River Ribe Å passes through the city of Ribe by four runs. Three of them are blocked by milldams and one, the Stamp Mill, by a 1.5 m high weir built for hydroelectricity production purposes. The Stamp Mill hydroelectric turbine is still in function and supplies seven households with electricity.
The dams and the weir effectively hinder the upstream migration for houting and most other fish species. None of the dams or the weir can, however, be removed, as groundwater levels below the historic city has to be maintained to prevent deterioration of the city’s foundation.
To enable the houting to gain access to the upstream spawning areas the Houting-project will be bought and the mill will be dismantled and replaced by riffles. The gradient of the riffles will be 4 ‰ thereby taking into consideration the poor swimming capacity of houting.
Most of the river discharge will be diverted through the new course. By historic reasons a certain discharge will be maintained at the other mill dams in Ribe.
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The Stamp Mill seen from the downstream site. The mill will be dismantled and replaced by riffles.
(Photo: Hans Ole Hansen).
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Map of Ribe town.
With the Houting-project most of the river discharge will be diverted through the new course in the Stampemølle Stream and over the riffles that will replace the Stamp Mill (RED dot). The BLUE dots mark the three other mill dams in Ribe town. These obstacles will not be altered.
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