ENVIRONMENT: ‘Show Off a Failed Dam’

By Lowana Veal Reprint | | Print |

Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Oct 3 2006 (IPS) - A novel solution has been proposed to block the building of a controversial dam that sits over a fissure and that environmentalists say will harm plant and animal life.

Film-maker Omar Ragnarsson says Iceland can stop filling the Halslon reservoir which feeds the dam, and leave the dam structure standing as a monument to Iceland’s realisation that the dam is a mistake.

The area could become a tourist attraction and repay the costs involved in construction of the dam within 10 years, he says.

Ragnarsson has emerged as a leading opponent of the dam. Last month he organised a rally against the dam that was joined by about 12,000 people – a lot in a country with a population of only about 300,000. His supporters at the rally included former prime minister Vigdis Finnbogadottir.

Ragnarsson wrote a book in 2004 on the pros and cons of the Karahnjukar dam project, and has proposed alternative ways to provide energy for the Fjardaraal aluminium plant that power from the dam is meant to feed. Ragnarsson has proposed use of geothermal energy from northeast Iceland rather than hydroelectric energy from Karahnjukar.

Asked why he left it so late to show his opposition to the plant, Ragnarsson told IPS: “If we had stopped the construction before the dam was completed, it would not have been possible to entice tourists to see the plant.”

He said the reservoir can still be emptied within the next eight months, because it will not reach its full capacity for a year.

Parliamentary elections are due in May next year, and Ragnarsson hopes that the decision to go ahead with the plant can be reversed if a new government gets in.

But the Halslon reservoir is being filled now that the glacial Jokulsa a Dal river has been diverted. Two diversion tunnels were closed to lead the river waters into the reservoir.

The riverbed is now almost dry from the point where it empties into Halslon to a point 10-15 km downstream where several smaller rivers empty into it. From a turbulent, cloudy glacial river it will turn into a calm fishing river.

The reservoir is considered the most environmentally damaging part of the Karahnjukar project. The 57 sq km reservoir will have a detrimental effect on reindeer, bird life and vegetation, and will submerge many archaeological sites and geological landforms, environmentalists say.

The seals that lived in the Jokulsa a Dal river have already moved down to the coast. No one knows whether they will return to the river in the spring to bear their pups.

But it is not just environmental factors that are causing concern. Recent discussion has focused on the geology beneath the dam.

In early 2002, geophysicist Grimur Bjornsson warned of several dangers arising from the dam. It is not clear whether the Althingi (Icelandic parliament) had the report before them when the decision was made to go ahead with the project. The report was unearthed again this summer.

Bjornsson has said the dam and reservoir were being erected on top of an active fracture zone, which would lead to leakage from the reservoir and subsequent loss of capacity.

Landsvirkjun, the national power company that is responsible for the project, has said there is no reason for worry. All reservoirs leak, it said, and measures have been incorporated into the design to counterbalance potential leaks.

Landsvirkjun is also critical of the arguments put forward by the protestors on environmental grounds.

“The area lost is about 35 percent vegetated,” said Sigurdur Arnalds from Landsvirkjun. “It is to a large extent forgotten that this is primarily an underground facility, with 73 km of tunnels and an underground power station. The project has its localised sites but we feel the impact on wildlife has been greatly exaggerated.”

That reassurance has not ended the protests. New calls have been made for a risk assessment by scientists not involved with the project. The Left-Green party is demanding that the filling of the reservoir be delayed until this assessment is completed.