Assessment of Ecological Effects of the Reclamation and Extension to Wellington Airport
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Assessment of Ecological Effects of the reclamation and extension to Wellington Airport Mark James1, Alison MacDiarmid2, Jenny Beaumont2, David Thompson2 Prepared for Wellington International Airport Limited July 2015 1 Aquatic Environmental Sciences Ltd 2 NIWA Wellington [email protected] P O Box 328 Whangamata 3643 021 0538379 AES - Assessment of Ecological Effects Wellington Airport 2015 1 Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Scope of This Report ............................................................................................................... 4 2. The Physical Environment ............................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Lyall Bay .................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2 Soft sediments ........................................................................................................................ 5 2.3 Hydrodynamics ....................................................................................................................... 5 2.4 Contaminants .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.5 Optical properties ................................................................................................................... 6 3. Biological resources ........................................................................................................................ 8 3.1 Benthic Communities .............................................................................................................. 8 3.2 Reef Communities ................................................................................................................. 10 3.3 Plankton ................................................................................................................................ 11 3.4 Birds and Mammals .............................................................................................................. 13 3.5 Fish populations .................................................................................................................... 14 4. Description of Reclamation Operations ........................................................................................ 14 5. Effects of Construction .................................................................................................................. 15 6. Physical Disturbance and Loss of Habitat ..................................................................................... 16 6.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................... 16 6.2 Soft sediment benthic communities ..................................................................................... 16 6.3 Reef communities ................................................................................................................. 17 6.4 Birds and mammals ............................................................................................................... 20 6.5 Fish ........................................................................................................................................ 20 7. Water quality and contaminants .................................................................................................. 23 8. Suspended Sediments and Turbidity ............................................................................................ 23 8.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 23 8.2 Benthic communities ............................................................................................................ 25 8.3 Reef communities ................................................................................................................. 27 8.4 Plankton ................................................................................................................................ 28 8.5 Birds ...................................................................................................................................... 30 8.6 Mammals .............................................................................................................................. 30 8.7 Fish ........................................................................................................................................ 31 9. Sedimentation ............................................................................................................................... 33 AES - Assessment of Ecological Effects Wellington Airport 2015 2 9.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 33 9.2 Benthic communities ............................................................................................................ 34 9.3 Reef communities ................................................................................................................. 34 9.4 Birds and fish ......................................................................................................................... 35 10. Noise and Blasting ..................................................................................................................... 36 11. Recommendations for avoiding, remedying or mitigating effects ........................................... 37 12. Monitoring ................................................................................................................................ 39 13. Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 40 14. References ................................................................................................................................ 40 Appendix 1. Construction details (from AECOM) ................................................................................. 44 Appendix 2. ........................................................................................................................................... 45 1.0 Literature review ................................................................................................................... 45 1.1 Ecological functioning of reefs ...................................................................................... 45 1.2 Habitat complexity and biodiversity ............................................................................. 47 1.3 Habitat requirements of key species ........................................................................... 48 1.3.1 Paua ............................................................................................................................. 48 1.4 Designs that enhance biodiversity ............................................................................... 50 2.0 Proposed design features to enhance biodiversity ....................................................... 51 2.1 Intertidal zone ................................................................................................................. 51 2.2 Subtidal zone .................................................................................................................. 52 2.3 Enhancing the ecological value of the rock dyke for blue penguins ............................... 52 3.0 References .............................................................................................................................. 53 AES - Assessment of Ecological Effects Wellington Airport 2015 3 1. Introduction 1.1 Background Wellington International Airport Ltd (WIAL) presently operates with a single 1945 m Take-Off Runway Available (TORA) and 90 m Runway End Safety Areas (RESA) at each end of the runway. WIAL has undertaken detailed reviews of traveler demography and determined that with an extension of the runway to a minimum of 2300 m TORA this would enable Wellington Airport to handle most Code E aircraft types with sufficient load capacity to and from Asian and American destinations. WIAL is very aware of the potential effects on the environment associated with a reclamation for a runway extension and has commenced planning for this extension with the first phase being preparation of a number of assessment reports as part of its preparation of the various statutory applications for the project. As yet the final design of the extension has not been confirmed but based on geotechnical work and consideration of options to the north and south a decision has been made to apply to reclaim land to the south into Lyall Bay to enable the project. The design may involve the installment of stone columns into the underlying sediments to support the structure and/or vibro-coring depending on further investigations (AECOM 2015), and will involve a rock dyke around the outside to protect the reclamation from wave activity, and then infilling of the reclamation with material suitable to sustain the heavy impact loads of aircraft. An initial