Fenit Harbour Dumping at Sea Application Site selection report For inspection purposes only. Consent of copyright owner required for any other use. EPA Export 24-03-2015:23:12:12 14996 Dump Site selection report January 2015 ISSUE FORM Project number 14996 Document number Document revision Rev A Document title Dump Site selection report Document status Draft Document prepared by Ken Fitzgerald Document checked by For inspection purposes only. Consent of copyright owner required for any other use. i EPA Export 24-03-2015:23:12:12 14996 Dump Site selection report January 2015 Table of contents 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 2 CRITERIA FOR DUMP SITE SELECTION ......................................................................... 1 3 SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION, CONSULTATION AND REPORTS. .............................. 1 4 DUMP SITE SELECTION PROCESS ................................................................................ 2 4.1 Stage 1. ............................................................................................................................ 2 4.2 Stage 2 ............................................................................................................................. 3 4.3 Stage 3 ............................................................................................................................. 5 Table 1 Screening for Appropriate Assessment ............................................................................. 8 Table 2 Natura Impact Statement ................................................................................................ 8 5 HISTORY OF PREVIOUS DUMPSITE ............................................................................. 8 6 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 9 7 ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................. 11 8 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 12 For inspection purposes only. Consent of copyright owner required for any other use. ii EPA Export 24-03-2015:23:12:12 14996 Dump Site selection report January 2015 1 INTRODUCTION Malachy Walsh & Partners (MWP) was commissioned to prepare a Dumping At Sea (DAS) application for ongoing maintenance dredging work in Fenit Harbour. As part of the DAS application submission a dump site selection report has to be completed. This report sets out the criteria that were used to select the dump site and discusses the merits and reasons for the final site selection. 2 CRITERIA FOR DUMP SITE SELECTION The following criteria were used in the dump site selection process: . Avoidance of shipping lanes and main navigation routes . Avoidance of known seabed archaeological features . Avoidance of Natura 2000 sites . Avoidance of fishing grounds and nursery areas for fish and aquaculture . Avoid impacts on Blue Flag beaches . Selection of area of sea bed with reasonable depths of water For inspection purposes only. Consent of copyright owner required for any other use. Selection of an area of sea bed that has a suitable profile or depression . Location that has favourable current regime . Location that has suitable bed characteristics for receipt of dredged material . Minimisation of impacts on benthic communities within and surrounding the dump site . Examination of previously used dump site locations and experience with these locations 3 SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION, CONSULTATION AND REPORTS. In completing this report the following information, consultation and reports were utilised to inform the selection process. 1 EPA Export 24-03-2015:23:12:12 14996 Dump Site selection report January 2015 . Review of previous dumping at sea licence applications . Review of admiralty charts and previous bathymetry surveys . Review of NPWS web mapping to identify European Designated sites . Completion of initial bathymetry for two possible site locations . Completion of initial tidal flow metering at two possible site locations The following consultations were undertaken . Consultations with the Fisherman from Fenit Harbour, about the suitability of a number of locations within the Bay. Consultations with the Harbour Master at Fenit . Consultation with the Harbour Pilot in the port relative to navigation and shipping lanes . Consultation with Development Applications Unit (DAU)/(NPWS) . Consultation with the Underwater Archaeology Unit (DAU) . Consultation with the EPA inspector to discuss the proposed project and application Consultation with the planning authority Kerry County Council was not undertaken as they are the client for this application and they own and operate the harbour. However their representative is the Harbour Master in Fenit and he was consulted throughout the process. For inspection purposes only. Consent of copyright owner required for any other use. Following from the above a constraint map was prepared which set out two possible locations for a dump site within Tralee Bay. The constraints as set out were then used to further examine the possible sites. It should be noted that other possible locations for dumping at sea were discussed with stakeholders but were immediately discounted for fishery reasons and in order to avoid sensitive ecological and environmental effects along with potential impacts on blue flag beaches. The dump site selection process was driven by constraints analysis and an iterative process where each location was examined and then discounted, or investigated further. 4 DUMP SITE SELECTION PROCESS 4.1 STAGE 1. Initially a number of potential sites were discussed at a high level for the purposes of feasibility or not. Some of the sites were immediately discounted for fishery or environmental reasons or for reasons of depth etc. 2 EPA Export 24-03-2015:23:12:12 14996 Dump Site selection report January 2015 Figure 1 below shows the initial list of potential search areas. Area outside this line excluded Fenit Area due east of this line excluded due to oysters Figure 1. Potential search areas and initial exclusion zones . In the initial phase of the process some high level constraints were set out. The area outside of Tralee Bay due west of a line from the Brandon Point to Kerry Head was automatically excluded due to depths of water, distance from the dredge location and exposure to weather. A second exclusion zone was adopted for the area of inner Tralee Bay and estuary due east of Fenit due to the existence of the oyster fishery and the existence of the Tralee Bay Shellfish Area. Three potential search areas were initially identified as outlined above in Figure 1. These were For inspection purposes only. initially selected due to suitability Consentof water of copyright depths, owner requiredproximity for any toother the use. dredge location and they were outside the two exclusion zones. 4.2 STAGE 2 This stage then progressed to look at the search areas and Tralee Bay outside of the exclusion zones. At this stage a constraints map was developed which showed the following constraints: . Designated Natura sites, Special Protection Areas (SPA) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) . Natural Heritage Areas (NHA) & Proposed Natural Heritage Areas (pNHA) . Location of recorded wrecks on the sea bed The location of these designated sites can be seen in Figure 2 below. Once this was set out one of the search areas due west of Fenit and due east of Castlegregory Beach was excluded as it was within the SAC and pNHA. Historically (prior to 1996) there are some records of material being deposited in this general area , but the practice was not repeated as this was also a prime area for the nursery of fish and it was also close to the pristine sandy beaches along this section of Tralee 3 EPA Export 24-03-2015:23:12:12 14996 Dump Site selection report January 2015 Bay. There are also a number of known wrecks in this general area. The shallow water depths also make it unsuitable for navigation with a suction hopper dredger of a certain scale. This then left two search areas, namely Area A (shown in Red) which is in outer Tralee Bay outside of Mucklaghmore Island and Illaunnabarnagh Island as can be seen in Figure 2 below, and the second area is Area B (shown in Purple) which is located in the vicinity of previous dump sites used for previous deposition of dredged material from the harbour dating back to 1996. For inspection purposes only. Consent of copyright owner required for any other use. Figure 2. Constraints map and location of search area A and B. At this point some baseline bathymetry was undertaken by Hydrographic Surveys Ltd for both locations to establish the bed profile. In addition current metering was undertaken by Hydrographic Surveys Ltd at both sites to establish what the current regime was. Site A is the outer site and bed level depths at this location are 27m CD and this location has good separation from the designated sites. This area of water is open to the wider Atlantic swell and weather. Site B is located inside the islands of Mullaghmore and Illaunnabarnagh and is within a depth of water of 13 to 16m CD. This area is closer to the harbour dredge location and is in a somewhat more shaded location in terms of weather exposure. It is located closer to designated sites as can be seen from Figure 2 above. 4 EPA Export 24-03-2015:23:12:12 14996 Dump Site