Scoping Report
Group 4
Summery
Keelin Timony, Yi Mao, Gefei Ma, Yamin Lu
1.
Introduction
This group intend to submit an application for planning
permission to Wicklow Local Council to operate a quarry for extraction of
gravel.
This quarry is located at east shore of Pollaphuca Reservoir
in the Wicklow hills (033 105 on OS land ranger sheet 56). The site location is
shown on appendix.
The quarry company has appoint this group to undertake a
scoping study and prepare this report for Wicklow Local Council to accept the
scoping opinion of the planning application and if apply to Environment
Statement (ES).
2.
Quarry Location Site
The appendix shows the location of the quarry. The quarry is
located at east shore of Pollaphuca Reservoir in Wicklow, approximate 5 km from
Ballymore Eustace.
The nearest residential properties are located approximately
200 m to the west of the quarry.
The footpath of hiking is 200 m away from east and north side
of quarry.
Description
of quarry operation
The current
method of extraction, blasting, dispatch have been established for years. The
blast application is operating at upside of the slope and the blasted rock is
loaded by truck and ship out of the site. The quarry operate for 4 years and
during that time will provide full time employment for 20 people. Approximately 4 truckloads of gravel will
leave the quarry per working day.
3.
Consultation and Participation Arrangement
There are several consultants and organizations in the list of
appendix with the arrangement of communication schedule.
4.
Potential impacts
4.1 Climate
Noise
During the
quarry site construction and production, the aspects which will potentially
enhance the noise impact level are as below,
*site preparation works,
including the soil stripping, equipment installing, office and living condition
constructing.
*mineral exploitation by
explosive.
*mineral transportation
by heavy vehicles.
*mineral processing
operations by heavy machines.
All the
potential noise impact above will take place at the target quarry immediately
when the quarry project starts. The environmental baseline for the local area
shall be determined by the existing Irish environment laws and regulations. Any
activities concerned with the quarry preparation works and operation are
limited to alter the existing status.The scope for
any noise change is limited and for further consideration.
4.2 Air Quality (Dust)
During the
quarry construction and production, total suspended particulate (TSP) is the
main potential impact causing the deterioration of the local air quality. As
TSP could spread by the function of wind or could deposit by the function of
rain. It could impact on both human health and the biota significantly.
As the
generation of dust exists in the whole course, the control of the baseline
shall be mainly not only determined by the Irish environment laws and
regulations, but also by the future reaction of the local people. The impact of
dust could be cumulative. Without
efficient control, it could rise across the baseline level to cause significant
complaints.
There shall
be no additional dust sources from the exploitation, transportation and
processing operations. All the activities will obey the principle and manner of
achieving the maximum mitigation in the quarry construction and production.
4.3 Human
The
development of this quarry is likely to cause a range of effects on human
beings, which include social-economy, land use, human health and safety.
Social-economy
Although
the location of this quarry just outside of Wicklow Mountains National Park, it
also very closed to this park. Wicklow Mountains National Park has significant
recreation and tourism appeal, and tourism industry is also the main economy in
this area. Many visitors come from Dublin city to have a daily travel in there.
Moreover, there is a club located near the quarry site.
Within this
context, which may impact upon the enjoyment of leisure and recreation pursuits
by visitors to the Park and customers to the club, e.g. impacts of demolition
and construction, noise and vibration, traffic and transport, air and water
pollutants and damage to the landscape, need to carefully considered.
This impacts could include not only increasing noise and vibration, waste
emission but also deterioration of landscape and road surfaces.
On the other
hand, with this factory will provide 20 full time employments, it could improve
job opportunities to local people. The quarry also can help improve the
development of local construction industry.
Human
health and safety
There will be
20 employment in quarry, meanwhile there also more than 10 local home
surrounded this field. Within this context, some pollutants generated from
transportation, operation and construction of factory, e.g. air, water, soil,
and noisy pollutants, which will threatened human health and safety should also
be investigated.
Key issues
From above
analysis, following likely significant effects of this project should be
include within the EIA scoping. Generation of employment
opportunity and improve local people’s income. Impact upon the enjoyment of
leisure and recreation pursuits by visitors and customers. Pollutants generated from
construction and operation which threatened local people and employees’ health
and safety.
4.4 Landscape
The quarry
and other accessary operations are long term establishments. Quarry will be
approximately 500 x 200 m, the land and vegetation which will be destructed is
scrub and meadow which is not private land or industrial land. This area is
surrounding by streams, farms and houses. There are a road and a pedestrian
around this area. The house and framing field is on the east side of the quarry
spot. The long term of planning application is intend to maintain the woodland
and wetland, also reduce the impact to the sightseeing loop in the Wicklow
national park.
4.5 Soil & Blasting
The soil type
in this area is chernozem, has a high agriculture capability. This area is
fully covered with grass and bush. There are some wetland with moss. There are
some huge rock stacked on the ground. It is easy to occur debris flow and water
loss and soil erosion after the blast of quarry which results in ground
vibration and dust. The blasting application will not present any vibration to
the nature but to the reservoir, the vibration undertaken by blasting can be
serious damage which need to be proof is harmless to the reservoir in the
future. The aquifer in this area has enough distance from the surface, the
quarrying application has not significant impact to the aquifer and
groundwater.
4.6 Water and Flooding
Quarry for
gravel extraction is working outdoor, and it also will have 20 employments
working or living in there. Thus the Water pollution likely caused by the
following sources:
Discharge of untreated
domestic, e.g. residences sewage by employments
Workshop wastewater, e.g. wash
off from exploding, drilling, excavation and loading and transportation.
Surface water
There is an
east-west trend river pass through this area, and falls into the Pollaphuca
Reservoir from the east. Thus the river is the main object in investigation
about potential impacts on surface water.
