Hydropower: Environmentalists sacrifice the Trift

A 177 meter high dam has been planned in the remote Trift Valley since 2013, and since then environmental protection organizations have been trying to prevent it on the right. But now, after intensive negotiations with the National Council's Environmental Commission (UREK) and a pronunciation with Federal Councilor Albert Rösti on Tuesday, a surprising turn is emerging: The leading protection organization Aqua Viva is ready to talk and wants to withdraw your complaint under certain conditions.

It is a « severe decision for the environment », it is said in the media release, which Aqua Viva publishes on Friday. It makes it clear how much the association wrestled with the decision. The planned reservoir will « destroy an untouched mountain landscape with intact meadows, bubbling mountain streams and threatened species, » it says. Nevertheless, it is « ready to compromise against politics in order to avert even greater damage to nature throughout the country and to protect the legal foundations ».

In this context, Aqua Viva President Martina Munz refers to a “highly problematic word of word”. Before the referendum on the Electricity Act, the federal government had promised, among other things, in the voting book that the lending rights and compensation measures in environmental issues would be retained for the planned 16 hydropower projects – also for the controversial major projects Trift, Gorner and Grimsel.

There is a compromise in the National Council

Just a few months later, the Council of States decided to retrospectively delete the association's complaint law and the replacement and compensation measures to compensate for environmental damage. « We cannot accept that, » says Munz: If the National Council will definitely agree to this step next week, not only an « immense nature destruction » will be legalized: « This would result in legal certainty and the credibility of politics. »

In order to prevent this, the National Council's environmental commission has now decided on Tuesday with 15 to 9 votes: Instead of completely overturning the association's complaint, three nationally active associations should be able to appeal together in the projects of the round table.

For the time being, no majority found the proposal that replacement and compensation measures for environmental damage are still mandatory and cannot be easily compensated for- a proposal that apparently also criticized by the cantons concerned. Aqua Viva now promises to withdraw the complaint against the trift if the promise of the federal government is respected and association complaint law is retained as compensatory measures.

Exit open at the Gornerli

The fate of the Trift could already be sealed in the March session. The Next Tuesday, the National Council has to decide on the compromise proposal of its environmental commission during the debate on an acceleration decree. This will follow the difference between differentiation and in three weeks the final parties in the national and state council. Depending on the output, Aqua Viva should withdraw the complaint in March. Otherwise there is a threat of a referendum – or a legal dispute that lasted up to five years before the Federal Supreme Court.

The Oberhasli power plants, which have been planning the two projects against large resistance for over ten years, did not want to comment on the U -turn at Aqua Viva until the editorial deadline. The two local protective organizations Grimselverein and Trift Committee, which have so far combated the fermentation of the folk with all legal means and partly in cooperation with Aqua Viva, were « surprised and disappointed » on the new development: « We have to check the new situation first, » said Nick Röllin on request.

If the now proposed compromise comes through, his regional clubs alone would no longer be symptomable. This should be at least the fitters and possibly the new Grimseltraumauer much faster than planned.

How things will continue with the Gorner project remains open. Because there are still no plans for the dam that would put the glacier tongue under water for years. So far, only the landscape protection foundation has spoken out against this major project – and according to the compromise estimate, it would have to form alliances with two other national associations in order to raise awareness.