Warrawee Substation - Review of Environmental Factors

Most of the street trees observed throughout the north of the site are to be removed due to safetyconcerns, as they overhang neighbouring properties and power lines. This removal is to be undertakenas part of maintenance activities and does not form part of this proposal.The current proposal would involve clearing small areas of exotic vegetation, predominately composed ofexotic grasses, climbers and dense thickets of Lantana and other weeds. It may also result in theremoval of a small number of exotic street trees not removed as part of maintenance activities. Thisvegetation has minimal habitat value for native fauna and its removal would be highly unlikely to affectthe persistence of local populations of any native fauna species.Indirect impactsIndirect impacts on areas of native vegetation as a result of the proposal are unlikely: the site is borderedto the east and west by rail infrastructure and streets or residential areas, and slopes away from plantednative vegetation to the north. Vegetation to the south of the site (downslope) consists of dense weedthickets with few native plants.The proposal has the potential to impact on water quality in the unnamed drainage line to the south ofthe site through altered hydrology and transfer of sediments. These impacts and appropriate mitigationmeasures are discussed in Sections 3.1 and 3.4. This drainage line has minimal habitat value for nativefauna, and it is anticipated that standard environmental controls would prevent impacts on downstreamareas.Impacts on threatened and migratory biotaThreatened ecological communitiesNo native vegetation would be affected by the proposal. Environmental management measures would beimplemented to control sediments and runoff from the construction area, and would further limit anypotential impacts on nearby areas of vegetation. No impacts on threatened ecological communities aretherefore anticipated as a result of the proposal.Threatened floraNo threatened flora species are considered likely to occur at the site, and none would be impacted by theproposal.Threatened faunaThe proposal would not remove any roosting, nesting or breeding habitat for any of the four threatenedspecies considered to have the potential to occur on the site. No areas of native vegetation would beremoved. The proposal may affect minimal areas of marginally suitable foraging habitat for these speciesby removing small areas of exotic vegetation. Such habitat is extremely common throughout the locality,and habitats at the site would represent a negligible proportion of foraging habitat available to thesehighly mobile species. The proposal is therefore considered highly unlikely to affect local populations ofthese species, and no assessments of significance have been prepared.Migratory speciesAerial habitats would not be affected by the proposal. Neither of the two species considered to have thepotential to occur at the site would be likely to land, therefore no impacts on migratory species are21/19721/1780117