Wandoan Coal Project Southern coal seam methane water supply pipeline Terrestrial ecology impact assessment November, 2008 Wandoan Joint Venture Parsons Brinckerhoff Australia Pty Limited ABN 80 078 004 798 Level 4, Northbank Plaza 69 Ann Street Brisbane QLD 4000 GPO Box 2907 Brisbane QLD 4001 Australia Telephone +61 7 3854 6200 Facsimile +61 7 3854 6500 Email [email protected] NCSI Certified Quality System ISO 9001 2133006C-RPT030-B:pm Wandoan Coal Project Southern coal seam methane water supply pipeline Terrestrial ecology impact assessment Contents Page Number Acronyms .....................................................................................................................................................v Executive summary....................................................................................................................................vi 1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Context and scope of this assessment 1 1.2.1 Structure of the Environmental Impact Assessment and the ecological assessments 1 1.3 Southern CSM water supply pipeline details and Study Area 6 2. Relevant legislation .............................................................................................................................8 2.1 State assessment framework 8 2.1.1 State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 Act 8 2.1.2 Mineral Resources Act 1989 9 2.1.3 Integrated Planning Act 1997 9 2.1.4 Environmental Protection Act 1994 9 2.1.5 Nature Conservation Act 1992 9 2.1.6 Nature Conservation (Koala) Conservation Plan 2006 and Management Program 2006 to 2016 10 2.1.7 Vegetation Management Act 1999 10 2.1.8 Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002 12 2.2 Commonwealth assessment framework 12 3. Methods ..............................................................................................................................................14 3.1 Contributors and qualifications 14 3.2 Nomenclature 15 3.2.1 Flora 15 3.2.2 Fauna 15 3.3 Literature and database review 15 3.4 Field surveys 18 3.4.1 Survey weather conditions 18 3.4.2 Terrestrial flora 18 3.5 Terrestrial vertebrate fauna 22 3.5.1 Fauna habitat assessment 22 3.5.2 Fauna survey techniques 23 3.5.3 Summary of terrestrial vertebrate fauna survey effort 25 3.6 Likelihood-of-occurrence assessment 26 3.7 Impact assessments 27 3.7.1 Commonwealth listed communities and species 27 3.7.2 State listed communities and species 28 3.8 Limitations 28 4. Existing environment ........................................................................................................................29 4.1 Regional context 29 4.2 Drainage lines 29 4.3 Lithology and land zones 30 4.4 Regional ecosystems 32 4.4.1 Cleared areas 55 4.4.2 Inconsistencies in RE mapping 55 4.5 Species of plant 57 4.6 Fauna habitats 58 4.6.1 Dry eucalypt forest 58 4.6.2 Eucalypt woodlands 59 4.6.3 Acacia scrub 60 4.6.4 Acacia harpophylla and Casuarina cristata Scrub 60 4.6.5 Riparian 61 4.6.6 Wetland (natural and artificial) 62 4.6.7 Cleared Land 62 4.7 Corridors and connectivity 62 2133006C-RPT030-B:pm Page i PB Wandoan Coal Project Southern coal seam methane water supply pipeline Terrestrial ecology impact assessment Contents (continued) Page Number 4.8 Species of animal 64 4.8.1 Mammals 65 4.8.2 Birds 66 4.8.3 Frogs 67 4.8.4 Reptiles 67 5. Threatened biodiversity and other significant matters .................................................................68 5.1 Commonwealth listed values — Matters of National Environmental Significance 68 5.1.1 Threatened ecological communities 68 5.1.2 Threatened species 69 5.2 Migratory species 72 5.2.1 World heritage properties 73 5.2.2 Ramsar wetlands 73 5.3 Matters of State significance 73 5.3.1 Endangered and of concern regional ecosystems 73 5.3.2 Rare and threatened species of plant 74 5.3.3 Threatened fauna of State significance 75 5.4 Matters of regional significance 76 5.4.1 Biodiversity Planning Assessment (BPA) 76 5.4.2 Priority taxa 76 5.4.3 Essential habitat 77 5.4.4 State wildlife corridors 78 6. Potential impacts ...............................................................................................................................80 6.1 Loss of vegetation and habitats 80 6.2 Habitat fragmentation and barrier effects 81 6.3 Edge effects 82 6.4 Mortality 82 6.5 Weeds and pest species 82 6.6 Noise and dust 83 6.7 Cumulative impacts 84 6.8 Operation of the pipeline 84 7. Mitigation measures ..........................................................................................................................85 7.1 Avoiding environmental impacts 85 7.2 Management of the mitigation process 85 7.2.1 Vegetation and habitat loss 88 7.2.2 Mortality 90 7.3 Offsets 90 7.4 Further survey 92 8. Significance of impacts.....................................................................................................................93 9. