The East Anglia THREE Offshore Wind Farm Order 2017

Pre-construction monitoring and surveys

17.—(1) The undertaker must, in discharging condition 13(1)(b), submit details (which accord with the in principle monitoring plan) for written approval by the MMO in consultation with relevant statutory bodies of proposed pre-construction surveys, including methodologies and timings, and a proposed format and content for a pre-construction baseline report; and

(a) the survey proposals must specify each survey’s objectives and explain how it will assist in either informing a useful and valid comparison with the post-construction position and/or will enable the validation or otherwise of key predictions in the environmental statement; and

(b) the baseline report proposals must ensure that the outcome of the agreed surveys together with existing data and reports are drawn together to present a valid statement of the pre-construction position, with any limitations, and must make clear what post-construction comparison is intended and the justification for this being required.

(2) The pre-construction surveys referred to in sub-paragraph (1) must, unless otherwise agreed with the MMO, have due regard to, but not be limited to, the need to undertake—

(a) appropriate surveys to determine the location and extent of any benthic communities/benthos constituting habitats of principal importance in whole or in part inside the area(s) within the Order limits in which it is proposed to carry out construction works;

(b) a full sea floor coverage swath-bathymetry survey that meets the requirements of IHO S44ed5 Order 1a, and side scan sonar, of the area(s) within the Order limits in which it is proposed to carry out construction works including a 500 metre buffer area around the site of each work, inclusive of seabed anomalies or sites of historic or archaeological interest that lie within that 500 metre buffer;

(c) appropriate surveys of existing ornithological activity inside the area(s) within the Order limits in which it is proposed to carry out construction works, and any wider area(s) where appropriate, which is required to test predictions in the environmental statement concerning key ornithological interests of relevance to the authorised scheme; and

(d) appropriate surveys of existing marine mammal activity inside the area(s) within the Order limits in which it is proposed to carry out construction works and any wider area(s) where appropriate which is required to test predictions in the environmental statement concerning key marine mammal interests of relevance to the authorised scheme.

(3) The undertaker must carry out the surveys agreed under sub-paragraph (1) and provide the baseline report to the MMO in the agreed format in accordance with the agreed timetable, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the MMO in consultation with the relevant statutory nature conservation bodies.