Appropriate Assessment Screening & Natura Impact Statement for Marine

Appropriate Assessment Screening & Natura Impact Statement for Marine

Appropriate Assessment Screening & Natura Impact Statement for Marine Surveys Off the Co. Wexford Coastline October 2019 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Requirement for an Article 6 Assessment ............................................................................... 1 1.2. The Aim of this Report ............................................................................................................. 2 1.3. Consultation ............................................................................................................................. 2 2. Appropriate Assessment Process 3 2.1. Legislative Context .................................................................................................................. 3 2.2. Stages of AA ............................................................................................................................ 4 2.2.1. Stage 1. Screening for Appropriate Assessment ................................................................... 4 2.2.2. Stage 2. Appropriate Assessment (NIS) ................................................................................. 5 2.2.3. Stage 3. Alternative Solutions ............................................................................................... 5 2.2.4. Stage 4. Imperative Reasons of Overriding Public Interest (IROPI)/Derogation................... 6 3. Description of the Works 7 4. Description of the Receiving Environment 12 4.1. Annex I Habitats .................................................................................................................... 12 4.2. Annex II Species ..................................................................................................................... 21 4.3. Annex IV Species .................................................................................................................... 27 4.4. Special Conservation Interests (SCI) ...................................................................................... 29 5. Potential Impacts of the Surveys 30 5.1. Noise & Vibration ................................................................................................................... 30 5.1.1. Noise Associated with Site Surveys ...................................................................................... 30 5.1.2. Noise Associated with Vessels.............................................................................................. 33 5.2. Physical Disturbance .............................................................................................................. 34 5.3. Collision Risk .......................................................................................................................... 34 5.4. Potential Disturbance to Life-Cycle ....................................................................................... 35 5.5. Habitat Disturbance ............................................................................................................... 35 5.6. Contamination / Accidental Events ....................................................................................... 35 6. Stage 1 Appropriate Assessment (Screening) 36 6.1. Identification of Relevant Natura 2000 Sites and Qualifying Interests/Special Conservation Interests ........................................................................................................................................... 36 6.2. Screening Assessment ........................................................................................................... 42 6.3. Screening Statement ............................................................................................................. 44 7. Stage 2 Appropriate Assessment (Natura Impact Statement) 45 7.1. Characteristics of Relevant Sites ........................................................................................... 45 7.1.1. Slaney River Valley SAC (IE000781) ..................................................................................... 45 7.1.2. Lambay Island SAC (IE000204) ............................................................................................. 45 7.1.3. Saltee Islands SAC (IE000707) .............................................................................................. 45 7.1.4. Rockabill to Dalkey SAC (IE003000) ..................................................................................... 46 7.1.5. Pembrokeshire Marine SAC / Sir Benfro Forol (UK13116) .................................................. 46 7.1.6. Cardigan Bay SAC / Bae Ceredigion (UK12712) .................................................................. 46 7.1.7. Pen Llŷn a'r Sarnau / Lleyn Peninsula and the Sarnau SAC (UK13117) ............................... 47 7.1.8. West Wales Marine SAC / Gorllewin Cymru Forol (UK0030397) ......................................... 47 7.1.9. North Anglesey Marine SAC / Gogledd Môn Forol (UK0030398) ....................................... 48 7.2. Conservation Objectives of Relevant Sites ........................................................................... 49 7.2.1. Slaney River Valley SAC (IE000781) ..................................................................................... 49 7.2.2. Lambay Island SAC (IE000204) ............................................................................................. 51 7.2.3. Saltee Islands SAC (IE000707) .............................................................................................. 53 7.2.4. Rockabill to Dalkey SAC (IE003000) ..................................................................................... 53 7.2.5. Pembrokeshire Marine SAC / Sir Benfro Forol (UK13116) .................................................. 53 7.2.6. Cardigan Bay SAC / Bae Ceredigion (UK12712) .................................................................. 54 7.2.7. Pen Llŷn a'r Sarnau / Lleyn Peninsula and the Sarnau SAC (UK13117) ............................... 55 7.2.8. West Wales Marine SAC / Gorllewin Cymru Forol (UK0030397) ......................................... 55 7.2.9. North Anglesey Marine SAC / Gogledd Môn Forol (UK0030398) ....................................... 56 7.3. Impact Assessment ................................................................................................................ 57 7.3.1. Harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena [1351] ................................................................... 57 7.3.2. Bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus [1349] .................................................................... 57 7.3.3. Grey seal Halichoerus grypus [1365].................................................................................... 57 7.3.4. Harbour seal Phoca vitulina [1365] ..................................................................................... 58 7.3.5. Twaite shad All [1365] ......................................................................................................... 58 8. Cumulative Impacts 58 9. References 59 List of Figures Figure 2.1: Stages in the AA process (Source: DEHLG, 2009). .......................................................................... 4 Figure 3.1: Proposed marine survey areas. ..................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3.2: Indicative locations of vibrocores/grab, CPT and borehole locations. ....................................... 11 Figure 4.1: Seabed substrata in the area (Source: Marine Institute, 2019)................................................... 14 Figure 4.2: Faunal biotopes in the area (Source: modified from Mackey, 1990). ........................................ 15 Figure 4.3: Annex I and OSPAR Habitats in the vicinity of the survey areas. .............................................. 15 Figure 4.4: Natura 200 sites in the vicinity of the Cable Route Corridor ...................................................... 17 Figure 4.5: Annex I habitats in the Buckroney – Brittas Dunes and Fen SAC (IE000729) (NPWS, 2017a) ... 18 Figure 4.6: Annex I habitats in the Cahore Polders and Dunes SAC (IE000700) (NPWS, 2016) ................... 19 Figure 4.7: Annex I habitats in the Kilpatrick Sandhills SAC (IE001742) (NPWS, 2017b) ............................. 20 Figure 4.8: Breeding, moult haul-out and resting sites for harbour seals in Wexford Harbour. ................ 22 Figure 4.9: Breeding, moult haul-out and resting sites for grey seals at the Saltee Islands. ...................... 24 Figure 4.10: Harbour porpoise sightings in and adjacent to the proposed survey areas (Berrow, 2019). 25 Figure 4.11: Bottlenose and Common dolphin sightings in and adjacent to the proposed survey areas (Berrow, 2019). ................................................................................................................................ 26 Figure 4.12: Risso’s and unidentified dolphin sightings in and adjacent to the proposed windfarm site (Berrow, 2019). ................................................................................................................................ 28 Figure 4.13: Minke and humpback whale sightings in and adjacent to the proposed survey areas (Berrow, 2019). ................................................................................................................................ 29 Figure 6.1: Location of relevant SACs and SPAs in the vicinity of the proposed survey areas. ................. 41 List of Tables Table 5.1: Noise levels associated with the proposed surveys .....................................................................

View Full Text

Details

  • File Type
    pdf
  • Upload Time
    -
  • Content Languages
    English
  • Upload User
    Anonymous/Not logged-in
  • File Pages
    103 Page
  • File Size
    -

Download

Channel Download Status
Express Download Enable

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

  • Not to be reproduced or distributed without explicit permission.
  • Not used for commercial purposes outside of approved use cases.
  • Not used to infringe on the rights of the original creators.
  • If you believe any content infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately.

Support

For help with questions, suggestions, or problems, please contact us