The potential
impact on the surface water quality from mining is likely to be due to higher
load of suspended solids (SS). The
sources of suspended solids would from:
Gravels from the mine
operations and wash off from machineries and soil waste.
Discharge of mine runoff during
rains to the river;
Oil spillage from maintenance
workshops
Oil effluent from residential
colonies.
Groundwater
There is a
reservoir near the study area, and the elevation difference between water table
of reservoir and study room is 80 m. Generally, the water table level is
similar with the level of reservoir which is seated surround. Therefore, if
there are any aquifers under the study area, the likely of waste water seep
cross soil and reach to groundwater is very rare.
Flooding
The Environment
Agency’s flood maps indicates that there was a flood event happened with 86.1
rainfall on 24th October 2011, which located about 1500 meter in the
northeast of quarry. Considering that it is not a recurring flooding point, and
it also canbe found that the site of quarry is far away to another recurring
flooding point, so it could be unnecessary to think about the flood risk in
this area.
Physical,
chemical and biotic sewage
The mean
source of physical sewage from quarry operations, and the main pollutant is
suspended solids (SS), which will pollute surface water. Moreover, the main
source of chemical and biotic sewage is domestic sewage from staffs’ living in
quarry, which include huge organic pollutants with high content of carbohydrate, nitrogen,
phosphate and sulphur. However, there
are just 20 employments working in this quarry, so the impacts from discharge
of residence sewage could be small.
Key
issues
Effects from the domestic
sewage discharged from quarry.
Effects on surface water
physical quality from quarry operations.
Effects on the associated flood risk of surrounding water resource.
4.7 Flora and Fauna
The reservoir has been designated as a Special Protection Area under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The reservoirs Graylag goose population is of international importance. Present at the reservoir in spring time and migrate south to warmer locations during the winter time. Compaction by heavy machinery may impact flora and fauna.
5. Biological Sampling
Two streams run through the proposed quarry site towards the
Pollaphuca Reservoir. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will carry out
a biological sampling program to investigate the status of the streams in terms
of freshwater invertebrate populations prior to the opening of the quarry. This
baseline study will function as a control from which to compare future
monitoring measurements. The EIA will also suggest a monitoring program to be
put in place once the quarry has been opened so that it can be determined
whether the quarry operations are having a negative impact on freshwater
invertebrate.
The biota to
be sampled is the freshwater invertebrates in the streams. The baseline study
will establish which species or taxa are present in the streams and their
abundance. The baseline study will calculate a Quality-index score for the
streams using the EPA Quality Classification system. This indicates the
pollution level of the stream and is calculated using macro invertebrate
diversity data. The study will make note of whether there are taxa that are
known to be pollution sensitive present. These taxa could then be used as
indicator species to inform of pollution of the stream during the monitoring
stage. Ephemoptera (Mayflies), Plectoptera (Stoneflies), and Trichoptera (Caddis
flies) are commonly used as pollution indicators in freshwater streams as they
are known to be sensitive to pollution. The baseline study will also establish
whether there are any rare or protected species to be found in the stream.
The sampling
sites will be at a number of locations along the streams as marked by the stars
on the map below. Both baseline studies and monitoring samples will be taken at
the same sites. The sites chosen have a riffled section of stream. These are
chosen because they are more likely to contain pollution-sensitive macro
invertebrates due to the higher oxygen content. Sampling will be done daily for
5 days in each of the four seasons to obtain a holistic picture of invertebrate
populations and allow for seasonal variation.
The method
used to obtain samples from the streams will be kick sampling. The invertebrates
will be identified to taxa or species level in the lab using keys. This
specialist work may be carried out by a chartered ecologist. The data will then
be analyzed. The same team will carry out all of the sampling program following
standard methods to ensure results are comparable. The standard amount of
sampling time and size of net mesh will be used.
Prior to beginning
the main sampling program a pilot study will be carried out to ensure that the
sites chosen are safe for kick sampling and to finalize protocol. The pilot
study will also be used to measure natural variation and thus inform how many
samples should be taken.
The sites
used for monitoring will be same as those used for the baseline study as
mentioned above because these are not directly involved in the development.
Beyond BACI (Before-After, Control-Impact) methods with multiple control sites
will be used to minimize misinterpretation of coincidences.
7.
Program cost
Table 2 in the
appendix is showing approximate costing for biological sampling programme
(baseline study part).
Appendix
Table. 1
Organizations
|
Main role in the consultants
|
Schedule
|
URL
|
Alpha Quarry
Products Ltd
|
Quarry construct management
|
10.Nov
2015
|
|
Health And Safety Authority
|
Quarry construct management
|
12.Nov 2015
|
|
Office of the
Commissioner for Environmental Information
|
Environmental impact consultant
|
16.Nov
2015
|
|
Wicklow
National Park
|
Environmental impact consultant
|
18 Nov 2015
|
|
Commission
for Energy Regulation (CER)
|
Water quality management
|
19
Nov 2015
|
|
Irish Water
|
Water quality management
|
20 Nov 2015
|
|
Wicklow County Council
|
Environmental impact consultant
|
21
Nov 2015
|
|
Description
|
Cost (€)
|
Personnel
|
|
20 days field work @
€150 per day
|
4000
|
4 days analysis and
interpretation @ €200
|
800
|
1 day report
preparation @ €300
|
300
|
Transport
|
|
Diesel
|
160
|
|
|
Equipment
|
|
Sampling equipment
|
200
|
Subcontracts
|
|
Macroinvertebrate
identification 40 samples @ €20 each
|
800
|
|
|
Subtotal
|
6260
|
VAT @ 13.5%
|
845
|
Total
|
7105
|
Table.2
