Court orders hydropower firms to plan fish passage

Finland’s Vaasa Administrative Court has ordered PVO-Vesivoima and Kemijoki Oy to prepare plans for fish passage at several hydropower dams, Yle reported. The court also overturned expanded fish-stocking requirements imposed by the regional authorities.

The companies must assess how to enable salmon and sea trout to pass the dams as effectively as possible, taking local conditions into account. The listed plants are Isohaara, Taivalkoski, Ossauskoski, Petäjäskoski, Valajaskoski, Vanttauskoski, Pirttikoski and Seitakorva on the Kemijoki River, and Permantokoski on the Raudanjoki River.

The companies must also assess the effects of the measures on the electricity grid and security of supply. The court found that the conditions for changing the existing obligations had been met and that it was at least partly possible to restore the natural life cycle of migratory fish. It extended the obligations to plants for which the regional authority had previously rejected the application.

The companies had argued that there had been no substantial change in conditions as required by the Water Act, and that the measures could threaten balancing power production and security of supply. They also said restoring natural fish populations was not possible and that the measures would be too costly.

The court reinstated the narrower fish-stocking requirements that applied before the regional authority’s 2024 decisions. It said substantially increasing stocking alongside measures to support natural reproduction could intensify competition among fish populations and weaken the recovery of wild stocks. Expanding fish-farming capacity would also have been needed, and the court considered the resulting costs excessive compared with the expected benefits.

Lapland’s ELY Centre, Metsähallitus, several municipalities and associations also appealed the 2024 decisions. The court’s rulings can be appealed to Finland’s Supreme Administrative Court if it grants leave to appeal. The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation has said it plans to seek permission.

The case began with an application filed by the Lapland ELY Centre in 2017, seeking changes to fisheries obligations at hydropower plants on the Kemijoki and Iijoki rivers to help restore migratory fish populations. In 2024, the regional authority changed obligations at the Iijoki plants and several Kemijoki plants, but rejected the application for the Vanttauskoski, Pirttikoski, Seitakorva and Permantokoski plants.