Technical Report 4.11: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Environmental Report
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Technical Report 4.11: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Environmental Report Water Management Resources Plan 2020-2080 March 2020 Page intentionally left blank Security Notice This Document is classified as official sensitive in accordance with the Security and Emergency Measures Directive as it includes specific location details of public water supply sources. This document is only reviewed by designated persons and must not be disclosed or published to third parties or placed on a website. A redacted version of this document is available for publication. This page left intentionally blank Affinity Water Draft Final Water Resources Management Plan 2019: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Environmental Report Project Number: 60344725 May 2019 fWRMP19 Environmental Report Quality information Prepared by Checked by Approved by Alastair Peattie Steve Smith Steve Smith Associate Director Technical Director Technical Director Graham McGrath Assistant Consultant Rosie Cox Environmental Planner Cheryl Beattie Environmental Planner Revision History Revision Revision date Details Name Position 1.0 10 October 2017 Draft for internal review Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant 2.0 16 October 2017 Updated to reflect receipt of Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant preferred plan & alternative plan 3.0 24 October 2017 Draft for client review Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant 4.0 02 November 2017 Draft following initial client Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant review 5.0 12 November 2017 Revised final draft following Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant amendments to the dWRMP19 6.0 14 November 2017 Revised final draft following Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant further client review 7.0 24 November 2017 Revised final for consultation Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant alongside the dWRMP19 8.0 26 February 2018 Revised following Alastair Peattie Principal Consultant communications with key stakeholders 9.0 21 January 2019 Revised to reflect Alastair Peattie Associate Director consultation responses and the revised draft WRMP 10.0 14 February 2019 Revised to reflect QA Alastair Peattie Associate Director comments 11.0 18 February 2019 Revised to reflect further QA Alastair Peattie Associate Director comments 12.0 26 February 2019 Revised to reflect legal Alastair Peattie Associate Director review 13.0 17 May 2019 Revised to reflect Alastair Peattie Associate Director consultation responses and the fWRMP19 14.0 24 May 2019 Revised to reflect QA Alastair Peattie Associate Director comments AECOM fWRMP19 Environmental Report Prepared for: Affinity Water, Tamblin Way, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9EZ Prepared by: AECOM Limited 3rd Floor Portwall Place Portwall Lane Bristol BS1 6NA UK T: +44 117 901 7000 aecom.com © 2019 AECOM Limited. All Rights Reserved. This document has been prepared by AECOM Limited (“AECOM”) for sole use of our client (the “Client”) in accordance with generally accepted consultancy principles, the budget for fees and the terms of reference agreed between AECOM and the Client. Any information provided by third parties and referred to herein has not been checked or verified by AECOM, unless otherwise expressly stated in the document. No third party may rely upon this document without the prior and express written agreement of AECOM. AECOM fWRMP19 Environmental Report THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK AECOM fWRMP19 Environmental Report Table of Contents Glossary ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................. 13 Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... i 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 What is SEA? ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Compliance with other environmental legislation .......................................................... 4 1.3 Purpose and structure of this Environmental Report .................................................... 5 2. The Water Resource Management Plan ................................................................................. 6 2.1 Introduction to Affinity Water ......................................................................................... 6 2.2 About the WRMP .......................................................................................................... 9 2.3 Development of the WRMP19 .................................................................................... 10 2.4 Sustainability reductions ............................................................................................. 10 3. Scoping Information .............................................................................................................. 11 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 11 3.2 Consultation on the scope .......................................................................................... 11 3.3 Spatial scope ............................................................................................................... 11 3.4 Temporal scope ........................................................................................................... 11 3.5 Key issues ................................................................................................................... 12 3.6 SEA objectives ............................................................................................................ 13 4. SEA of Options ....................................................................................................................... 15 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 15 4.2 Unconstrained options ................................................................................................ 15 4.3 Constrained options .................................................................................................... 18 5. SEA of the Alternative Programmes and final WRMP19 Decision Making ...................... 34 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 34 5.2 Affinity Water’s Decision Making Process ................................................................... 34 5.3 Identifying reasonable alternative programmes .......................................................... 40 5.4 SEA of reasonable alternative programmes for the final WRMP19 ............................ 43 5.5 Outline reasons for the selection and rejection of reasonable alternative programmes .............................................................................................................. 141 6. Summary findings for the final WRMP19 ........................................................................... 144 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 144 6.2 The final WRMP19 .................................................................................................... 144 6.1 HRA findings ............................................................................................................. 153 6.2 WFD assessment findings ........................................................................................ 155 6.3 SEA findings .............................................................................................................. 155 7. Cumulative Effects of the final WRMP19 with other Plans, Programmes and Projects ................................................................................................................................. 179 7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 179 7.2 Other Affinity Water Plans ......................................................................................... 179 7.3 Other WRMPs ........................................................................................................... 181 7.4 Other Drought Plans ................................................................................................. 183 AECOM fWRMP19 Environmental Report 7.5 Other plans and programmes ................................................................................... 183 7.6 Summary of cumulative effects assessment............................................................. 187 8. Mitigation and areas for further investigation .................................................................. 190 8.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 190 8.2 Mitigation measures and areas for further investigation ........................................... 190 9. Next steps and monitoring .................................................................................................. 196 9.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................