PVO-Vesivoima and Kemijoki Oy must draft plant-specific plans to arrange fish passage at their Kemijoki and Iijoki hydropower plants, Vaasa Administrative Court ruled, Yle reported.
The court overturned broad fish stocking obligations that the Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland set in 2024. It restored earlier stocking obligations that preceded those decisions. The court found conditions for changing the obligations existed and that restoring the natural cycle of migratory fish was at least partly possible.
The companies had argued that no essential change in conditions had occurred under the Water Act. They said restoring the natural cycle was not possible, that required measures were too expensive and that the obligations would endanger regulation power production and security of supply.
Other appellants included Lapland ELY Centre, Metsähallitus, several municipalities and associations. They demanded the obligations extend to the Vanttauskoski, Pirttikoski, Seitakorva and Raudanjoki hydropower plants. The court extended the obligations to plants where the agency had originally rejected applications entirely.
The court required a report on arranging the most effective possible passage for salmon and sea trout past dams at Isohaara, Taivalkoski, Ossauskoski, Petäjäkoski, Valajaskoski, Vanttauskoski, Pirttikoski and Seitakorva on the Kemijoki, and at Permantokoski on the Raudanjoki side river. The companies must assess the project's effects on the electricity grid and security of supply and draft the plant-specific fish passage plans.
On stocking, the court said significantly increasing stocking alongside measures supporting natural reproduction would have increased competition between fish stocks and might have weakened recovery of the wild stock. It said the increase would also have required more fish farming capacity, which would have remained at least partly useless. The court found the costs would have been unreasonable compared with the benefit.
The case stems from a 2017 application by Lapland ELY Centre to the Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland to change fish management obligations at Kemijoki and Iijoki plants to restore the natural cycle of migratory fish. The court's decisions can be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court if it grants leave. The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation has announced it intends to seek leave to appeal.