Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line Corridor: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report Prepared for Rio Tinto Iron Ore July 2008 Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report © Biota Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd 2008 ABN 49 092 687 119 Level 1, 228 Carr Place Leederville Western Australia 6007 Ph: (08) 9328 1900 Fax: (08) 9328 6138 Project No.: 469 Prepared by: Britta Mathews Checked by: G Humphreys Approved for Issue: G Humphreys This document has been prepared to the requirements of the client identified on the cover page and no representation is made to any third party. It may be cited for the purposes of scientific research or other fair use, but it may not be reproduced or distributed to any third party by any physical or electronic means without the express permission of the client for whom it was prepared or Biota Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd. This report has been designed for double-sided printing. Hard copies supplied by Biota are printed on recycled paper. Cube:Current:469 (Dampier Power Station):Doc:TransLine NVCP:TransLine V4_2.doc 3 Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report 4 Cube:Current:469 (Dampier Power Station):Doc:TransLine NVCP:TransLine V4_2.doc Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report Contents 1.0 Introduction 7 1.1 Project Background 7 1.2 Description of the Proposed Clearing 7 1.3 Scope and Limitations of this Document 9 2.0 Vegetation and Flora of the Study Areas 10 2.1 IBRA Bioregion and Subregion 10 2.2 Land Systems 11 2.3 Beard’s Vegetation Mapping 11 3.0 Vegetation of the Study Areas 14 3.1 Vegetation of the Transmission Line Corridor 14 3.2 Vegetation of Mount Welcome Station Transmission Corridor 18 3.3 Threatened and Priority Ecological Communities 19 3.4 Flora of the Development Areas 20 3.5 Flora of Conservation Significance 21 3.6 Introduced Flora (Weeds) 22 3.7 Summary of Threatened Communities and Species 24 4.0 Assessment of Fauna and Fauna Habitats 25 4.1 Methodology and Limitations of the Fauna Review 25 4.2 Fauna Habitats 25 5.0 Assessment Against the Ten Clearing Principles 30 5.1 Overview 30 5.2 Clearing Principles 30 6.0 Management Recommendations 33 7.0 References 34 Appendix 1 Vegetation Map for the Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line Corridor and Mount Welcome Station Transmission Line Corridor Study Areas Appendix 2 Vegetation Structural Classification and Condition Ranking Scale Appendix 3 List of Flora Species recorded from the Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line Corridor and Mount Welcome Station Transmission Line Corridor Study Areas Appendix 4 Framework for the Conservation Significance Ranking of Flora and Fauna Appendix 5 Cube:Current:469 (Dampier Power Station):Doc:TransLine NVCP:TransLine V4_2.doc 5 Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report Priority Flora Recorded from the DEC Threatened Flora Database Search Appendix 6 Results of Fauna Database Searches for the Dampier and Cape Lambert Localities Appendix 7 Location Details for Introduced Flora (Weed) Species in the Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line Corridor and Mount Welcome Station Transmission Line Corridor Study Areas Tables Table 1.1: Description of Proposed Clearing 9 Table 2.1: Beard’s mapping units occurring within the components of the current study area and their pre-European extent in the Pilbara bioregion 11 Table 2.2: Land Systems present in the study area and their representations in the wider regions 12 Table 3.1: Most species rich families and genera within the Transmission Line Corridor area 20 Table 3.2: Most species rich families and genera within the Mt. Welcome Station area 20 Table 4.1: Terrestrial fauna of conservation significance yielded by databases searches of the Dampier and Cape Lambert localities. 25 Figures Figure 1.1: Regional location of the Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line Corridor. 8 Plates Plate 3.1: ApAbAstCEcCEs (DPS02). 15 Plate 3.2: AbTw (site DPS14 and DPS08). 15 Plate 3.3: AxERAxERIbTla (site DPS07). 15 Plate 3.4: AbAaAiTw (Map Note 09). 15 Plate 3.5: SPv (site DPS05). 15 Plate 3.6: ERAx (sites DPS01 and DPS11). 15 Plate 3.7: EvMgAcAamTaCEc (site DPS18). 17 Plate 3.8: MliAcTeTsCEc (site DPS04). 17 Plate 3.9: ChTeCHf (site DPS15). 17 Plate 3.10: Tw (sites DPS17, DPS13, DPS06). 17 Plate 3.11: AstTeTs (site DPS03). 17 Plate 3.12: AstTw (site DPS16). 