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Dredging 'Under Represented in Water Framework Directive
01 Feb 2006
The European Seaports Organisation (ESPO) has expressed concerns about the level of attention given to dredging in the development of the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD). As ESPO noted recently, dredging is of vital importance to many of the European Union's ports, harbours and waterways, providing and maintaining adequate water depths and hence safe navigational access.
'Due account must be taken that dredging across the EU is subject to natural variations, which are particularly marked in coastal and estuarine areas where tidal influences can lead to massive changes in morphology and suspended sediment concentrations, says ESPO. 'In many estuaries the vast majority of sediment that has to be dredged comes from the sea and not the rivers. Further, the amount of sediment actually dredged from a turbid estuary may represent only a very small fraction of the quantities mobilised by the tides every day.
'Dredging and sediment management is subject to a wide range of international and EU policies and legislation which sometimes causes unjustified restrictions or different interpretations, ' said the seaports organisation, noting that ESPO believes that this situation requires rationalisation, harmonisation and clarification, and that it supports ongoing EU policy initiatives such as the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.
'However, said the organisation, 'ESPO is concerned that dredging is under-represented in the current implementation process of the Water Framework Directive and that more attention is required.'
ESPO has already raised its concerns regarding the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, together with a number of other associations with which ESPO cooperates in the so-called 'Navigation Task Group.' In October 2003, the Navigation Task Group organised an international seminar 'Navigating the EU Water Framework Directive' which was held in Brussels.
In May 2004, the Navigation Task Group published a position paper entitled 'Implications of the EU Water Framework Directive for Ports, Harbours, Commercial and Leisure Navigation, and Dredging.' The paper set out a number of key issues which are of fundamental importance to the navigation and ports sector and also of relevance for proposed action during the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. These included: policy integration;
clarity, consistency and transparency; practical and economic implications; the natural role of sediments in aquatic systems; and sediment management.
ESPO believes that proposed measures against pollution of surface water under the Water Framework Directive will affect ports in a disproportional way, and says it could introduce additional, unnecessary controls on dredging and dredge disposal activities with potentially very significant cost implications.
'Existing sediment contamination in European river basins causes problems for ports when these sediments have to be dredged. However, contamination may be sourced from elsewhere in the river basin and/or the problem may be widespread throughout the whole basin, says ESPO. 'Therefore ESPO wants to raise awareness about the implications the Water Framework Directive may have for the wider navigation sector and specifically for dredging.'
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