Tunnel threat to salmon’s survival

Jun 27 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

Now the intention is to use the dredged material to fill in Tyne Dock at South Shields, with the contaminated silt being deposited first and then capped. The rest of the dredged material would follow with the filled-in dock providing development land for the Port of Tyne.

This would involve a change in the dredging “window” to September-October this year.

Mr Davison said : “The Environment Agency and TT2 are putting a huge amount of resources into analysing the risk and hopefully they will get the balance right between what is right for the river and the region, which wants to see the new tunnel completed as soon as possible.

“We want as many safeguards as possible in place if the Environment Agency gives consent.

“We had a lot of responses from people who came up with risks that haven’t been thought of so far.”

Mr Davison said that one concern was monitoring measures, such as the number of fish passing a counter at Riding Mill and angler returns, would not detect problems from the dredging early enough for effective remediation action to be taken.

There was also the fear that economic priorities may lead to requests for further changes.

The Tyne Rivers Trust was set up to receive £250,000 negotiated by the Tyne Riparian Owners and Occupiers Association for habitat improvement works to compensate for any loss of migratory fish, like salmon, in the river as a result of the tunnel construction.

Trust director Malcolm Newson, previously professor of physical geography at Newcastle University, said the salmon fishery on the Tyne was worth more than £1m a year.

He said: “It is a juggling act and the more information and views which are gathered the better.

“As much information as possible should be collected during the dredging event and a shut down system should be operated at the first signs of significant change in salmon behaviour or water quality.”