Federal Act
on the Protection of Waters
(Waters Protection Act, WPA)

¹ The bed load budget in the body of wa­ter may not be changed by in­stall­a­tions to the ex­tent that they cause ser­i­ous harm to the in­di­gen­ous flora and fauna, their hab­it­ats, the ground­wa­ter re­gi­men and flood pro­tec­tion. The per­sons re­spons­ible for the in­stall­a­tions shall take suit­able meas­ures to this end.

² The meas­ures are de­term­ined by:

a.

the de­gree of harm caused to the body of wa­ter;

b.

the eco­lo­gic­al po­ten­tial of the body of wa­ter;

c.

the pro­por­tion­al­ity of the cost;

d.

the in­terests of flood pro­tec­tion;

e.

the en­ergy policy goals re­lat­ing to the pro­mo­tion of re­new­able en­ergy sources.

³ With­in the catch­ment area of the body of wa­ter con­cerned, the meas­ures must be co­ordin­ated with each oth­er after hear­ing the per­sons re­spons­ible for the in­stall­a­tions con­cerned.