As with the both rivers which form the Temska, there are environmental concerns stemming from the 2008 plan to build 60 micro hydros in the Stara Planina region. The worst effects are created by the derivative hydro plants. In such cases, the long pipes which redirect the flow are being laid. As they are all privately owned, the owners often redirect all the water in the pipes. They are not even leaving the biological minimum which is too low to begin with, since those are not major flows, instead the lower courses of the streams dry completely. The inhabitants self-organized into various environmental groups. When construction of such a micro hydro began on the Rudinjska Reka, a tributary to the Temska, the construction workers rerouted the river completely, some from its mouth. However, the redirected water reached a sinkhole and began to descend, leaving the river completely dry. Members of one of the organizations gathered in August 2018 and, without any permissions, dug a channel which bypassed the river back into its natural riverbed. This prompted similar actions in east and southeast Serbia, where citizens clashed with the security and rerouted rivers, or tried to, back to the original courses, amidst the police interventions.