Back on the Loire

One of my favorite people just started a blog.  I was reading and enjoying what she had to say, and, at the same time, I started thinking maybe it’s time to return to my own.  So, after much too much time, here I am again.

Last month, in September, I spent ten days back along the Loire.  I was on the south side of the estuary, in the portion between the old port city of Nantes and the Atlantic ocean.  Rather than riding my bike, I planned to walk this time.  I’d carry my clothes and a few odds and ends in a backpack, walking between B&Bs.  Each would be about 7 to 10 miles apart.  A friend periodically urges me to “get off your bike and see the country on foot.”  So I did.  

Recently renovated control house at the Canal de Buzay with
diagram displaying hydraulic regulation

What drew me to the estuary was the hydrology.  Without human engineering, the last 60 or so kilometers of the river, would be soggy marshlands, periodically soaked by high tides and spring floods.  Over many years — especially since the beginning of the 18th century — local landowners have joined together to construct what has ultimately become a dense networks of drainage ditches, canals, water gates and pumps, all together creating extensive pasture lands, mostly used now for cattle raising.

I didn’t expect to see all of the network on my walk.  But I expected to see some of it and to at least get a feel for this particular section of the Loire.  I did, but not at all in the way I’d expected.  To be continued. 

Funding uncertainty for the Plan Loire 2015-2020

For 20 years a series of multi-year plans have guided management of the Loire River basin.  Generally, each "Plan Loire Grandeur Nature" has concentrated on flood control, restoration of natural habitats, and tourism.  (Persuading UNESCO to designate the central Loire with all of its chateaux as a “World Heritage Site” was a project in one of the early plans.)

The fourth plan, due to run from 2015 through 2020, has been adopted, but France’s recent territorial reforms could end up undermining part of its funding.  Europe committed 33 million euros under its program for regional development back in November of last year.

But the domestic commitment is more complicated.  Plan funding comes from the national government, the regions within the Loire basin, and in some cases individual departments.  Funding commitments are currently being negotiated through a process leading to a contract between the regions and the national government ("Contrat de plan interrégional État-Région" (CPIER)).

The problem for the 2015-2020 Plan is that over the next year regional, and in some cases departmental, organizational arrangements are being reshuffled following Paris’ decision to reduce the number of regions from 22 to 13.  For the regions and departments it’s hard to commit to funding a six-year plan when you’re not sure what your own finances will be a year from now.

A river-friendly dam? Poutès update

Hydroelectric dams may produce clean energy but they generally mess up a river.  Still, a redesigned dam in the mountains of central France might be a model for accommodating river environments with energy production.

© Richard Mounts

Since 1941, a 56-foot high dam in the upper reaches of the Allier River at a place called Poutès has generated power for Électricité de France (EDF).  For years, environmental groups argued that the dam blocked migrating salmon from reaching spawning groups and disrupted the river valley ecology by interfering with the normal flow of sediments.

EDF’s operating license expired in 2007 and environmentalists opposed renewal.  They wanted to see the dam decommissioned and dismantled, as had been done a few miles upstream at Saint-Étienne-du-Vignan (in the department of the Lozère near Naussac Lake).  On the opposite side, public officials and others pushed to preserve a source of clean energy and, along with it, the tax revenues to local communities.

Existing dam.  ©EDF

The standoff was finally resolved in July 2011 when EDF presented a new version of the dam.  This design would lower the dam to just 13 feet and would include accommodations for fish and sediments.  For the last three years, EDF has been building and testing a 1/13th scale model of the “new Poutès”; they avoid calling it a dam.  Besides redesigned fish ladders, the new installation will include special valves to be opened during high-water periods to allow sediment flow.  A lower barrier will also mean a smaller reservoir and a more natural river valley.  Currently, the water backs up for more than two miles.  When the new structure is completed, this will drop to about 300 yards.  Even with the much lower structure and freer water flow EDF expects to continue to generate 85 percent of the power current output.

