LEGISLATIVE MECHANISMS FOR ENSURING ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY IN THE HYDRO-ENERGY SECTOR

Hydropower is one of the most ecological and economic sources of energy production. However, even this direction leads to negative changes in the surrounding natural environment, in particular, causes damage to agriculture, contributes to constant drops in water levels, a decrease in the number of fish and other living organisms, flooding and erosion of large areas, including of agricultural lands, increases the regulation of river flow, as a result of which there is an overlap of migration routes to spawning grounds, which contributes to the partial or complete loss of biodiversity of the ichthyofauna of the regulated natural reservoir. The current legislation pays considerable attention to the issue of greening the hydropower industry and its comprehensive development, as well as the development of legal mechanisms to prevent the deterioration of the environment due to the development of the indicated direction of alternative energy. A critical analysis of modern legal support for the development of hydropower shows its fragmentary nature and the superiority of general norms that regulate the development of alternative energy as a whole. However, the study of legal acts allows to develop a classification of environmental and legal mechanisms, compliance with which will ensure safety for people and the environment when using hydropower facilities. Among the main ecological and legal methods of environmental protection in the specified field, in particular, the following are distinguished: the prohibition to build reservoirs in the river with a total volume that exceeds the flow of the given river in an estimated low-water year, which is observed once every twenty years; prohibition to change the topography of the river; prohibition to destroy the beds of drying rivers, streams and watercourses; prohibition to reduce the natural vegetation cover and forest cover of the river; compliance with the established norms and standards of environmental protection during the design, construction and reconstruction of capital facilities; carrying out environmental impact assessment of existing and future hydropower facilities; taking into account the results of the strategic environmental assessment; localization of discharges followed by their neutralization, storage and disposal; observance of «ecological» obligations by special water users; cooperation with nature protection organizations; involving the public in making decisions about the construction of new facilities, as well as other decisions that may affect people's health and the state of the environment; monitoring the state of water and water resources; application of the basin management principle; maintenance of the state water cadastre.