Environmental impact assessment
From June 2012 to September 2014, comprehensive surveys of the marine environment were carried out on a scale that so far has been unprecedented in Poland. They covered the area of the planned farms and their immediate vicinity. Major experts from Poland and abroad carried out numerous analyses using international surveying methods in the surveys.
Environmental surveys included:
- seabed organisms – sampling and analysis of samples, underwater observations
- fisheries survey and hydro-acoustic measurements, underwater observations
- marine mammals – monitoring with the use of porpoise detectors, airborne observations, modelling of underwater noise intensity
- observations of wintering and migrating birds, monitoring with the use of radars, recording of sound at night-time, analysis of collision risk, modelling of habitats
- acoustic monitoring of bats
- meteorological and hydrological parameters
- seabed – deep-sea structure, shape, physical and chemical properties of sediments, modelling of suspended matter disintegration, monitoring of underwater noise intensity
The results of the one and a half year research program and series of specialized analyses, together with the assessment of the impact on individual elements of the environment, are included in the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA Report), which has over 5000 pages. The EIA Report was submitted to the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Gdańsk after the environmental impact assessment. On its basis, the environmental decision is issued. The non-technical summary of the information contained in the EIA Report, for each element of the report, is an integral part of the EIA Report.