A water judgment determines how water may be discharged through a dam or power plant.
Decided water judgments in Sweden have never had to be reconsidered, but are valid forever.
In many cases, the judges are over 100 years old.
Long process
Ljungan will be the first of the country's larger regulated rivers to reconsider its water judgments, and negotiations will start there in 2023. Since there are approximately 2,100 hydropower plants in the country, the entire process of reconsidering all judgments is estimated to take about 20 years.
What you have to relate to are the guideline values that the Swedish Marine and Water Authority has developed for how much water can be "returned" for environmental measures in each river - without a negative impact on power production.
In some places in the country, that figure is over 20 percent, but for Ljungan the guideline value is only 0.5 percent.
Hoping for improvements
In many places after Ljungan, there are hopes that the process can lead to improvements.
In the village of Skålan in Bergs municipality, since 1973, when the Trångforsen power plant was built, it has been forced to see how the stretch from Skålsjön down to Åsarna is drained at the end of each summer when the water is instead led to the power plant.
- The fish panics when the water disappears and you can see the trout jumping towards the pond in the last water that remains.
We hope that there can be a change, but at the same time we are a little skeptical that the power companies will really let go of the water required, says Leif Rode from Skålan's fisheries conservation area.
In the clip above, you can follow to Trångforsen outside Skålan.