EMEC Tidal Test Facility Fall of Warness Eday, Orkney
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EMEC Tidal Test Facility Fall of Warness Eday, Orkney Environmental Statement The Fall of Warness, Eday, Orkney June 2005 Document prepared by: AURORA Environmental Ltd 8 Garson Place Stromness Orkney KW16 3EE Tel: +44 01856 851451 Fax: +44 01856 851452 E-mail: [email protected] Contact Liz Foubister/Gina Penwarden Prepared on behalf of: Tulloch Prime Contracting Limited Corrie Lodge Millburn Road Inverness IV2 3TP Contact Kevin Gallacher This document has been approved and authorised for issue by the following signatory in accordance with AURORA Environmental’s internal quality audit practice. Liz Foubister, Director Date of issue June, 2005 EMEC Tidal Test Facility EIA Page i This page is intentionally blank EMEC Tidal Test Facility EIA Page ii Contents Contents...................................................................................................................................... iii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background to the project ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Purpose and scope of the environmental assessment........................................................... 2 1.3 Legislative framework ................................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Data gaps and uncertainties.....................................................................................................5 2 Assessment of Alternatives ................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 7 2.2 Alternatives considered.............................................................................................................. 7 3 Development Description ................................................................................................... 13 3.1 Site location and layout ........................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Project schedule........................................................................................................................ 16 3.3 Site construction and installation ............................................................................................ 16 3.4 Operation of test site ................................................................................................................ 21 3.5 Decommissioning ...................................................................................................................... 22 4 Environmental Description .................................................................................................. 23 4.1 Physical characteristics............................................................................................................. 23 4.2 Biological characteristics.......................................................................................................... 29 4.3 Human environment ................................................................................................................. 43 5 Scoping and Consultation .................................................................................................. 53 6 Environmental Impact Assessment.................................................................................... 59 6.1 EIA methodology....................................................................................................................... 59 6.2 Matrix of potential environmental impacts............................................................................ 62 6.3 Environmental risk assessment matrix of potential accidents and non routine events .... 76 7 Onshore Construction Impacts........................................................................................... 79 7.1 Control building and access track.......................................................................................... 79 7.2 Cable landfall ............................................................................................................................ 85 7.3 Cumulative impacts.................................................................................................................. 87 8 Offshore Construction Impacts........................................................................................... 89 8.2 Cumulative impacts.................................................................................................................. 91 9 Generic Impacts from the Operation of Tidal Test Facility .............................................. 93 9.1 Seabed and coastal processes............................................................................................... 93 9.2 Benthic habitats and communities ......................................................................................... 94 9.3 Wildlife......................................................................................................................................... 95 9.4 Socio-economic issues.............................................................................................................. 97 9.5 Other sea users .......................................................................................................................... 98 EMEC Tidal Test Facility EIA Page iii 9.6 Visual and landscape impact..................................................................................................99 9.7 Archaeology.............................................................................................................................110 9.8 Cumulative impacts ................................................................................................................110 10 Accidental and non-routine events ................................................................................ 111 10.1 Onshore construction, installation and operation ...............................................................111 10.2 Offshore construction, installation and operation...............................................................111 11 Environmental Management............................................................................................ 113 11.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................113 11.2 Environmental management system ....................................................................................113 11.3 Consultation .............................................................................................................................117 11.4 Environmental assessment of individual test devices..........................................................117 11.5 Environmental monitoring.......................................................................................................117 12 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 119 13 References.......................................................................................................................... 121 Appendix A Potential Test Devices ................................................................................... 125 Appendix B OIC Planning Conditions .............................................................................. 127 Appendix C Supporting Studies to EIA.............................................................................. 133 Appendix D Responses to Informal Consultation ............................................................ 135 EMEC Tidal Test Facility EIA Page iv Non-technical summary S.1 Introduction When the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) was established by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and its funding partners in 2003, it was with the intention of stimulating and accelerating the development of both wave and tidal prototype energy generating devices. The wave test centre is now well established, and the next phase is to establish a consented tidal test site ready for future deployment of the novel tidal energy devices that are currently being designed and built by independent developers. The proposed test facilities will allow full scale generating devices to be tested under normal operating conditions and allow the generating capacity and performance to be independently verified. As part of the on-going Prime Contracting Framework Agreement, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has engaged Tulloch Prime Contracting Limited (Tulloch) to undertake the design and construction of the proposed tidal test facility to be located within the Fall of Warness, Eday, Orkney. AURORA Environmental Ltd (AURORA) has been contracted by Tulloch to undertake the environmental works for the construction phase of the tidal test facility, including a number of baseline studies and the production of an Environmental Statement (ES) to support consent applications. The scope of the Environmental Statement covers the construction and presence of the test site, but does not cover the installation and testing of individual prototype devices. In order to be able to assess the impacts of the long-term presence