrounding area is used up fast, and methane gas develops. This methane gas is very harmful for climate protection. It is 25 times worse than CO2. When supporters of hydropower argue that energy produced through hydropower is ecologically friendly because it lowers the output of carbon dioxide they forget to mention this side effect. In most of the cases if we would build new hydropower, whether big or small, we are doing major problems for the biodiversity, for the fisheries, for the quality of the water. I hope that we end that stupidity. The European Union recommends the development and the use of renewable energy, but more and more Members of Parliament are becoming aware of hydropower's negative effects, and increasingly speak up critically towards hydropower. Hydropower cannot solve our energy problems, especially not the small hydropower plants. The European Water Framework Directive requires 'good ecological status' for all waters by 2015. In this context the passability of running waters has top priority. The increasing numbers and continued use of hydropower plants comes more and more in conflict with ecological goals. Hydropower presents a clear example of ambiguity between a renewable energy production form and environmental protection. If I am correctly informed, there are currently about 7,300 - 7,400 small hydropower plants in Germany, and about 400 big ones. About 90% of the yield of the power production is generated in the big power plants - not in the small ones. That means that small hydropower plants, - these are plants that produce about 20 to 100, maybe 150 kW - when you compare them to the big ones, they are minimal. They contribute an unimportant portion to the total power production in Germany. If one looks at the whole power production in Germany, the portion of the small hydropower plants is estimated at 0.3%. If one visualises what small hydropower plants produce, then one must also consider what damage these small hydropower plants create. All in all, the damage done is actually higher than the advantage. This is a situation that has worried the federal environment office for many years. If we doubled our portion of small hydropower production in the whole energy mix from 0.3 to 0.6%, our remaining rivers would be destroyed, and we would still have made no essential contribution to climate protection. The energy production from hydropower is promoted in many European states. In some states the operators get a guaranteed price. This provides a stable income, and creates the impression that hydropower is environmentally desired, and is ecologically okay. You get subsidies from making small hydro plants. That's absolutely not a wise idea. I wouldn't build a lot of new hydro in Europe. The potential is not that great, and we shouldn't go into all our small rivers and put new hydro stations there. I think it would be much more environmentally friendly to do wind power and solar heating energy, and even solar cells in the future. That is probably much more ecologically efficient. Especially not building many small ones, because the environmental destruction per kWh is much bigger when you build many small ones than one big. The consumer price, plus the subsidies we pay for this kind of power production, is high. The environmental cost is even higher. We do a lot of damage to our river ecosystems and biodiversity - even risking that some species will disappear from our planet for good. One day our children, my grandchildren probably, will read in the newspaper or in books, that there was once a fish similar to snake. It was called an 'eel'. We drove it out of our rivers with hydropower stations. One day it won't exist anymore. Some eels survive and reproduce thanks to an unusual strategy. It may sound funny, but today's eels travel by car. This is much safer than taking the river. Their journey is about 150 kilometers, from the river Main to the river Rhine, which the fish would not survive without human help. The background story is, that we intercept the eels in front of the turbines, take them out of the water and transport them around the turbines, so that they are not injured and can reach the sea healthy. The river Main has 37 power stations and 37 turbines. Not a single eel would have gotten into the Rhine alive. This is a fact. Almost everybody who knows about eels knows this. All the fishermen here on the Main river are faced with bankruptcy. If this project did not exist, we would all have to give up fishing. Right here, this is a typical turbine injury. Do you see that? These scratches on the skin - the spine is broken. He will not survive the trip. The lower jaw is smashed. It's split. And these bright spots in the skin suggest that he already has several injuries. These are turbine injuries. He has vertebral fractures inside. There is blood in the fin. This is mechanical damage. The end of the fish bone lies open. The meat is completely scraped off. E.ON, the operator of the hydropower station, pays for this operation. Maybe they do it to ease a bad conscience? I don't know. The alternative would be for E.ON, to open the weir gates during the journey of the silver eels. Then the eel does not go through the turbine. The eel always takes the strongest current. - and then the way would be open to the sea. One thing is clear, such a transfer is an exception, considering the thousands of hydropower plants in Europe. A final solution to the problem cannot be achieved in this way. I think that the solution must be to oblige, the hydropower plant operators to perform a considerable and higher contribution to the protection of the fish and also to the revaluation of the ecosystem. If this is not the case, then hydropower is not environment-friendly. Since March 2010 the new Water Resources Act came into effect. This explicitly requires improvements in the minimum channel flow. Of course this is also a conflict that has to be solved with the operators, because every drop that does not go through the turbine but through the main river channel is lost for the electricity generation. The damages are not only confined to injured fish during migration, damages may extend to kilometers of the river. This affects for example the barbel region, the grayling region, the lower trout region. These are highly sensitive natural habitats, not only with endangered fish species but also with endangered big mussel species, for example. We have the common river mussels, and the fresh-water pearl mussels in one river system. When you see what kind of damage small hydropower generation can do in such a stretch of river, then you can become really fearful when you think of the protection of endangered species. Precisely this could become the European eel's inevitable fate. Its life begins in the Sargasso Sea off the coast of Florida. As a small larva it travels from there to the European inland waters, where it remains for 12 to 15 years. Then it returns to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. - which incidently, it does only once in its lifetime. Other migrating fish species, like salmon, reproduce in freshwater, then migrate to salt water at sea, to finally return to the exact spot where they were born, to spawn. Only that way can they lay their eggs. The survival of these migrating species is totally dependent on free access to and from the rivers. In Denmark they have completely stopped for all the small hydropower stations because the damage is too large. If you allow all kinds of farmers installing in the little rivers, plants that contribute five or ten megawatts, compare that to the 20% renewable energy we have to realize by year 2020 then really you should reconsider, and see that this is not the way to do it. One thing is certain, the supply of worldwide energy faces big challenges. Everywhere one is searching for clean and safe sources of energy. Energy out of hydropower is often celebrated as a miracle solution without disadvantages. The problems they cause, however, are hushed up by the energy providers and suppliers. The energy produced by hydropower should be submitted to scrutiny. Those who want to use it further must weigh up very carefully the advantages and disadvantages. And not only for themselves. After all, Europe's rivers belong to all of us, and hopefully many generations to come. With all the money that E.O.N and LEW earn day after day from the already paid for power stations, it is a 'no brainer' they should do something for the fish, and contribute so also our children will have an idea how a real river smells, how it looks, how much life is in it, and how beautiful it is.