Main Roads Western Australia Report for Brand Highway Upgrade at 92.775 to 95.32 SLK Environmental Impact Assessment February 2007 FINAL DRAFT Contents Executive Summary i 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Study Area 1 1.3 Field Survey Scope 2 1.4 Purpose of this Document 2 2. Project Details 3 2.1 Proposal in a Regional Context 3 2.2 Description of this Upgrade 3 2.3 Need for the Proposal 4 2.4 Proposal Schedule 4 3. Existing Environment 5 3.1 Climate 5 3.2 Geology and Soils 5 3.3 Rivers and Wetlands 6 3.4 Groundwater 6 3.5 Reserve and Conservation Areas 6 3.6 Contaminated Sites 6 3.7 Flora and Vegetation 7 3.8 Fauna 15 4. Social Environment 18 4.1 Surrounding Land Use 18 4.2 Aboriginal Heritage 18 4.3 European Heritage 18 5. Environmental Aspects 19 6. Environmental Impacts and Management 21 6.1 Flora and Vegetation 21 6.2 Fauna 25 6.3 Drainage 27 6.4 Groundwater 27 61/18367/12072 Brand Highway Passing Lanes Site 3 EIA and EMP 6.5 Dust 27 6.6 Aboriginal Heritage 28 6.7 Public Safety 28 6.8 Fire Management 28 6.9 Hydrocarbon and Chemical Storage 29 6.10 Waste Management 29 7. Environmental Management Plan 30 7.1 Environmental Monitoring and Compliance 30 8. Consultation 31 9. Conclusions 32 10. Limitations 34 10.1 Survey Limitations 34 10.2 Report Limitations 34 11. References 35 Table Index Table 1 Key Characteristics of the Upgrades 3 Table 2 Climate Readings at Closest Weather Stations (BOM, 2006) 5 Table 3 Government of Western Australia (2000) Vegetation Condition Scale 9 Table 4 Regional Assessment of Vegetation Extent (Source: Shepherd, 2005) within the vicinity of the Site 10 Table 6 Environmental Aspects Considered for the Project 19 Table 7 Assessment against the “Ten Clearing Principles”. 22 Table 8 Conservation Codes and Descriptions for the DEC Declared Rare and Priority Flora Species. 41 Table 9 Significant Flora Species Previously Recorded within the General Vicinity of the Site (Source: The DEC and the WA Herbarium) 42 Table 10 Flora List for the Northbound Passing Lane: 92.775 SLK to 94.45 SLK (Results from field survey conducted 19th September 2006) 43 61/18367/12072 Brand Highway Passing Lanes Site 3 EIA and EMP Table 11 Flora List for the Southbound Passing Lane: 93.40 to 95.32 SLK (Results from field survey conducted 19th September 2006) 47 Table 12 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Fauna Conservation Categories 52 Table 13 Western Australian Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 Fauna Conservation Codes 54 Table 14 The DEC Priority Fauna Conservation Codes. (Species not listed under the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950, but for which there is some concern). 55 Table 15 Listing of Potentially Occurring Rare and Priority Fauna Species (Source: EPBC Act Protected Matters Search, the DEC Threatened and Priority Fauna Database search results and WA Museum Faunabase search in a 5 km radius of the Site) 56 Table 16 Fauna species that may occur at 92.60 to 95.9 SLK (Source: Western Australian Museum Faunabase search of 5km radius of the Site); and those recorded during the opportunistic fauna surveys. 58 Table 17 Environmental Impacts Summary 60 Table 18 Environmental Impacts and Management Commitments 63 Figure Index Figure 1 Brand Highway Passing Lanes, Gingin to Eneabba Figure 2 Vegetation Type and Declared Rare and Priority Flora (CALM Database, 2006) Figure 3 Vegetation Condition Appendices A Vegetation Descriptions and Photos B Flora and Vegetation C Fauna D Summary of Environmental Impacts and Management E Environmental Management Plan F PEIA Consultation Results 61/18367/12072 Brand Highway Passing Lanes Site 3 EIA and EMP Executive Summary The Brand Highway links Bullsbrook (north of Perth) to Geraldton. Main Roads Western Australia (WA) proposes to install ten new passing lanes and extend an existing passing lane along a 115 km section of the Brand Highway from Gingin in the south to Eneabba in the north. The main objective is to improve road user safety, particularly with the interaction of smaller vehicles and the large road trains that use the route to cart mineral sands and oil from the Dongara, Eneabba and Cataby areas. This report covers the upgrades from 92.775 to 95.32 Standard Length Kilometres (SLK), which consists of a 1675 m northbound passing lane from 92.775 to 94.45 SLK and a 1920 m southbound passing lane from 93.40 to 95.32 SLK. The report refers to this area as the Site and the roadworks and associated activities as the Project. The construction works for this upgrade will require the clearing of approximately 3.6 ha of native vegetation along the existing road edge and as such Main Roads WA, as specified under their existing clearing permit (CPS 818/1), must undertake a PEIA. Where the outcome of the PEIA