The Icelandic Environment Association is calling for an investigation into how the Ministry for the Environmental could have grossly miscalculated the effects of the Kárahnjúkar dam project on the surrounding wildlife.
As reported, glacial sediment from the river Jökulsá á Dal – which, as a result of the damming, flows into Lagarfljót – has been clouding the waters, bringing on lower water temperatures, less sunlight reaching bottom-growing plants and, as a result, fish dying off in the lake.
However, when the Kárahnjúkar dam project was still in the planning stages, the Ministry for the Environment – at the time in the control of the Progressives – did not believe it would have any negative impact on the environment. The Icelandic Environment Association wants to know why, and has called for an an investigation.
Guðmundur Hörður Guðmundsson, chairman of the organisation, believes the ministry has to answer for its conclusions. He adds that the ministry at the time never consulted with the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, which works directly for the ministry, and believes it suspicious that the ministry’s own examination was conducted in just three months.
“If the ministry cannot offer a satisfactory explanation for the conclusions it arrived at ten years ago, then I believe there is every reason to investigate how this happened,” he said.
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