The concession for the hydroelectric power plant in Gersthofen near Augsburg expires in 2032. The concessions for the Landsberg, Lechblick, Pitzling and other power plants will follow in 2034. The Lech has a total of 32 barrages and is the most densely built-up river in Bavaria. At the same time, more concessions from electricity operators for the operation of hydroelectric power plants are now expiring than anywhere else in Bavaria. Christine Margraf from the Bund Naturschutz calls this “an opportunity of the century” that must be used to make the river, which in ecological terms is actually just a river ruin, more natural again. Among other things, the conservationists are calling for the so-called reversion of the hydroelectric power plants to be examined, i.e. that the Free State take over operation. The nationalization of the energy company Uniper, the largest player on the Lech, is now giving new impetus to the discussion that the Greens in the state parliament had already heated up in the summer.
The unanimous opinion at the “Future Symposium Lech” that the river must be made ecologically more sustainable, to which the Bund Naturschutz and the Lechallianz invited representatives of neighboring communities, authorities, district offices, electricity operators and nature conservationists at the end of last week. The Lech, said Jens Soentgen, head of the Environmental Science Center at the University of Augsburg, is not driven by rain or other natural influences, but by the electricity exchange – at the weekend, for example, when the exchange is closed, less water flows down the river to the Danube, because electricity prices are then lower. Uniper can control the flow of water at the push of a button with the help of the Roßhaupten power plant on the Forggensee near Füssen.
The rubble cannot pass through the barrages
The massive interventions in the natural course of the river have serious consequences. “Like many other rivers, the Lech is in a wheelchair,” says Silke Wieprecht, Head of the Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management at the University of Stuttgart. The river has lost its original dynamics, the so-called debris no longer works: the debris that actually transports the water down the river from the Alps cannot pass through the barrages. The riverbed becomes unstable as a result, animals and plants lose their habitat.
The Water Framework Directive stipulates that all sections of the Lech must be brought into good ecological condition by 2027. This goal, so much is already certain, will not be met, although the responsible water management authorities are trying to improve the condition of the river with a number of projects.
At the Litzauer loop, for example, one of the last near-natural sections of the Lech, the Weilheim Water Management Office has created side channels that are indispensable as a place of retreat, especially for young fish. In coordination with Uniper, the swell operation, i.e. the repeated damming up and damming of the river, was modified in such a way that the fish on the bank sides no longer die in droves because they can no longer get back to the middle of the river in time if the water volume decreases create flow. The fish fauna has recovered well as a result of these measures. South of Augsburg, the Donauwörth Water Management Office has been pushing the largest river renaturation project in Bavaria for years: the Lech should regain at least part of its originality here and be allowed to flow dynamically and over a wider area again. The implementation of “licca liber” will cost more than 60 million euros.
However, all of these projects only help the Lech in sections and mostly alleviate the symptoms of the misery. “We intervened so badly in the Lech that we will have to intervene in the future as well,” believes Professor Wieprecht from the University of Stuttgart. For example, to bring in boulders and stones artificially, transported by trucks. At the “Future Symposium Lech”, however, the Bund Naturschutz made it clear that it not only wanted to tackle the symptoms, but the causes of the diseased river – including the demolition of hydroelectric power plants, for example to enable bed load again. With such demands, one is “looked at as if from another planet, especially now in the course of the energy transition,” says the deputy BN state representative Margraf. However, she refers to similar dismantling projects in Spain and France. The lack of power generation from demolished power plants must be replaced by more powerful turbines in existing hydroelectric power plants and other energy sources.
The conservationists are in favor of bringing the power plants back into state hands
Bringing the power plants back into state hands would make access easier and thus rule out the profit maximization on the river criticized by nature conservationists – and thus also ensure the implementation of the conversion measures necessary from the point of view of conservationists. The Greens were already demanding in the summer that the privatizations of the 1990s under Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber had to be reversed, including on other Bavarian rivers. However, the legal constellations are very complex when concessions expire. Conservationists criticize that the negotiations between the Free State and operators about possible extensions are largely taking place behind closed doors.
Uniper has already emphasized in the past that it intends to continue operating the power plants on the Lech. Negotiations are already underway for the Walchensee power plant in the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, where the concession expires in 2030. On the fringes of the Lech symposium, Uniper said that it was too early to say how the nationalization of the group would affect the plans for the Lech. However, Uniper still stands by its intention to continue operating the hydroelectric power plants in the future. There have never been any complaints from the Free State that Uniper is not ecologically committed to the river. On the contrary, as the group sees it, improvements such as those on the Litzau loop were only possible because Uniper was involved constructively and voluntarily. An employee in Augsburg emphasized that by 2027 there would be fish ladders at all hydroelectric power plants operated by the group to enable the animals to migrate through the river. The numerous small power plants in Bavaria are the problem, as you can see from the power company – not the large plants like on the Lech.