State of the Bay Report 2010-Final - Anchor Environmental

Anchor Environmental
Future developments in and around Saldanha and Langebaan will have to be conducted in
accordance with the provisions of ICMA. The following aspects of ICMA will affect future
development activities in Saldanha and Langebaan:
Section 15 of ICMA prevents any person, owner or occupier of land adjacent to the seashore
from requiring any organ of state or any other person to take measures to prevent the
erosion or accretion of the seashore, or of land adjacent to coastal public property, unless
the erosion is caused by an intentional act or omission of that organ of state or other
person. Moreover it prohibits the construction, maintenance or extension of any structure,
or the conduct of any other measures on coastal public property to prevent or promote
erosion or accretion of the seashore except as provided for in ICMA.
Coastal setback lines, determined by an MEC in accordance with section 25 of the Act, will
demarcate an area within which development will be prohibited or controlled in order to
achieve the objects of ICMA or coastal management objectives;
Section 58 places a duty of care on every person who causes, has caused or may cause
significant pollution or degradation of the environment, including an adverse effect to the
coastal environment, to take reasonable measures to prevent such pollution or degradation
from occurring, continuing or recurring, and to minimise and rectify such pollution or
degradation of the coastal environment;
Section 60 provides the Minister or MEC with the power to give notice to repair or remove
structures in the coastal zone if the structures are likely to cause adverse effects to the
coastal environment
4.3 Discharges and activities affecting environmental health
4.3.1 Dredging and port expansion
Dredging of the seabed is performed worldwide in order to expand and deepen existing
harbours/ports or to maintain navigation channels and harbour entrances (Erftemeijer and Lewis
2006), and dredging has thus been touted as one of the most common anthropogenic disturbance of
the marine environment (Bonvicini Pagliai et al. 1985). The potential impacts of dredging on the
marine environmental can stem from both the removal of substratum from the seafloor and the
disposal of dredged sediments, and include:
Direct destruction of benthic fauna populations due to substrate removal
Burial of organisms due to disposal of dredged sediments
Alterations in sediment composition which changes nature and diversity of benthic
communities (e.g. decline in species density, abundance and biomass)
Enhanced sedimentation
Changes in bathymetry which alters current velocities and wave action
Increase in concentration of suspended matter and turbidity due to suspension of
sediments. The re-suspension of sediments may give rise to:
o Decrease in water transparency
o Release in nutrients and hence eutrophication
o Release of toxic metals and hydrocarbons due to changes in physical/chemical
equilibria
State of the Bay 2010: Saldanha Bay and Langebaan Lagoon 50