Our views on SSE's proposals
We do not accept the proposals being put forward by Scottish and Southern Energy. They are no more than a cosmetic exercise.
The amount of flow being proposed in the main river will still be very small and no flow restoration has been proposed for the tributaries.
The flow will be too low for salmon to be able to ascend right up the river, as they used to, or spawn successfully.
Also, extra water should not be abstracted from the River Spey. Leaving aside even the effects on the Insh Marshes, there are tributaries of the Spey which, like the Garry, are also dried out. They should be a priority for any redistribution of Spey water.
What we want to see
A higher minimum flow must be released down the Garry to adequately fill the channel. Some of this should be released from side tributaries so that they too are brought back to life.
"Freshets", periods of higher flow, should be released at the appropriate times of year to allow fish to migrate up the river and to be able to spawn successfully.
What will this mean?
For this to be achieved it will have to be accepted that some loss of power generation must occur. If no loss of power generation is to be contemplated for WFD objectives, then the WFD will achieve very little for Scotland's overabstracted waters. Hydro schemes simply were not designed to have surplus water!
However, the losses required need not be great. It has been estimated by the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board that to restore enough flow to have salmon returing as far upsream as Garry Intake and in some of the tributaries the loss in generation might be as little as the equivalent output of 4 modern wind turbines.
As the River Garry is the worst example of this type of damage in Scotland, if not the UK, we think this small loss in power generation is perfectly justified in order to put a river back on the map.
Is it significant in energy terms?
The small loss in power generation we propose will be inconsequential. All the hydro stations in Tayside put together only produce about 2.5% of Scotland's electricity and about 0.3% of Britain's electricity. The loss we are proposing is equivalent to about 2.5% of the total hydro output in Tayside, i.e. 0.06% of Scotland's and 0.007% of Britain's electricity output.
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By Struan the Garry would naturally be a sizeable river. Even with the flow proposed by SSE, it would still look very low here. What has been proposed is simply not enough.
SSE's proposals did not include putting water back in any of the tributaries which would still amount to a trickle.
Periods of higher flow are also essential if fish are to ascend to spawn
SSE proposed restoring a tiny flow (29 litres per second) to the Cuaich a Spey tributary near Dalwhinnie. If there was to be any "redistribution" of Spey water, surely it should be for the benefit of those Spey tributaries which have been ruined by hydro.
For the equivalent of as little as 4 wind turbines' worth of electricity the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board has estimated a self sustaining salmon population could be restored up to the Garry intake and two of the main tributaries. A reasonable restoration of the Garry will result in an inconsequential loss in renewable energy.
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