Environmental Appraisal August 2014
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EMEC Fall of Warness Test Site: Environmental Appraisal August 2014 Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Principles of the Appraisal ....................................................................................... 2 1.2 Key Reference Materials ......................................................................................... 4 2 EMEC Fall of Warness Project Envelope ....................................................................... 6 3 Approach to the Environmental Appraisals..................................................................... 7 4 Environmental Appraisals ............................................................................................ 11 4.1 Impact Appraisal: Benthic Environment ................................................................. 11 4.2 Impact Appraisal: Fish and Shellfish ..................................................................... 24 4.3 Impact Appraisal: Hydrodynamic and Physical Processes .................................... 44 4.4 Impact Appraisal: Basking sharks ......................................................................... 52 4.5 Impact Appraisal: Cetaceans ................................................................................ 69 4.6 Impact Appraisal: Seals ........................................................................................ 91 4.7 Natura Appraisal: Special Area of Conservation (Seals) ..................................... 113 4.8 Impact Appraisal: Otters...................................................................................... 131 4.9 Impact Appraisal: Seabirds ................................................................................. 144 4.10 Natura Appraisal: Special Protection Areas (Seabirds) ....................................... 182 4.11 Impact Appraisal: Seascape, Coastal Character and Visual Amenity .................. 211 5 Mitigation, Monitoring and Research .......................................................................... 218 5.1 Summary of Potential Mitigation Activities ........................................................... 219 5.2 Potential Project-specific Monitoring Activities .................................................... 221 5.3 Research and Site-wide Monitoring: Past, Present and Future Opportunities ..... 222 6 Guide to Developing a Project-specific Environmental Monitoring Programme .......... 224 6.1 Purpose and Approach ....................................................................................... 224 6.2 Sources of Information ........................................................................................ 225 6.3 Suggested Contents of a PEMP .......................................................................... 225 6.4 Integration of the PEMP with the CMS and VMP ................................................ 226 7 Summary ................................................................................................................... 228 7.1 Conclusions from Receptor Appraisals ............................................................... 228 7.2 Summary of Monitoring Required ........................................................................ 231 ANNEX 1: Project Envelope for Devices and Operatrions ANNEX 2: Habitats Regulations ANNEX 3: Detailed Collision Risk Assessment Revision History Version Date Description Originated by Approved by 0.01 30/07/2014 Initial draft to Marine Scotland. DC JN 1.00 22/08/2014 Initial version of document. DC JN, MS-LOT Updated to include revisions to Collision 2.00 09/09/2014 DC JN, MS-LOT Risk Assessment annex. 3.00 31/10/2014 URL to AA added in Sections 1 & 7. DC JN, MS-LOT 4.00 12/11/2014 Remove Annex 2, 3, 5 and 6. DC JN, MS-LOT Acknowledgements EMEC would like to thank Scottish Natural Heritage for its input to the production of this document. Glossary of Terms AA Appropriate Assessment ADCP Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler AIS Automatic Identification System ASCOBANS Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas BERR UK Department for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform BGS British Geological Survey CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CMS Construction Method Statement CPA Coast Protection Act 1949 DART Drifting Acoustic Recorder and Tracker DECC Department of Energy and Climate Change DP Vessel Dynamic Positioning Vessel EIA Environmental Impact Assessment EMEC European Marine Energy Centre Ltd. EMF Electromagnetic Field EPS European Protected Species ES Environmental Statement FEAST Feature Activity Sensitivity Tool FEPA Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 FLOWBEC Flow and Benthic Ecology 4D GPS Global Positioning System GSM Global System for Mobile communications HRA Habitats Regulations Appraisal IALA International Association of Lighthouse Authorities IMS Integrated Management System JNCC Joint Nature Conservation Committee LSE Likely Significant Effect MAG EMEC Monitoring Advisory Group MarLIN Marine Life Information Network MCA Maritime and Coastguard Agency MECS Marine Energy Convertor Systems MGN Marine Guidance Notice MLWS Mean Low Water Springs MMO Marine Mammal Observer MNNS Marine Non-native Species MSFD Marine Strategic Framework Directive MS-LOT Marine Scotland Licensing Operations Team NRA Navigational Risk Assessment O&M Operation and Maintenance OIC Orkney Islands Council OWEZ Offshore wind farm Egmond aan Zee PBR Potential Biological Removal PCoD Population Consequences of Disturbance PEMP Project-specific Environmental Monitoring Programme PFOW Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters PMF Priority Marine Features PTS Permanent Threshold Shift RMS Root Mean Square ROV Remotely Operated Vehicle SAC Special Areas of Conservation SCANS II Small Cetaceans in the European Atlantic and North Sea Section 36 Section 36 Consent Under the Electricity Act 1989 SEPA Scottish Environmental Protection Agency SIMOPS Simultaneous Operations SMRU Marine mammal Research Unit SMWWC Scottish Marine Wildlife Watching Code SNH Scottish Natural Heritage SOP Standard Operating Procedure SPA Special Protection Areas SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest TPV Third Party Verification TTS Temporary Threshold Shift UK BAP UK Biodiversity Action Plan UKAS United Kingdom Accreditation Service VMP Vessel Management Plan WANE Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 WCA Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 1 Introduction In 2005, to support its application for the development of a test site at the Fall of Warness, Eday, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) commissioned an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), including the production of an Environmental Statement (Foubister, 2005). The Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 (FEPA) and Coast Protection Act 1949 (CPA) licences and other consents as detailed in Table 1 below established the principle for the presence of the test site, but did not cover the deployment of individual tidal devices by developers. Consequently, each developer wishing to deploy their device(s) at the test site must apply to the Regulator (Marine Scotland) for a Marine Licence1 (and Section 36 consent under the Electricity Act 1989, where total nominal rating of the device is greater than 1MW (Section 36)). In doing so, each developer must provide appropriate supporting information to assess the risk of impact of deploying, operating and decommissioning their device(s) on key natural heritage features and other topics, such as safety and navigation. EMEC Developers Previous and 3 CPAs (for the 7 cables) and 1 Various CPA/FEPA/Marine Licence existing consents FEPA for the installation of cable held by individual developers for protectors – all have expired. device deployments. Planning permission for onshore Includes a temporary cable (#8). facilities. Marine Licence for the deployment of scientific instrumentation. TCE seabed lease 15 year lease from Nov 2007. N/A. Expires 2022. Embedded Limits total export capacity to 4MW. N/A. Generation Expires November 2031. Connection Agreement Existing appraisals (Non statutory) EIA with ES produced Appraisals to support individual in 2005 to support EMEC’s developer CPA/FEPA and Marine CPA/FEPA applications. Licence applications. Assesses broad scale generic Each focuses on individual device impacts from presence of test site. specific impacts. Device specific impacts not considered. Table 1: Summary of consents and licenses for the Fall of Warness test site – June 2013. Prior to this Environmental Appraisal document and the associated process becoming current, all applications for individual deployments have required case-by-case appraisal by 1 The principle of the Marine Licence was established under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, Part 4, Sections 20 to 64 Fall of Warness Test Site: Environmental Appraisal REP 443-04-01 20141120 © EMEC 2014 Page 1 of 233 Marine Scotland, and consultation with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and other consultees. For this purpose, all of the documentation produced by EMEC for the original FEPA application in 2005 (e.g. the Environmental Statement (ES) and subsequent updated Environmental Description) has been made available to each developer to support their individual licence applications. The Scottish Government’s commitment to the capturing of wave and tidal resources through the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters (PFOW) and Saltire Prize leasing rounds mean that resource