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................96 References .................................................................................................................................................98 Glossary ...................................................................................................................................................103 2133006C-RPT030-B:pm Page ii PB Wandoan Coal Project Southern coal seam methane water supply pipeline Terrestrial ecology impact assessment Contents (continued) Page Number List of tables Table 3-1: Contributors and their roles 14 Table 3-2: Literature and database review 16 Table 3-3: Summary of flora survey effort 19 Table 3-4: Summary of fauna survey effort 26 Table 4-1: Geological formation and corresponding land zone 30 Table 4-2: Field verified regional ecosystems within the Study Area 32 Table 4-3 Declared plants recorded in the Study Area 57 Table 4-4 Fauna habitats and EPA RE correspondence 58 Table 4-5: Summary of species of terrestrial fauna recorded in the Study Area during current field surveys 64 Table 4-6: Summary of terrestrial fauna diversity associated with broad habitat types 65 Table 5-1: EPBC Act listed threatened species predicted to occur in the Study Area 69 Table 5-2: Endangered or of concern REs in the Study Area 74 Table 5-3: Threatened and regionally significant species of plant 74 Table 5-4: Threatened species of animal predicted to occur within the study area 75 Table 5-5: Brigalow Belt South Priority taxa fauna 77 Table 6-1: Extant of vegetation clearing resulting from the southern CSM pipeline (based on a 20 m corridor) 80 Table 6-2: Pest animals recorded in the Study Area 83 Table 7-1: Summary of mitigation measures 86 Table 8-1: Summary of Threatened biodiversity for which significance assessments were undertaken and their likelihood of being significantly affected by the Project 93 List of figures Figure 1-1: Project location 2 Figure 1-2: Study Area 3 Figure 3-1: Location of survey effort 20 Figure 4-1: Lithology 31 Figure 4-2: Regional ecosystems in the Study Area 33 Figure 5-1: Threatened species and ecological communities recorded in the study area 71 Figure 5-2: Biodiversity Planning Assessment and State wildlife corridors within the Study Area 79 List of photos Photo 4-1: RE 11.3.2 – Eucalyptus populnea woodland on alluvial plains 35 Photo 4-2: RE 11.3.4 – Eucalyptus tereticornis and/or Eucalyptus spp. tall woodland on alluvial plains 36 Photo 4-3: RE 11.3.25 – Eucalyptus tereticornis woodland fringing drainage lines 37 Photo 4-4: Eucalyptus crebra, Callitris glaucophylla, Angophora leiocarpa, Allocasuarina luehmannii woodland on Cainozoic sand plains/remnant surfaces (analogous to RE 11.5.1) 39 Photo 4-5: Eucalyptus populnea woodland with Allocasuarina luehmannii low tree layer on Cainozoic sand plains/remnant surfaces (analogous to RE 11.5.1a) 41 Photo 4-6: Eucalyptus crebra, Callitris glaucophylla, C. endlicheri, Eucalyptus chloroclada, Angophora leiocarpa, woodland on Cainozoic sand plains/remnant surfaces(deep sands) (analogous to RE 11.5.4) 42 Photo 4-7: Corymbia bloxsomei +/- Callitris glaucophylla +/- Eucalyptus crebra +/- Angophora leiocarpa woodland on Cainozoic sand plains/remnant surfaces (analogous to RE 11.5.21) 44 Photo 4-8: Acacia spp. woodland on lateritic duricrust. Scarp retreat zone (analogous to RE 11.7.2) 45 2133006C-RPT030-B:pm Page iii PB Wandoan Coal Project Southern coal seam methane water supply pipeline Terrestrial ecology impact assessment Contents (continued) Page Number Photo 4-9: 11.7.4 at the western end of Gearys Road that may represent modified RE 11.7.4 45 Photo 4-10: Eucalyptus decorticans and/or Eucalyptus spp., Corymbia spp., Acacia spp., Lysicarpus angustifolius on laterised duricrust (analogous to RE 11.7.4) 47 Photo 4-11: Corymbia citriodora ssp. variegata or Eucalyptus crebra woodland on lateritic duricrust (analogous to RE 11.7.6) 49 Photo 4-12: Eucalyptus fibrosa ssp. nubila +/- Corymbia spp +/- Eucalyptus spp. woodland on lateritic duricrust (analogous to RE 11.7.7) 50 Photo 4-13: Vegetation representative of potentially remnant Acacia harpophylla open forest on fine-grained sedimentary rocks (RE 11.9.5) 52 Photo 4-14: Vegetation representative of non-remnant Acacia harpophylla open forest on fine- grained sedimentary rocks (RE 11.9.5) 52 Photo 4-15: Eucalyptus crebra woodland on coarse-grained sedimentary