Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (Minas Basin Pulp and Power Co. Ltd.) Environmental Assessment Registration Document – Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Project Volume I: Environmental Assessment Project Number 107405 June 2009 Minas Basin Pulp and Power Volume 1: Environmental Assessment Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Facility Final for submission Prepared by: AECOM Canada Ltd. 1701 Hollis Street, SH400 (PO Box 576 CRO), Halifax, NS, Canada B3J 3M8 T 902.428.2021 F 902.428.2031 www.aecom.com Project Number: 107405 Date: June 10, 2009 Minas Basin Pulp and Power Volume 1: Environmental Assessment Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Facility Statement of Qualifications and Limitations © 2009 AECOM CANADA LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND TRADE SECRET LAW AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY MANNER, EXCEPT BY CLIENT FOR ITS OWN USE, OR WITH THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF AECOM CANADA LTD. 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This Statement of Qualifications and Limitations is attached to and forms part of the Report. Final for submission Vol1_FINAL_EA_Minas_2009 June10.doc Minas Basin Pulp and Power Volume 1: Environmental Assessment Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Facility Executive Summary The Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy proposes to construct, operate and decommission a Tidal Energy Demonstration Facility in the Minas Passage, near Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. The objectives of the Demonstration Facility are: • To build and operate a tidal energy Demonstration Facility to test the commercial potential of in-stream tidal energy devices designed to convert tidal kinetic energy to electrical energy; • To acquire information necessary to assess the performance of tidal energy devices including their effect on the environment and the effect of the environment on the devices; and, • To develop monitoring techniques and methodologies for these devices in the tidal environment. The Facility will consist of three subsea turbine generators, individual subsea cables connecting the turbines to land-based infrastructure, an onshore transformer substation, and buried power lines connecting to the local power distribution system (the Project). This Project is subject to a screening level Environmental Assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and is a Class 1 Undertaking under provincial regulations. The Environmental Assessment will be reviewed jointly under the terms of the Federal-Nova Scotia Environmental Assessment Agreement. This Environmental Assessment Document addresses the potential impacts associated with the Demonstration Project only, and relates to the deployment of three turbine generators. It does not address or predict the impacts of a larger array of turbine generators or a commercialization level project, as these projects would require a separate Environmental Assessment process. It is anticipated that some of the information gained from the environmental effects monitoring for the Demonstration Project can be used by researchers to model and predict potential impacts of scaled-up developments. The demonstration turbines will be located within a Crown Lease on the seabed in the vicinity of Black Rock on the north side of the Minas Passage, approximately 1.25 km from shore. The generators (with the possible exception of the Minas Basin Pulp and Power/Marine Current Turbines unit) will be installed on gravity bases, rather than drilled foundations. The units will be installed on the seabed in approximately 30 - 45 m depth at low tide. The Clean Current 2.2 MW model is approximately 18 m in length and has an outside diameter of approximately 20 m. The Nova Scotia Power/OpenHydro turbine is rated to 1 MW and the total diameter is 10 m with a 4 m diameter open centre. The MBP&P/Marine Current Turbine unit is 1.0 - 1.2 MW and will consist of twin axial flow rotors approximately 15 m in diameter. The MCT turbine will either be mounted on a steel gravity based structure or steel pin pile foundations in the seabed. A visible portion of the turbine’s support structure will project approximately 21.5 m above the sea surface at low tide. The total capacity of the three devices together will be approximately 4.4 MW. The Crown Lease will also include a 1.25 km long cable corridor connecting the generators to a land based facility above the high water mark. The terrestrial facility will be built on land leased from a private landowner and will consist of an underground vault to receive the submarine cables, a small building housing electrical switchgear and an interpretive centre, a parking area, a transformer substation and an underground cable connection to the power lines along West Bay Road. Deployment of the NSPI/OpenHydro turbine is scheduled for October, 2009 when construction of the onshore electrical facility will also begin. The onshore facility is expected to be connected to the electrical Final for submission Vol1_FINAL_EA_Minas_2009 June10.doc - i - Minas Basin Pulp and Power Volume 1: Environmental Assessment Fundy Tidal Energy Demonstration Facility grid by summer 2010. Installation of the subsea cables is planned for late summer of 2010, and this will be combined with or followed shortly by installation of the two remaining turbines, which will be completed by mid-summer, 2011. The demonstration turbines will operate for one to four years, following which the turbines and their gravity bases will be removed. Emissions and discharges are expected to be similar those associated with other marine and small terrestrial construction projects. Electromagnetic fields and noise associated with the turbines are less well understood and will require additional monitoring. Preliminary information suggests these emissions will have negligible impact due to the limited scale demonstration facility. Studies undertaken in 2008 to characterise the sea bed included the use of high-resolution seismic reflection systems, sidescan sonar, multibeam bathymetric sonar and photographic surveys. For the most part, the deployment area consists of exposed and scoured volcanic and sedimentary bedrock with course gravel and boulders covering glacial-era muds that may remain between upturned sedimentary ridges. Moving toward shore, thick surficial sediments overlie the bedrock. The cable route has been selected to avoid areas of slump and regions of gravel bedforms. Currents were measured over the lunar month using bottom mounted instruments three times at three different sites around the deployment area. The mean speed, mean velocity and maximum current speeds with the corresponding directions at specific water depths were measured at each site. Information on benthic animal and seaweed communities was obtained from seabed video and still camera photography in August and September 2008, as well as from several bottom samples obtained by scallop dredge in August 2008. Four main types of benthic communities are described based on the substrate they inhabit. Benthic communities exhibit moderate diversity and abundance of organisms reflective of communities adapted to the particular environment at the Project site. The Minas Passage/Minas Channel supports small commercial fisheries which tend to be fished from nearby. Inner Bay fisheries comprise primarily lobster, herring and soft-shell clams; however, many species in the Outer Bay also