Proposed dam.  ©EDF

The project is back in the news (at least in the Haute-Loire) because a public comment period opened at the beginning of this month.  The issue is still the decision by the Ministry of the Environment to grant EDF a new 50-year operating license.  At the beginning of January, residents in the 26 small communities along the affected portion of the river all received a brochure with information about the project and how to submit opinions.  This time, given support among all the previously contending parties, serious opposition seems unlikely.  The comment period closes on February 5 and some expect government approval within a couple of months.  EDF says it would start construction towards the end of 2016, with completion likely in about three years.

Wauquiez seeking regional presidency

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about my favorite part of “la France profonde.”  (Of course, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything here period.)  It snowed some in the Haute-Loire department last night, but was mostly above freezing during the day.  Reportedly, it’s been a fairly mild winter.

Le Puy in July.  © Richard Mounts

Since Thursday, the major local news story has been Laurent Wauquiez’ decision to seek his party’s nomination as its candidate for presidency of the newly-created region of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes.  The election will be at the end of this year.  Besides being a national figure in the center-right UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) party (and a minister during the Sarkozy government), he is the mayor of Le Puy-en-Velay, a position he’s had since 2008.  His announcement had a special importance for Le Puy since he promised that if elected to the regional position he’d resign as mayor.

It seems unlikely he would have announced his candidacy if he didn’t have reasons to believe he could win.  And I’ll be interested to see how things develop in this new political landscape and, eventually, what it might mean for environmental policies in the area.  But right at the moment the new regional electorate is probably much more diverse than Le Puy’s.  For one thing, it includes the major cities of Clermont-Ferrand, Saint-Étienne, Lyon, and Grenoble whose voters probably aren’t so familiar with someone from a small city (stretching it) in the mountains.  Wauquiez promises he’ll continue to look out for Le Puy if he’s elected.  Somehow, though, I suspect he may to be able to look out for the city from the mayor’s office.  We’ll see.

Climate: public opinion

Yesterday's post ended with the hope that experts’ reports on climate change, together with more and more peoples’ direct experience with its effects though more and more dramatic weather patterns, might finally affect public opinion and so push political decision-makers towards real action.

After writing that, I went looking to see what survey data might show.  I’ll keep looking, but the first stuff I found wasn’t exactly reassuring.  This Gallup poll, published March 18, 2014, reports that fewer people now than in 2001 think human actions are responsible for changes in the environment.  The whole timeline deserves attention, but this is still the basic finding.  Depressing.

Climate: sadness and frustration

Is there anything sadder than the regular news about changes in our climate?  The natural world is no longer natural.  Our actions, especially pumping the atmosphere full of CO2 from cars and power plants, have, to say the least, badly disrupted things.  And recent findings of the National Climate Assessment tell us it will get worse.  More glaciers melting, higher sea levels, more droughts, more torrential rains and flooding.

Is there anything more frustrating and disheartening that the collective failure to stop this?  Certainly, the President is now using regulatory authorities under existing legislation to reduce CO2 emissions.  But there are limits to how much he can accomplish this way and no one expects any new authority from the Congress.  Meanwhile, opponents of climate action cry that these regulations are “a war on coal” and promise opposition in every way possible.

Can we hope that reports like this, along with regular news of climatic disasters (we can’t call them “natural disasters” anymore), will change public views and be translated into political action?
We can only hope — and push wherever we can.

Terra Nova: Une Politique Sociale-Écologique

Terra Nova recently issued a short policy paper entitled Pour une Politique Sociale-Écologique: Protéger l'Environnement et Réduire les Inégalités.  From a relatively quick review, it looks like a useful restatement of the need to combine environmental and social policies.  Terra Nova, which until now I've only been passingly aware of, was created in 2008 and describes itself as an "independent progressive think tank aiming to produce and disseminate innovative political solutions for France and Europe."  It's been compared to the moderately progressive Center for American Progress in the U.S.

The report's emphasis that the poor are the least able to protect themselves from the effects of environmental degradation is not new news.  Nor is it news that environmental programs often face opposition from those claiming that they limit the economic growth that would benefit the poor.  Still, the paper is a timely reminder that, politically and practically, environmental programs and actions to reduce inequalities need each other.  And it presents several arguments in favor of a "politique social-écologique."

The authors promise specific policy proposals in later papers.  They also promise to broaden the discussion to European and international settings.  I'll pay more attention now.