Burbo Offshore Wind Farm Construction Phase Environmental Monitoring Report Document: J3034 Construction phase summary v3 (04-08) Version Date Description Prepared Checked Approved 1 12-07 First Draft LG/IGP THS 2 02-08 Reviewed by SeaScape IGP LG IGP 3 04-08 Final Version IGP IGP This report has been prepared by Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies Ltd (CMACS) on behalf of SeaScape Energy. Contact Details: Head Office CMACS Ltd Cammell Lairds Waterfront Park Campbeltown Road Birkenhead Merseyside CH41 9HP UK Tel: +44 (0)151 650 2275 Fax: +44 (0)151 650 2274 Email: [email protected] Isle of Man CMACS Ltd Asahi House 10 Church Road Port Erin Isle of Man IM9 6AQ South Wales CMACS (Cymru) Woodland View Pen-y-Worlod Lane Penhow Newport NP26 3AJ WALES Cover photograph: transition piece of turbine 27 before turbine tower installation. Burbo Offshore Wind Farm- Yr 2 (Construction Monitoring) Report Table of Contents 1 Introduction.............................................................................................1 1.1 Environmental Monitoring..................................................................1 1.2 Wind Farm Construction Schedule ....................................................1 2 Overview of Environmental Monitoring Work ......................................3 3 Summary of Discrete Monitoring Elements..........................................4 Annex 1(1) Suspended Sediment Concentrations- SSC ..........................4 Annex 1(2) Seabed Morphology and Scour..............................................7 Annex 1(3) Contaminants .........................................................................7 Annex 1(4) Current Monitoring..................................................................7 Annex 1(5) Benthic Organisms .................................................................8 Annex 1(5) a Sub-tidal Benthic Ecology................................................8 Annex 1(5) b Colonisation of Monopiles and Scour Protection .............9 Annex 1(5) c Intertidal Invertebrates ...................................................10 Annex 1(6) Electromagnetic Fields .........................................................12 Annex 1(7) Marine Fish ..........................................................................13 Annex 1(8) Operational Noise and Vibration ..........................................14 Annex 1(9) Numerical Models.................................................................14 Annex 2 Ornithology ...............................................................................15 4 Interrelated Monitoring.........................................................................17 4.1 Intertidal Sediments, Invertebrates, Birds and Fish .........................17 4.2 Offshore suspended sediments and marine ecology.......................17 References ...................................................................................................19 Appendices overleaf J3034 Construction phase summary v3 (04-08) Burbo Offshore Wind Farm- Yr 2 (Construction Monitoring) Report Appendix 1 FEPA Licence Appendix 2 Environmental Monitoring Methods Appendix 3 Technical Reports Annex 1(1) Suspended Sediments Concentrations- SCC Annex 1(5) Benthic Organisms Annex 1(5) a Sub-tidal Benthic Ecology Annex 1(5) c.1 Intertidal Baseline Biotope Survey Annex 1(5) c.2 Intertidal Photographic Survey Annex 1(5) c.3 Intertidal Post-construction Biotope and Photographic Surveys Annex 1(6) Electromagnetic fields Annex 1(7) Marine Fish 4m Beam Trawls 2m Beam Trawls Annex 2 Ornithology J3034 Construction phase summary v3 (04-08) Burbo Offshore Wind Farm- Yr 2 (Construction Monitoring) Report 1 Introduction 1.1 Environmental Monitoring Burbo Offshore Wind Farm is a twenty-five turbine, 90MW development located in Liverpool Bay approximately 6km from the coastline of Wirral, Crosby and Liverpool. Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies Ltd (CMACS) was appointed by SeaScape Energy Ltd in April 2005 to develop and undertake pre and during construction environmental monitoring to meet the requirements of the Food and Environment Protection Act (FEPA) licence issued to the wind farm developer. The current version of the FEPA licence is 31864/07/0 (Appendix 1. The Environmental Monitoring Methods have been developed in consultation with statutory and non-statutory consultees. Monitoring is being undertaken through a series of discrete surveys covering various environmental and ecological components in response to the requirements of the FEPA licence. The current version of the Methods Statement is provided here as Appendix 2. These are the v1.5 methods which were also referred to in the pre- construction report; monitoring methods for the post-construction/operational