Project Name

ECOLOGICAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROPOSED NAHOON DAM EAST COAST BULK WATER SUPPLY SCHEME, EASTERN CAPE Prepared for: 52 Stewart Drive East London 5241 Prepared by: Coastal & Environmental Services EAST LONDON 16 Tyrell Street, Berea East London, 5241 043 762 8313 Also in Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth & Maputo www.cesnet.co.za December 2013 Ecological Impact Assessment – December 2013 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION This document contains intellectual property and propriety information that is protected by copyright in favour of Coastal & Environmental Services and the specialist consultants. The document may therefore not be reproduced, used or distributed to any third party without the prior written consent of Coastal & Environmental Services. This document is prepared exclusively for submission to Element Consulting Engineers, and is subject to all confidentiality, copyright and trade secrets, rules intellectual property law and practices of South Africa. Ecological Impact Assessment – December 2013 This Report should be cited as follows: Coastal & Environmental Services, December 2013: Nahoon Dam East Coast Bulk Water Supply Pipeline Ecological Impact Assessment, CES, East London. REVISIONS TRACKING TABLE CES Report Revision and Tracking Schedule Document Title Nahoon Dam East Coast Bulk Water Supply Pipeline Ecological Impact Assessment Client Name & Element Consulting Engineers Address 52 Stewart Drive East London 5241 Document Reference Status Final Issue Date December 2013 Lead Author Dr Greer Hawley Ms Daisy Kotsedi Reviewer Dr Alan Carter Study Leader or Dr Alan Carter Registered Environmental Assessment Practitioner Approval Report Distribution Circulated to No. of hard No. electronic copies copies DEA 2 2 DWA 1 1 DEDEAT 1 SAHRA 1 ECPHRA 1 This document has been prepared in accordance with the scope of Coastal & Environmental Services (CES) appointment and contains intellectual property and proprietary information that is protected by copyright in favour of CES. The document may therefore not be reproduced, used or distributed to any third party without the prior written consent of Coastal & Environmental Services. This document is prepared exclusively for use by CES’s client. CES accepts no liability for Coastal& Environmental Services any use of this document other than by its client and only for East London the purposes for which it was prepared. No person other than 16 Tyrell Road the client may copy (in whole or in part) use or rely on the Berea contents of this document, without the prior written permission East London of CES. The document is subject to all confidentiality, 5201 copyright and trade secrets rules, intellectual property law and +27 43 726 7809/8313 practices of South Africa. [email protected] www.cesnet.co.za Also in Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town & Maputo Ecological Impact Assessment – December 2013 THE PROJECT TEAM Dr Alan Carter is a Director at CES, holds a PhD in Marine Biology and is a certified Public Accountant, with extensive training and experience in both financial accounting and environmental science disciplines with international accounting firms in South Africa and the USA. He has 15 years’ experience in environmental management and has specialist skills in sanitation, coastal environments and industrial waste. Dr Carter is registered as a Professional Natural Scientist under the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP). Dr Greer Hawley (Principal Environmental Consultant) has a BSc degree in Botany and Zoology and a BSc Honours in Botany from the University of Cape Town. She completed her PhD thesis (Microbiology) at Rhodes University. Greer has been involved in a number of diverse activities. The core academic focus has been directed in the field of taxonomy both in the plant and fungal kingdom. Greer’s research ranges from studying fresh and marine algae, estuarine diatoms, Restio species classification in the fynbos and forest vegetation and fungal species identification and ecology. Greer’s study of fungi have also contributed towards an understanding of soil ecology and “below ground” ecology. She is currently working on numerous impact assessments at the East London branch. Registration: South African Society for Microbiology, South African Association of Botany. Ms Daisy Kotsedi (Environmental Consultant) has a BSc. Honours and MSc degree in Botany both from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. Her MSc thesis focused on the effects of environmental factors on microalgal biomass and community composition in the Sundays River Estuary. Daisy’s research interests include a broad range of environmental conservation and estuarine ecology with the main focus on microalgae. Daisy worked as an intern at WWF-SA in the freshwater unit in 2011. She is currently employed in the East London office of CES. Daisy is registered as a Candidate Natural Scientist under SACNASP. Coastal & Environmental Services ii Nahoon Dam East Coast Bulk Water Supply Pipeline Ecological Impact Assessment – December 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project description ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Project locality (Figure1.1) ............................................................................................... 1 1.3 Objectives........................................................................................................................ 1 1.4 Terms of Reference ......................................................................................................... 1 1.5 Approach ......................................................................................................................... 2 1.6 Limitations and assumptions ........................................................................................... 2 2 RELEVANT LEGISLATION .................................................................................................... 3 3 ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 4 3.1 Impact assessment .......................................................................................................... 4 3.1.1 Impact rating methodology ........................................................................................... 4 3.1.2 Cumulative Impacts ..................................................................................................... 4 4 DESCRIPTION OF THE BIOPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT...................................................... 5 4.1 Physical environment ...................................................................................................... 5 4.2 Ecological environment: Literature information ................................................................ 5 4.2.1 SANBI Vegetation (Mucina and Rutherford, 2006) ....................................................... 5 4.2.2 Subtropical Thicket Ecosystem Programme (STEP) .................................................... 6 4.2.3 Eastern Cape Biodiversity Conservation Plan .............................................................. 7 4.2.4 Wetlands and Rivers .................................................................................................... 8 4.2.5 Current land-use and general state of ecology ............................................................. 9 4.3 Ecological environment: Site assessment ...................................................................... 10 4.4 Plant species identified .................................................................................................. 15 4.5 Animal species .............................................................................................................. 16 5 IMPACT IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT ................................................................. 17 5.1 Identified Impacts .......................................................................................................... 17 5.2 Impact Assessment ....................................................................................................... 18 6 IMPACT STATEMENT, CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................... 20 6.1 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 20 6.2 Recommendations for the proposed Nahoon Dam Bulk Water Supply Pipeline. ............ 20 6.2.1 Planning and design .................................................................................................. 20 6.2.2 Construction .............................................................................................................. 20 6.2.3 Operation ................................................................................................................... 21 6.3 Environmental Statement and Opinion of the Specialist................................................. 21 7 REFERENCES...................................................................................................................... 22 8 APPENDIX A ........................................................................................................................ 23 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Alternative routes of the proposed Nahoon Dam East Coast Bulk Water Supply Pipeline. ..................................................................................................................................

Load more