A MAJOR UTILITY company has been accused of offering a “cosmetic PR exercise” in response to moves to bring a river back to life for the first time in over half a century.

The Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board has announced a campaign to restore the flow—and salmon—to what was once a major spring salmon water, the River Garry.

Since the 1950s virtually all water in the Perthshire Garry has been abstracted at two points to generate electricity. For most of the year a dry riverbed is exposed along a 13-mile stretch of the river, running beside the A9 from Loch Garry near Drumochter and Struan near Blair Atholl.

Historically this was one of the most important Tay areas for salmon spawning. It has been estimated that recolonising the available habitat would in time result in as many as 1500 extra adult salmon returning to the Tay system annually.

Until recently there was no legal possibility of challenging the hydro extraction and redressing the situation but recent EU legislation changes this. The legislation obliges member countries to remedy damage caused by over-abstraction of water and in Scotland SEPA is charged with its implementing this process.

It is due to publish a national plan detailing remedial action in 2009.

Dr David Summers, fisheries manager for the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board, said, “Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), the company that takes all of the Garry’s water, realises it may soon be subject to a legal requirement to re-introduce some flow into the river.

“Clearly mindful of this, the company has made what amounts to a pre-emptive strike by ‘offering’ to release some water. We have no doubt SSE’s proposal is no more than a cosmetic PR exercise that fails to address the main problems.

“To make a significant difference, the Garry requires at least 60% more flow than SSE proposes and higher flows briefly in the autumn.”

He said SSE proposed to increase flow down the Garry by redirecting flow from the Tromie, a Spey tributary, into the Garry. It’s understood that Spey District Salmon Fisheries Board is not too happy with this.

The proposal is understood to have been agreed “in principle” with SEPA, seemingly with some support from the Executive, the board’s leaflet claims.

Peter Donaldson, SSE’s renewable generation manager, claims the plan has not been proposed by SSE, but by SEPA. He said, “The Garry has been harnessed for renewable energy production for more than 60 years now. In these days of climate change renewable energy production is more important than ever before.

“The Water Framework Directive recognises that water is used for many reasons and seeks to find a balance between the uses and the ecology.

“In Scotland the regulations give SEPA the role of the regulator. The plan referred to is not SSE’s plan, it is SEPA’s and it is likely to be only one of a number of measures set in Scotland’s River Basin Plan 2009.”

On going to press, there had been no response from SEPA to the SSE claim that shifting water from the Tromie to the Garry was its idea.