17 6 Cube:Current:469 (Dampier Power Station):Doc:TransLine NVCP:TransLine V4_2.doc Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Project Background Rio Tinto Iron Ore (RTIO), via Pilbara Iron (PI), operates the Pilbara Power System, one of the largest privately owned electricity systems in Australia. This system provides power to mining and port operations throughout the Pilbara, as well as the towns of Dampier, Wickham, Tom Price, Pannawonica and Paraburdoo. These systems are connected to existing Alinta and Horizon (ex Western Power) infrastructure, forming the North West Interconnected System (NWIS). As a consequence of the predicted increase in power system load demand from the rapidly growing Pilbara mining sector, it is necessary to upgrade the generation capacity of the Pilbara system (Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) 2007). To meet the forecast growth in demand for power, ensure power system reliability in its Pilbara operations and continue supplies to the NWIS, RTIO Expansion Projects (RTIOEP) is in the process of undertaking engineering feasibility studies for a strategic upgrade of the Pilbara Power System. As part of the Pilbara Power System Upgrade (PSU), RTIOEP is considering the gradual decommissioning of these sites and construction of more efficient generation units at a coastal site west of Karratha to provide approximately 160MW initially of electricity (and potentially 240MW in the future) to both its Pilbara operations and to the NWIS (SKM 2007). The proposed gas-fired power station is to be constructed on the Pilbara coast, west of Karratha, within the Dampier 7-Mile area. This area is owned by the Crown and leased to Hamersley Iron, with a portion (the 7-Mile rail yard) being used for industrial purposes (SKM 2007). In addition to the 7-mile power station development, Rio Tinto Pty. Ltd. Is proposing to construct a 220kV transmission line from the 7-mile power station to Cape Lambert. The purpose of this transmission line is to connect the power station to Rio Tinto’s existing operation at Cape Lambert and to ensure improved reliability of power supplies once the existing Cape Lambert Power Station is decommissioned. In March 2008, Pilbara Iron commissioned Biota Environmental Sciences (Biota) to undertake a biological assessment of the Transmission Line, in order to provide the background information required to support an application for a Native Vegetation Clearing Permit (NVCP) for these areas. Access issues meant that the entire corridor could not be surveyed at one time. Thus the report refers to the Transmission line corridor, which is located off Mt Welcome Station, and the Mt Welomce Station Corridor, which are the areas surveyed on the station. Under the Environmental Protection (Clearing of Native Vegetation) Regulations 2004, applications to clear more than 1 ha of vegetation are required to be assessed against 10 principles of native vegetation protection (see Section 5.0) 1.2 Description of the Proposed Clearing Pilbara Iron has specified two separate infrastructure areas for the Transmission Line Corridor development, as shown in Table 1.1. and summarised below in . It is anticipated that only a proportion of each of these areas will actually be cleared, with the broader areas nominated to allow for optimal sitting of the infrastructure during the planning process. The proposed development includes: • Transmission Line Corridor - A 63 kilometre corridor of mostly 100 metres in width with a total area of approximately 680 hectares; extending from an unsealed access road near Dampier Salt/Rio Tinto Minerals operations to an area near the Cape Lambert coastal port operations. Cube:Current:469 (Dampier Power Station):Doc:TransLine NVCP:TransLine V4_2.doc 7 Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report Figure 1.1: Regional location of the Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line Corridor. 8 Cube:Current:469 (Dampier Power Station):Doc:TransLine NVCP:TransLine V4_2.doc Karratha to Cape Lambert Transmission Line: Native Vegetation Clearing Permit Report Table 1.1: Description of Proposed Clearing Study Area Study Area (ha) Area Disturbed During Total Clearing Area (ha) Construction (ha) Transmission Line 1078 38 26 During construction, each tower for the transmission line requires a footprint of 30 m X 30 m to erect the tower. Additionally, a 4 m wide access road and line stringing areas between each tower. At works completion each tower requires a 10 m X 10 m pad, with the access track retained to allow for inspection and maintenance. 1.3 Scope and Limitations of this Document 1.3.1 Scope and Purpose of this Report This report is intended as a supporting document to Pilbara Iron’s application for a permit to clear native vegetation for the purposes of constructing a transmission line and its associated infrastructure. This permit is required under the Environmental Protection (Clearing of Native Vegetation) Regulations 2004. The report has been prepared largely on information gathered from a recent flora and vegetation survey, fauna database information and other published information. Regional context was provided by reference to land systems mapping completed by the Agriculture Department of Western Australia (Van Vreeswyk et al. 2004) and by other regional-scale work completed by Beard (1975) and the then Department of Conservation and Land Management (Burbidge et al.