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Specialist Report AN AQUATIC ASSESSMENT OF THE LOCAL RIVER SYSTEMS OF THE BRAKFONTEIN MINING OPERATION UNIVERSAL COAL SEPTEMBER 2012 _________________________________________________ Digby Wells & Associates (Pty) Ltd. Co. Reg. No. 1999/05985/07. Fern Isle, Section 10, 359 Pretoria Ave Randburg Private Bag X10046, Randburg, 2125, South Africa Tel: +27 11 789 9495, Fax: +27 11 789 9498, [email protected], www.digbywells.com _________________________________________________ Directors: AR Wilke, LF Koeslag, PD Tanner (British)*, AJ Reynolds (Chairman) (British)*, J Leaver*, GE Trusler (C.E.O) *Non-Executive _________________________________________________ p:\projects l to z\universal coal plc\brakfontein\specialists\eia - specialists\biophysical\aquatics\brakfontien biomonitoring uni1292\report\brakfontein biomonitoring uni1292 public review version 2 do.docx AN AQUATIC ASSESSMENT OF THE LOCAL RIVER SYSTEMS OF THE BRAKFONTEIN MINING OPERATION UNI1292 This document has been prepared by Digby Wells Environmental. Report Title: AN AQUATIC ASSESSMENT OF THE LOCAL RIVER SYSTEMS OF THE BRAKFONTEIN MINING OPERATION Project Number: UNI1292 Name Responsibility Signature Date Russell Tate Report compiler 13 August 2012 Andrew Husted Review 23 July 2012 Danie Otto Review This report is provided solely for the purposes set out in it and may not, in whole or in part, be used for any other purpose without Digby Wells Environmental prior written consent. ii AN AQUATIC ASSESSMENT OF THE LOCAL RIVER SYSTEMS OF THE BRAKFONTEIN MINING OPERATION UNI1292 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Digby Wells Environmental (Digby Wells) has been appointed, by Universal Coal Plc., to conduct an aquatic assessment at the proposed Brakfontein Coal Mine. The Brakfontein Coal Project is located in the Delmas district, on the western margin of the Witbank coalfield This report details the aquatic assessment for inclusion into the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)/Environmental Management Plan (EMP) reports for the project. The proposed project area falls within the Olifants Water Management Area within the quaternary catchment B20E. The project area has 3 water courses draining the mining operation area. One of these courses is the Wilge River. Rapid bioassessment techniques were applied at 6 sites to determine the overall ecostatus of the water courses associated with the proposed mining operation. The river courses were determined to be in a Class E ecostatus indicating that large anthropogenic modification has occurred. The Class E ecostatus was derived from biotic indices which gave an indication that the Class E score is probably due to poor water quality as a result of agricultural and mining activities upstream. These results are confirmed in a separate study done by Digby Wells which states several water quality parameters at twice to 11 times the magnitude of the Water Quality Objectives for the Wilge River. The possible impacts of the proposed project were linked to a deterioration of water quality and quantity placing an emphasis on water quality. Mitigation measures have been recommended and a biomonitoring assessment plan developed. iii AN AQUATIC ASSESSMENT OF THE LOCAL RIVER SYSTEMS OF THE BRAKFONTEIN MINING OPERATION UNI1292 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... III 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 2 TERMS OF REFERENCE ................................................................................................ 2 3 KNOWLEDGE GAPS ....................................................................................................... 2 3.1 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 2 3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................. 3 4 STUDY AREA ................................................................................................................... 3 6 METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................. 7 6.1 PHASE 1: DESKTOP STUDY ....................................................................................... 7 6.2 PHASE 2: ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY ............................................................................. 7 6.2.1 Water Quality ................................................................................................... 7 6.2.2 Habitat Quality ................................................................................................. 8 6.2.2.1 Index of Habitat Integrity ............................................................................................ 8 6.2.2.2 Invertebrate Habitat Assessment System .................................................................. 8 6.2.3 Aquatic Invertebrate Assessment ..................................................................... 9 6.2.3.1 South African Scoring System ................................................................................... 9 6.2.3.2 Macro-Invertebrate Assessment Index .................................................................... 10 6.2.4 Fish Assessment ........................................................................................... 10 6.2.5 Ecological Description .................................................................................... 10 7 FINDINGS ....................................................................................................................... 10 7.1 SITE SELECTION ..................................................................................................... 10 7.2 WATER QUALITY ..................................................................................................... 11 7.3 HABITAT INTEGRITY ................................................................................................ 12 7.3.1 Index of Habitat Integrity ................................................................................ 12 7.3.2 Integrated Habitat Assessment System ......................................................... 13 7.4 AQUATIC MACRO-INVERTEBRATES ........................................................................... 14 7.4.1 SASS 5 .......................................................................................................... 14 7.4.2 Macro-Invertebrate Response Assessment Index .......................................... 16 7.5 FISH ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................. 16 7.5.1 Ecological Description .................................................................................... 17 iv AN AQUATIC ASSESSMENT OF THE LOCAL RIVER SYSTEMS OF THE BRAKFONTEIN MINING OPERATION UNI1292 8 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................. 18 9 IMPACT ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................. 18 9.1 PERCEIVED IMPACTS ............................................................................................... 18 9.2 IMPACT SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT ........................................................................ 19 10 MANAGEMENT PLAN .................................................................................................... 25 11 MONITORING PROGRAMME ....................................................................................... 28 11.1 LOCATION .............................................................................................................. 28 11.2 PARAMETERS ......................................................................................................... 28 11.3 OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................... 28 11.4 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ............................................................................. 28 11.5 RESPONSIBILITY ..................................................................................................... 28 11.6 FREQUENCY ........................................................................................................... 28 11.7 RESOURCES ........................................................................................................... 28 11.8 REPORTING STRUCTURE ......................................................................................... 28 11.9 THRESHOLD OR LIMITS ............................................................................................ 28 11.10 CORRECTIVE ACTION ........................................................................................... 29 12 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 29 13 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 30 v AN AQUATIC ASSESSMENT OF THE LOCAL RIVER SYSTEMS OF THE BRAKFONTEIN MINING OPERATION UNI1292 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4-1: Map indicating position of aquatic biomonitoring points. ...................................... 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 4-1: Table depicting Global Positioning Systems points and site descriptions ............. 4 Table 6-1: The IHI integrity classes and short descriptions of each class (Kleynhans, 1999) 8 Table 6-2: Description
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