Saving Iceland

In a special report on the environment, Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, minister for the environment in Iceland, says that Icelandic nature has suffered from aluminium production and needs increased protection. “It is time to correct the injustice nature and environmental protection has faced because of heavy industry,” says the report.
She says Iceland’s nature is valuable, and conserving it is a way of utilising the resource. In the past Iceland’s nature, it’s rivers and geothermal fields have been seen as ‘unutilised resources’ that are almost asking for exploitation. This view, held by many Icelandic politicians and entrepreneurs, is a modern interpretation of 17th century Cartesian thought. Read More

BBC News – Six Greenpeace activists have been cleared of causing criminal damage during a protest over coal-fired power. The activists were charged with causing £30,000 of damage after they scaled Kingsnorth power station in Hoo, Kent. At Maidstone Crown Court Judge David Caddick said the jury had to examine whether protesters had a lawful excuse. The defendants said the protest was lawful because it aimed to prevent damaging emissions. Read More

Iceland Review – The Geysir hot spring area and Hvítá river, which forms Gullfoss waterfall— two of the biggest tourist attractions in Iceland— will be part of a new framework program on options for energy harnessing to be completed next year. According to the government resolution, the framework program based on 50 potential areas for harnessing energy should be completed by the end of 2009, but Minister of Industry Össur Skarphédinsson wants it to finish by July next year, Fréttabladid reports. Read More

Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s national energy company, announced that it intends to build yet another dam, Bjallavirkjun in Tungaá. LV is currently restarting work on Búðarhálsvirkjun in Tungnaá. Bjallavirkjun would create a 30 km² reservoir inside a protected area by Veiðivötn. The dam itself is planned to built just on the edge of the protected area, west of Skaftafell National Park and Langisjór Lake and will be in the entrance of Landmannalaugar. The dam will produce 46 MW per year. LV has not said who would be the buyer.

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Minister of Industry Össur Skarphédinsson said at the Althingi (parliament) yesterday that experimental drilling in the geothermal area in northeast Iceland for the planned Alcoa aluminum smelter at Bakki near Húsavík should begin despite environmental assessment. Minister of the Environment Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir previously stated that Alcoa’s planned smelter at Bakki and the geothermal drilling that would power it need to be assessed as a whole. That may delay construction of the smelter. All of this is being discussed while there is already test drilling going on in Krafla ant Þeistareykir, which is proving highly destructive, as Saving Iceland reported earlier. Read More

Two days ago two Romanian workers suffocated while wielding pipes for the geothermal expansion project at Hellisheidi, east of Reykjavik (1). The Hellisheidi power plant is being expanded by Reykjavik Energy company. The campaign group Saving Iceland believes that serious accidents are almost unavoidable due to the extreme circumstances the Eastern European workers in Iceland are forced to work in.
At the construction site for the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant expansion, the labour intensive work is done by Polish and Rumanian workers. These live in a work camp on the construction site. The Rumanian pipe wielders of which two died are working for Altak, a contractor of Reykjavik Energy. Read More

Survival International – British mining company Vedanta is under intense pressure over its plans to mine the Dongria Kondh tribe’s land in India, as a Scottish investment group sells its shares and Amnesty International joins the campaign in support of the tribe. Read More

Landsvirkjun, Iceland’s national power company, has announced it wants to restart construction on Búðarhálsvirjun which will dam Tungnaá and Köldukvísi rivers in South Iceland, this year. The company has just sent out tenders for machinery and electrical equipment while a tender for construction work would go out this autumn. Work on the dam and reservoir would start first, while the company waits for the legal processes for the three Þjórsá dams to be finished before it open tenders for the planned power plants of the Þjórsá and Búðarháls dams.
Landvirkjun says it is under pressure from a contract with Rio Tinto Alcan, to supply electricity for the Straumsvik smelter, expanding it’s production from 183.000 to ~ 223.000 metric tons per year, which requires an extra 75 MW of power (1). Búðarhálsvirkjun, would produce 80 MW, somewhat less than the original estimate of 100 MW (2). The remainder is to go to the Verne Holding data centre in Keflavik. The dam, projected to be 2400 m long and 24m high and would create the 8 km2 Sporðöldulón reservoir next to Hrauneyafoss. The cost is expected to be around 23.2 billion krona (192 million euro) (3). Read More

US rescue crews have airlifted some 170 people to safety from a remote village in the Grand Canyon after a dam burst following days of heavy rain.
Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said water from the Redlands Dam had caused flooding in a side canyon containing Supai village. The area, accessible only by foot, on horseback or by air, is home to 400 members of the Havasupai tribe. Most people have been accounted for but searches will resume later on Monday. Read More

International Rivers Report – The potential to profit from the world’s largest dam project – the Grand Inga hydropower scheme, proposed for the Congo River – drew bankers, engineering firms and industrial interests to London in April 2008 to discuss financing for the $80 billion project. African civil society has been raising concerns about the project for some time, but was blocked from attending the London event. The meeting made clear that both the proposed Inga 3 and Grand Inga schemes would be developed primarily for major industries such as aluminum and mining interests. Project promoters would like the dams to be developed privately in order to minimize the government’s role and better control the project’s financing and operations. Read More