DETR issues draft guidance on marine aggregates
DETR has issued for consultation new draft guidance on the extraction of marine aggregates. The document puts forward proposals for a new policy framework within which the future sustainable development of the marine mineral resource in English territorial waters can take place.
The proposed policy objectives are intended to provide the dredging industry with sufficient access to suitable long-term resources to meet the needs of its varied markets, while ensuring that the extraction process does not have an unacceptable impact on the marine or coastal environments, or on other legitimate uses of the sea.
The guidance proposes that these objectives can be met by:
- the careful location of new dredging areas
- considering new applications for dredging permissions in relation to the findings of an environmental impact assessment (including a coastal study)
- minimizing the overall impact of dredging
- controlling dredging operations through the use of legally enforceable conditions attached to dredging permissions
- requiring operators to monitor the environmental impacts of their activities both during and on completion of dredging.
