MTR Corporation Limited Tung Chung Cable Car Project & Tung Chung Cable Car Project – Diversion of the Ngong Ping Stream & Provision of Temporary Helipad at Tea Garden, Ngong Ping for Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual July 2005 Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual List of Contents Page Chapters and Appendices 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Purpose of the Manual 2 1.3 Site Location 3 1.4 Sensitive Receivers 4 1.5 Environmental Monitoring and Audit Requirements 4 1.6 Environmental Management Organisation 5 1.7 Construction Programme 7 2 AIR QUALITY 8 2.1 Introduction 8 2.2 Air Quality Parameters 8 2.3 Monitoring Equipment 8 2.4 Monitoring Locations 8 2.5 Baseline Monitoring 10 2.6 Impact Monitoring 11 2.7 Event and Action Plan for Air Quality 11 3 NOISE 14 3.1 Introduction 14 3.2 Noise Parameters 14 3.3 Monitoring Equipment 14 3.4 Monitoring Locations 14 3.5 Baseline Monitoring 16 3.6 Impact Monitoring 16 3.7 Event and Action Plan for Noise 16 4 ECOLOGY 19 4.1 Introduction 19 4.2 Ecological Monitoring during Construction Phase 19 4.3 Ecological Monitoring during Operational Phase 20 5 VISUAL AND LANDSCAPE 22 5.1 General 22 5.2 Landscape and Visual Baseline 22 5.3 Construction and Operational Phase Audit 22 i Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual 6 WATER QUALITY 24 6.1 Introduction 24 6.2 Water Quality Monitoring during Construction Phase 24 7 WASTE 25 7.1 Introduction 25 7.2 Construction Phase Audit 25 8 SITE ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT 26 8.1 Site Inspections 26 8.2 Compliance with Legal Requirements 27 8.3 Environmental Complaints 27 9 REPORTING 29 9.1 General 29 9.2 Baseline Monitoring Report 29 9.3 EM&A Reports 29 9.4 Data Keeping 31 9.5 Interim Notifications of Environmental Quality Limit Exceedances 31 List of Tables Table 2.1 Dust Monitoring Stations Table 2.2 Action and Limit Levels for Air Quality Table 2.3 Event/Action Plan for Air Quality Table 3.1 Noise Monitoring Stations Table 3.2 Action and Limit Levels for Construction Noise Table 3.3 Event/Action Plan for Construction Noise Table 4.1 Monitoring Plan during Construction Phase and the Mitigation Measures Annexes Annex A Implementation Schedule Annex B Environmental Monitoring Data Recording Sheets Annex C Complaint Log Annex D Notification of Environmental Exceedances Annex E Noise Monitoring for the Operation of the Temporary Helipad at Tea Garden, Ngong Ping ii Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The raison d’etre for Tung Chung Cable Car Project is encapsulated in the concept of enhancing tourism and in the particular context of Lantau of “getting back to nature”. The experience enjoyed by tourists and residents alike will begin at a state-of-the-art terminal in the vibrant and energetic Tung Chung New Town. The journey will continue with gondolas gently traversing the Sea Channel, leaving behind the panorama of the airport and the hustle and bustle of urban life. A slow ascent of the majestic and imposing Nei Lek Shan will unexpectedly reveal the first glimpse of the spectacular Giant Buddha surrounded by the collected monastic buildings and village houses. Upon arrival at the Ngong Ping terminus the tranquil atmosphere and the context of the religious setting will prevail. The terminus will therefore be of a very different style to the one in Tung Chung, in order to blend into its environs. The Tung Chung Cable Car Project includes the following: • construction of a Bi-cable cable car system of about 5.7 km long between Tung Chung and Ngong Ping; • construction of two termini, one at Tung Chung and the other at Ngong Ping; • construction of two angle stations and eight supporting towers; and • construction of emergency rescue trail and other ancillary works. The Diversion of the Ngong Ping Stream has been identified in the developed design stage, subsequent to the issue of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Tung Chung Cable Car Project. It will provide the space necessary to accommodate the architectural, planning and engineering features of a tourist village and attraction. In fact, serious consideration has been given to the alternative of retaining the existing stream, which in other circumstances could have been an attraction within the proposed Theme Village. However, there are a range of issues which have conspired to make this infeasible and lead to the conclusion that diversion of the stream is an essential aspect of the project. The diversion will also alleviate potential flooding, water quality and environmental health issues in the vicinity of the proposed Tung Chung Cable Car Terminal and Theme Village. The Tung Chung Cable Car Project – Diversion of the Ngong Ping Stream includes: • diversion of approximately 390m of the existing Ngong Ping Stream around the northern site boundary of the Cable Car Terminal and Theme Village; and • diversion of approximately 86m of a ditch, which forms a tributary to the