Margaritze: Revision Compulsory, No Scavenging of the Möll River
VERBUND/Austrian Hydro Power AG (AHP), the operator of the Margaritzen reservoir in the Glockner mountain range, categorically repudiates press reports according to which another scavenging of the Möll River in Carinthia is planned. Needless alarmism does not help a measure of revision for safety, says an AHP press release.
The AHP chairman of the board of management Dr. Herbert Schröfelbauer: “Scavenging is out of the question. What we are talking about is a partial lowering of the level of the reservoir in the course of the revision. The authorities prescribe this partial lowering to us. We have no choice.”
The request for the required negotiations with the Water Authority had been submitted by AHP as early as on February 2, 2002. In agreement with the involved parties the appointed time was postponed by one year. Now the negotiations with the Water Authority will finally be held, on December 11, 2002. There, the general conditions for carrying out the revision will be finally established by the Supreme Water Authority.
These negotiations with the Water Authority on the revision and partial lowering are independent of the final solution of the problem of glacial action at the Margaritzen reservoir. AHP was not inactive, as claimed, but has been working most intensively on the realization of the feasible projects together with experts from the Technical University of Graz. “In the course of the year 2003 a final version will be presented as agreed and promised. There are no plans to scavenge the Margaritzen reservoir, and, as promised, such scavenging will not be carried out anymore”, underscores Austrian Hydro Power AG.
The press release concludes by saying that AHP does own an approved variant, Nassfeld, but has not put it into action so far, out of consideration for the interests of riparian owners.