Kemijärvi residents fear state could override opposition to power plants

About 70 residents of Kemijärvi travelled to Helsinki to oppose four planned pumped-storage power plants, fearing a proposed law could weaken local decision-making. Yle reports that the delegation met Agriculture and Forestry Minister Sari Essayah and other decision-makers on Friday and handed them a petition calling for municipalities’ authority to be protected.

The proposed reform would make zoning and investment projects easier to advance, but restrict residents’ ability to appeal decisions, including when an industrial project does not directly affect their own property. It would also give the Government greater power to require municipalities to draw up plans implementing national land-use objectives.

Kemijärvi’s city council has adopted a position against pumped-storage plants in the municipality. In a survey commissioned by the city last year, about 80 per cent of respondents viewed the projects negatively.

The delegation was organised by Pro Kemijärvi, whose chair, Tomi Juujärvi, said the meetings went well and residents were listened to. However, only one of the Lapland MPs who had agreed to meet the group attended, he said.

Juujärvi said residents oppose the projects because the condition of Lake Kemijärvi and the Kemijoki river system should be improved. He said the waters had borne the environmental impacts of national energy production for decades, including the disruption of migratory fish’s natural life cycle and fundamental changes to the ecosystem.

Kemijoki Oy is planning a pumped-storage plant at Ailangastunturi, about 22 kilometres south of Kemijärvi’s town centre. Construction could begin no earlier than 2029, with production starting in 2032.

The plan includes a one-square-kilometre upper reservoir on Ailangastunturi and a lower reservoir at Kuusilahti on Lake Kemijärvi. A tunnel between the reservoirs would be about 4.5 kilometres long and nine metres in diameter.

Kemijoki Oy estimates the project would cost 800 million euros. Construction would take four to five years and employ hundreds of people. The company estimates the plant would generate about 3.7 million euros in property tax in its first year of operation.