standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

Turning to the requirements for future impact experiments, Sharma
said he was broaching this topic because the requirements needed to be
set now. He listed the following: greater discharge of sediment; variable
altitudes of discharge in the water column; assessment of impact at all
levels in the water column, since mining would impact levels other than the
benthic area; a pattern of disturbance more closely resembling what a
nodule collector would cause, to be defined after talking with engineers;
real-time impact assessment; regular monitoring, and preferably use of a
pilot-mining system. Investigators should avoid repeating the mistake of
generating a disturbance without knowing whether it conformed to the
design of a mining system and thus whether the resulting data would be
applicable.
He offered some suggestions that environmental scientists might
give to mining-system developers and mining engineers: minimize
sediment penetration, restrict sediment dispersal to the seafloor so that it
would not spread, minimize nodule and sediment transport to the surface,
discharge tailings below the oxygen-minimum zone and treat the tailings
before discharge. Environmental scientists had a responsibility to sit with
the mining engineers to discuss such matters.
He identified several unanswered questions: What kind of mining
system was likely for the future? What were the likely impacts of this
system? How would pollutants from the collector or ship be identified?
How should test data be integrated with the mining-system design and
operations?
The Authority should expect statements from each contractor giving
detailed baseline data, criteria for the selection of test and reference sites,
the results of any simulated impact experiment, the expected
environmental impact due to mining, parameters for monitoring of impact
and proposed measures to minimize the effects. He raised these points
because the contractors would need to know in advance what was expected
from them.
He then gave an example from the Indian site, stating that India was
in the process of relinquishing the extra area of its original claim, leaving it
with 75,000 km². The area covered by test and reference sites so far was
about 700 km², meaning that less than 1 percent of the claim had been
studied from an environmental point of view. That was not enough
because, over the area of 75,000 km² where a mine site could somewhere
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INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY