The Privas Criminal Court sentenced the company Hydroseven to a fine of €10,000 to restore the Barnas threshold site where it built a mini dam. She will be required to pay a fine of €100 per day if the work is not destroyed after March 20..
An old threshold rehabilitated without authorization
The idea of the Hydroseven company was to create a mini hydroelectric power station on the Ardèche river at Barnas. And Hydroseven decided to rebuild the threshold on the river which was used to feed the old spinning mill. The threshold was in ruins never maintained again and devastated by the floods.
In 2015, the company began work without authorization. The prefecture urges him to comply with the regulations. The simple declaration of work requested by the company is not enough. Regulatory reminders follow one another. Hydroseven is even dismissed before the administrative court of Lyon.
But the work continues to such an extent that today the work is finished. The public prosecutor of Privas takes up the case and summons the company before the criminal court.
Associations for the defense of nature as civil parties
Several associations for the defense of nature such as FRAPNA 07, France Nature Environnement Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes or the Ardèche fishing federation have joined as civil parties. Hydroseven will have to pay €2,000 to each of them.
All believe that the repair of this old threshold is a disturbing element for the life of the river. The sill blocks the sediment. It also prevents migrating fish from swimming upstream. France Nature environnement points out that the multiplication of these thresholds “in an anarchic way” ends up seriously harming the life of the river.