A habitat restoration project is to be carried out to compensate for the impact the Waterford city bypass will have on a natural heritage area of national importance, an oral hearing into the project was told yesterday.
Ecologist Dr Tom Gittings, who prepared the ecological assessment for the Waterford bypass, said a site had been identified to recreate the habitats present in the Railway and Grannybridge Meadows, located close to Waterford city in Co Kilkenny.
The Grannyferry proposed natural heritage area comprises about 10 hectares of salt meadow, marshy grassland, greater pond-sedge swamp and reed-bed habitat adjoining the lower sections of Smartscastle stream and the river Blackwater.
Dr Gittings said the area was of national importance due to the presence of meadow barley, which is protected under the 1999 Flora Protection Act, and a rare mollusc called Mercuria confusa.
The ecologist, a post doctoral fellow in University College Cork Environmental Institute, told the hearing that it was proposed to purchase compulsorily 35 per cent of this proposed natural heritage area.
While the area directly affected by the route would be substantially smaller, the remaining habitat was likely to be significantly affected by secondary hydrological impacts, he said. "In order to provide some compensation for these impacts, the Habitat Restoration project will be carried out.
"A site has been identified which has a degraded version of the vegetation present in the proposed natural heritage area," he said.
Dr Gittings explained the proposed route would remove about 75 per cent of the meadow barley population at Grannyferry. However, plants that would be affected by the proposed bypass were being relocated to two other locations in the area where meadow barley was found.
Dr Gittings said that to minimise the risk to the mollusc in Smartscastle stream, realignment of the stream would be designed to maintain, as far as possible, existing hydrological conditions upstream and downstream.
To compensate for the loss of habitat, new areas of reed bed would be created and molluscs from the affected areas of the Smartscastle swamp translocated to this habitat.
The second area of nature conservation importance within the 25 km bypass route corridor identified by Duchas is the lower River Suir, a candidate Special Area of Conservation.
Dr Gittings said the proposed bypass was not likely to have a significant adverse impact on the integrity of this area.
However, traffic noise from the route could have some impact on the populations of wintering birds in this area, he said, with the kingfisher and golden plover being two regular species.
But he said any noise impacts on kingfishers in the vicinity of the proposed route would be unlikely to have a significant impact on the local population of this bird as there would be vacant habitat available nearby. Kingfishers could also tolerate high levels of disturbance when habitat conditions were suitable.
"For instance, kingfishers breed within 100 metres of the N9 in Carlow town and regularly occur on the river Breagagh in Kilkenny city centre."