indicates that the proposed clearing “may be at variance or seriously at variance with one or more of the clearing principles”, Main Roads WA must undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (DEC, 2005 • MRWA Purpose Permit CPS 818/1, Condition 7d). Condition 7n of the purpose permit then states “where the results of the EIA indicate that clearing for the Site may be seriously at variance with the clearing principles, the permit holder must apply to the CEO for a clearing permit in respect of that clearing”. GHD developed a series of Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessments (PEIAs) for the ten proposed passing lanes, each requiring clearing of native vegetation in good or better condition, for Main Roads WA in April 2006. These PEIA’s identified that all of the proposed passing lanes may potentially be at variance with one or more of the “Ten Clearing Principles”, therefore, the formal EIA process was triggered (GHD, 2006). GHD Pty Ltd (GHD) was commissioned by Main Roads Western Australia (WA) to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Plan (EIA and EMP), including field surveys to assess the vegetation and habitat values, for the proposed road upgrades. The field survey for the Site located 92.775 to 95.32 SLK at was conducted onth the 19 September 2006, by an experienced and qualified botanist/zoologist and an experienced field ecologist. The results of the assessment concluded that: » The main vegetation types across the Site were Banksia low woodland and scrub•heath. In the southern section of the Site there was a small patch of Marri woodland. Most of the vegetation across the Site was considered to be a mosaic, that is, transitional between the various vegetation types. » The vegetation at the Site was largely intact with few disturbance factors and was rated between Condition 1 (‘Pristine’) to Condition 3 (‘Very Good’). The vegetation adjacent to the highway was in a worse condition than the rest of the road reserve vegetation, with substantial weed infestation adjacent to the highway. One species, Moraea sp. (Cape Tulip), 61/18367/12072 Brand Highway Passing Lanes i Site 3 EIA and EMP identified during the survey is declared under Agriculturethe and Related Resources Protection Act 1976. » The vegetation types recorded during the survey were compared with those of Shepherd (pers. comm., 2005). This comparison indicated that the main vegetation types at the Site, ‘Low woodland; Banksia’ and ‘Mosaic; Hakea scrub•heath and Dryandra heath shrublands’ have more than 30% of their original distribution remaining indicating they are above a ‘threshold level’, below which a vegetation type is considered to be ‘underrepresented’. The vegetation type ‘Medium woodland; Marri’ is below the 30% ‘threshold level’ and clearing of this vegetation type should be avoided where possible. The Marri woodland at the Site is described as a transitional vegetation community. » The originally proposed site, as described in the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (PEIA) was located from 92.60 to 95.90 SLK. The survey found some clearing of an under•represented Marri woodland community was required for the northbound passing lane (approximately 0.17 ha). Although this clearing was considered minor Main Roads WA have elected to relocate the northbound passing lane 175m to the north of the original proposal (with the southern most extent of the upgrade starting at 92.775 SLK) to avoid clearing in the area classified as Marri woodland. » No evidence of plant diseases was observed during the survey. Based on patterns of health of susceptible plants there was no indication of the occurrence of diebackPhytophthora ( cinnamomi) within the Site. » The middle section of the Site has been recently burnt and so it was not possible to comprehensively assess the vegetation type or condition of this section; however it is assumed that this area was similar to the surrounding areas. » The Site has moderately high species diversity and a total of 112 taxa (90 native taxa) from 38 families and 114 taxa (90 native taxa) from 46 families were recorded for the northbound and southbound passing lane respectively. » No DRF or Priority Flora species were identified during the survey. » The Site would be expected to support a number of bird species, and eight species were observed during the survey. The Site would be expected to support a number of reptile species, particularly lizard species, and two skink species were observed during the survey. Signs of fox and kangaroo use of the Site were recorded during the field survey. » A number of significant species have been recorded in the general area but the main species that would be likely to use the Site is Carnaby’s Cockatoo, which could use the Site for foraging.