Court reverses ÇED decision on power plant project in eastern Turkey valley

SİVAS

A Sivas administrative court has canceled a previous decision which dismissed the requirement of an environmental impact report (ÇED) for a hydroelectric power plant (HES) project planned to be built in a valley in the eastern Turkish province of Erzincan.

Locals had filed a criminal complaint to the court, demanding the 2009 decision which allows a company to build a HES in the Şıhköy Valley in the Tercan region without a ÇED be lifted.

Experts examined the valley where the stream assigned for the power plant is located on Oct. 16, 2014, and determined the information file of the project delivered by the company was incomplete. The expert report said the company needed to have a “positive” ÇED to carry out the project.

The Sivas Administrative Court has canceled the previous decision after evaluating the expert report, news portal Radikal has reported.

Lawyer Barış Yıldırım, a spokesman for the Dersim Initiation of Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritages, said dismissing the ÇED was against international conventions.

“Cancelation of this decision is so important for the protection of the region,” Yıldırım said, adding they had previously applied to the Erzurum Natural Heritage Protection Commission to demand the area assigned for the HES project be declared a first-degree protected site.

“There are endemic kinds which should be protected according to the Bern Convention. The biological diversity is higher than the average rate in Turkey,” he said.