Naturalist Iolo Williams and over one thousand others have spoken out in favor of protecting a waterfall that has inspired storytellers, artists and poets over a millennium

Naturalist Iolo Williams and over one thousand others have spoken out in favour of protecting a waterfall that has inspired storytellers, artists and poets over a millennium

The naturalist, TV presenter and conservationist Iolo Williams is the latest to speak out in favour of protecting one of Snowdonia’s most iconic waterfalls, Rhaeadr y Cwm near Llan Ffestiniog. This is currently threatened by a small scale hydro-electric scheme which would see, at times, nearly 70% of its water diverted through a pipe around the waterfall.

The formal consultation period on the application closed at the end of September and, highly unusually, over 1,000 individual objections were submitted by the members of the public. Many did so through an e-action web page set up by the Snowdonia Society, Save our Rivers, the North Wales Wildlife Trust and Buglife. And over 500 of these objections were local, from North Wales.

The application is controversial as the gorge concerned is designated as an SSSI because of the very rare damp-loving plants which grow there, and because removing significant amounts of water risks changing the conditions that make it special. Furthermore, the amount of renewable electricity generated would be quite small. The capacity of the scheme would be just 600kW. In other words, it would take fully twelve schemes like this to generate the amount of electricity of just one modern wind turbine¹.

Concern that the plan could be approved

But environmentalists are concerned that the scheme could nevertheless be approved, because the developers stated on their application form that they had received pre-application advice from the National Park Authority that: “The principle of the scheme [is] considered acceptable.”

The National Park Authority has now made clear that this is not the case and Cymdeithas Eryri accepts this. The Society remains concerned, however, that the scheme has received an abstraction licence from Natural Resources Wales.

In response to this, Iolo Williams says: “Rhaeadr y Cwm has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the association of under-plants that grow in such a wet environment. A draw of nearly 70% of the water would have been extremely harmful to the rare ferns and mosses. I’m very supportive of social green energy but not when it means destroying the natural beauty of Wales.”

Three times over the past thirty years plans have been submitted for a hydro-electric scheme in Cwm Cynfal. Three times they have been either refused or withdrawn. But in July the developers formally submitted another application.

Rory Francis, Director of Cymdeithas Eryri Snowdonia Society says: “Cwm Cynfal is a place that has inspired storytellers, artists and poets over a millennium. This is a landscape associated with the tales of the Mabinogion and also famously depicted by David Cox in 1836 in his iconic painting Rhaiadr Cwm. It is one of Eryri’s most majestic waterfalls. But now it is being threatened once again by a hydro-electric scheme that would see the river dammed and at times, just short of 70% of the water diverted out of the waterfall.”

Conservations stress that they are strongly support the need to decarbonise the economy. But with any renewable energy scheme, there is a need to weigh the damage against the benefits.

Excavating the river bed

One particular concern is that, unusually, the pipe through which the water would pass would cross underneath the river. The developers plan to excavate the river bed, install the pipe, anchor it in concrete and then reinstate the river bed and banks. Commenting on this, Dan Yates of Save our Rivers says: “This is not standard practice in normal hydropower construction. There are no specific details or working diagrams as to how this is to be achieved. There is significant risk of the pipeline being uncovered via erosion after construction or of the river diverting into the pipeline trench creating localised damage and sediment pollution of the water course and downstream SSSI.”

A broad coalition

Dan Yates adds: “The constant impact of development on our rivers and streams over the last few decades has led to the UK having one of the most degraded river systems in the world. It is critical that those remaining free-flowing sections of rivers that sit within protected areas, like the Cynfal, are preserved for future generations.”

Adrian Lloyd Jones, Head of Living Landscapes, North Wales Wildlife Trust said “Considering the small amount of power this proposed HEP scheme would produce and the declines of bryophyte communities observed following similar HEP schemes elsewhere in North Wales, this scheme poses far too great a risk to the wildlife of Cwm Cynfal. Whilst we support green energy, all developments must be in the right place, and this proposal is clearly in the wrong place.”

Gemma Waters of Buglife says: “Unmodified fast flowing streams, such as Afon Cynfal, are one of the key habitats within the Eryri Important Invertebrate Area- which are nationally important sites for the conservation of invertebrates and the habitats upon which they rely. Abstraction, leading to changed flows, and barriers such as weirs, can create many adverse impacts on aquatic invertebrate communities but the scheme has not considered impacts on invertebrates.

1. For example the wind turbines proposed for the Y Bryn wind farm between Maesteg and Port Talbot, each of which would have a capacity of 7.2MW.