Ngong Ping Stream, to the west of the Terminal site. 1 Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual 1.2 Purpose of the Manual The purpose of this Environmental Monitoring and Audit (EM&A) Manual, hereafter referred to as the Manual, is to guide the set up of an EM&A programme to ensure compliance with the study recommendations of Tung Chung Cable Car Project EIA, Ngong Ping Stream Diversion Project Profile and Project Profile for the Provision of Temporary Helipad at Tea Garden, Ngong Ping; to assess the effectiveness of the recommended mitigation measures and; to identify any further need for additional mitigation measures or remedial action. This Manual outlines the monitoring and audit programme proposed for the projects, ‘Tung Chung Cable Car Project’, ‘Tung Chung Cable Car Project– Diversion of Ngong Ping Stream’ and ‘Provision of Temporary Helipad at Tea Garden, Ngong Ping for the Tung Chung Cable Car Project’. This Manual contains the following: (a) responsibilities of the Contractor, the Engineer or Engineer’s Representative (ER) and the Environmental Team (ET) with respect to the environmental monitoring and audit requirements during the course of the project; (b) information on project organisation and programming of construction activities for the project; (c) the hypotheses of potential impacts, the basis for and description of the broad approach underlying the environmental monitoring and audit programme; (d) requirements with respect to the construction schedule and the necessary environmental monitoring and audit programme to track the varying environmental impacts; (e) the specific questions and testable hypotheses that the monitoring programme is designed to answer; (f) details of the methodologies to be adopted, including all field, laboratory and analytical procedures, and details on quality assurance and quality control programme; (g) the rationale on which the environmental monitoring data will be evaluated and interpreted and the details of the statistical procedures that will be used to interpret the data; (h) definition of Action and Limit levels (A/L Levels); (i) establishment of Event and Action Plans; (j) requirements for reviewing pollution sources and working procedures required in the event of non-compliance of the environmental criteria and complaints; (k) requirements for presentation of environmental monitoring and audit data and appropriate reporting procedures; and (l) requirements for review of EIA predictions and effectiveness of the environmental monitoring and audit programme. This document serves an updated version of the EM&A Manual and will be further reviewed as necessary. 2 Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual 1.3 Site Location The site location for the Tung Chung Cable Car Project encompasses the “envelope between Tung Chung and Ngong Ping” and also takes into consideration the Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok (for the provision of an angle station) as shown in the location plan below. 3 Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual The Ngong Ping Stream diversion works are located to the north and west of the proposed Cable Car Terminal and Theme Village. The location of the proposed stream diversion is shown below. Figure 1.2 Ngong Ping Stream Diversion Site Location Plan 1.4 Sensitive Receivers Sensitive receivers have been identified within the study area of the Tung Chung Cable Car Project in the EIA Report. These include scattered village houses at Ngong Ping, Po Lin Monastery, Tin Tan Buddha Statue, Lin Chi Monastery, SG Davis Youth Hostel, Tung Chung Crescent, Fu Tung Estate, Seaview Crescent and Wan Ho Kan Primary School. As for the Ngong Ping Stream diversion works, sensitive receivers within the study area include village houses at Ngong Ping. 1.5 Environmental Monitoring and Audit Requirements The likely environmental impacts arising from construction of cable car and stream diversion works including dust, noise, water quality, waste, ecology, visual and landscape, and cultural heritage have been identified in the EIA report and Project Profile respectively. These impacts can be minimised to acceptable levels provided that appropriate environmental mitigation measures and environmental monitoring and audit requirements are implemented. An Implementation Schedule of the environmental mitigation measures recommended in the EIA Report and Project Profile is described in Annex A. In order to ensure the acceptability, monitoring and audit requirements for dust, noise, water quality, ecology and visual and landscape have been identified and are described in detail in the subsequent sections. 4 Tung Chung Cable Car Project Environmental Monitoring & Audit Manual Computer-based Environmental Quality Protection Management System (EQPMS) operated by MTRC in various recent projects such as Penny’s Bay Line, Tsim Sha Tsui Station Modification and Tseung Kwan O Extension will be applied for data recording and reporting.