This ugly little dam diverts water away from the R Carron Glen Beag, Sutherland, to make
electricity elsewhere. The dam is a migration barrier, creating unnecessary additional damage
thereby. It makes a mockery of the Minister’s original instruction to his fishery advisors (SFC)
that the scheme should proceed with the minimum damage to the fishery. The SFC reported
back that “....a considerable area of excellent spawning ground will be lost .... the proposals to
divert the headwaters will destroy the spawning grounds in Glen Beag.”.
They specifically recommended that a fish pass be provided, but when the nationalised
electricity company later came to build the scheme they railroaded through the migration barrier
assuring the locals that annual artificial stocking of 50,000 fry pa below the dam was adequate
compensation for migration and abstraction damage. The compensation stocking was carried
out for 40 years before Dr Alistair Stephen, of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) warned
that, as practiced, it was nonsense and genetically incorrect. The local fishery board stopped
stocking, collects compensation monies in lieu and has carried out electro-fishing surveys since
showing there to be consistently good quantities of juvenile fish below the dam.
In the dam is a straight through channel and above are the unique Glen Beag redds, higher than
any others in the locality. If the channel is opened, the water diversion tunnel mouth should be
screened to prevent fish being swept away. Since the 'right to roam', this once remote area
now teems with coast to coast walkers and the tunnel needs to be screened for their safety too.
Under the latest Brussels Directive, abstraction of water should be measured giving modern
technology an opportunity to build a superior control system.
This would allow:
- much earlier public warning of dangerous water levels from climate warming cloudbursts,
- increased water diversion to make maximum use of storage lochs,
- help SSE to prioritise on which sources to draw for their generators at any moment,
- valve control to adjust flows left in the river to aid migration whilst keeping perfect
overall annual balance of the water for competing socio economic needs.
Such a modern system would help to minimize Man’s dreaded imprint on Nature. Concerned
people, particularly those in Edinburgh, can test the new government’s rhetoric to make
joined–up government work for the benefit of all the community. Salmon stocks are a national
asset in decline now listed by the EU as a species requiring help. Other nations are acting but
Scotland can hardly be said to be doing its bit so long as this through channel remains shut.
JGS
October 2007