phase are currently being updated following issue by SeaScape Energy of a proposed Post-construction monitoring programme (Doc No. 283521) in July 2007. The purpose of this report is to bring together the various technical reports which present results of the different strands of the environmental monitoring. An overview of the results is provided in an Executive Summary (Section 3) and inter-related elements of the monitoring are considered in Section 4. Detailed information is provided in the technical reports within Appendix 3. Information reported in the project Environmental Statement (SeaScape Energy 2002) and the first year FEPA report (CMACS 2006) provide the benchmark against which change can be assessed. 1.2 Wind Farm Construction Schedule A summary of the construction schedule is provided in Table 1. For the purposes of environmental monitoring the construction period is considered to have commenced on 21st May 2006 when a filter layer was placed to stabilise sediments in advance of hammer piling of the first monopile foundations the following month. Horizontal directional drilling works to install a conduit for power export cables under the sea wall commenced in April 2006 but these onshore works are not considered relevant to any of the offshore or intertidal monitoring. Three electricity export cables were installed in July/August 2006 and intra-array cabling continued into 2007. Dumping of rock armour around monopile foundations to protect against scour took place between September and November 2006. J3034 Construction phase summary v2 (04-08) Page 1 Burbo Offshore Wind Farm- Yr 2 (Construction Monitoring) Report Table 1 Overview of construction schedule. 2006 2007 MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Scour protection filter layer rock armour Monopile Installation hammer piling Turbine installations Cabling export route array cables *1 *1 Array cabling was largely complete by May 2007 but post-lay burial and other remedial works have been ongoing since. J3034 Construction phase summary v3 (04-08) Page 2 Burbo Offshore Wind Farm- Yr 2 (Construction Monitoring) Report 2 Overview of Environmental Monitoring Work All surveys set out in the Method Statement (Appendix 2) that were required to be undertaken during the wind farm construction period are included in this report as technical reports within Appendix 3. The technical reports are appended in the original order set out in the FEPA license annexes which was reflected in the Method Statement. The relevant text from the FEPA licence is detailed in the Method Statement. Table 2 provides a summary of progress with the environmental monitoring programme in relation to each main area of monitoring. Table 2 Overview of Monitoring Programme. Pre- During Post- Monitoring reports (in relation to FEPA Licence Sections) construction construction construction Annex 1(1) Suspended Sediment Concentrations- SCC ● ● Annex 1(2) Seabed Morphology and Scour ◉ Annex 1(3) Contaminants ● Annex 1(4) Current monitoring ○ ● ● Annex 1(5) Benthic Organisms- Subtidal benthic organisms ◉ Annex 1(5) Benthic Organisms- Colonisation of monopiles/scour protection ○ Annex 1(5) Benthic Organisms- Intertidal Invertebrates ● ● Annex 1(6) Electromagnetic Fields ● Annex 1(7) Marine Fish- 4m Beam Trawls ● ● ○ ● ● Annex 1(7) Marine Fish- 2m Beam Trawls ◉ Annex 1(8) Operational Noise and Vibration ○ Annex 1(9) Numerical models ○ ● ● Annex 2 Ornithology ◉ ○ = planned activity; ● = survey and report completed; ◉ = programme commenced, report to follow in the Post-construction (first Operation Phase) report. Pre-construction: CMACS (2006) Burbo Offshore Wind Farm. Year 1: Pre-construction Environmental Monitoring Report. Version 1.1 September 2006. Doc ref: J3034 Pre-construction summary v1.1 (09-06) During-construction: This report (Construction Phase Environmental Monitoring Report). Doc ref: J3034 Construction phase summary v2 (02-08) The following section provides an overview of each aspect of the environmental monitoring, including: programme status, results to date, ongoing and/or proposed future work. The overview of results provides the Executive Summary required by the FEPA Licence. Where the Marine and Fisheries Agency (MFA) have commented on aspects of the monitoring in their reply to the Pre-construction monitoring report (letter to SeaScape dated 20th December, 2007) their comments are reported. In relation to suspended sediment monitoring this includes comments on the technical report appended here which was issued to consultees in advance of this report. J3034 Construction phase summary v3 (04-08) Page 3 Burbo Offshore Wind Farm- Yr 2 (Construction Monitoring) Report 3 Summary of Discrete Monitoring Elements Annex 1(1) Suspended Sediment Concentrations- SSC