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Good practice
In order to avoid, minimise and address potential
environmental impacts arising from their operations,
ports and harbours operating within or near marine
SACs should:
- Educate, encourage and train staff to avoid
and minimise pollution from maintenance activities,
as far as is practical. This can be achieved by
providing information to all staff to raise awareness
of:
- the importance of the area in which they work
for its marine conservation features and the reasons
why it has been designated as a marine SAC,
- the potential environmental impacts that may
occur as a result of maintenance activities undertaken
in the harbour area, and
- more environmentally sensitive ways of undertaking
maintenance activities, illustrating practical
and economic benefits where they exist.
- Ensure that all employees follow simple good
housekeeping practices to minimise the amounts
of harmful substances entering the marine environment
as a result of maintenance operations. Staff should
be required to:
- sweep up all solid waste such as paint chippings
and sandblasting wastes and place these in skips
for land disposal,
- mop up any spills of harmful substances and
excess chemicals after cleaning operations and
never swill them over the side of jetties and
wharves into the harbour waters,
- place ground sheets under boats during cleaning
operations, where practical, and
- use, handle and store harmful substances in
a responsible manner in compliance with health
and safety regulations.
- Use environmentally sensitive alternatives to
harmful chemical agents when cleaning harbour
surfaces, such as pressure washing with harbour
water (where this method is effective enough to
ensure public safety). Where there is no suitable
effective alternative to the cleaning agent already
used, consider only using cleaning agents such
as bleach on harbour walkways where there is a
safety risk to the public or staff from algal
growth.
- Give high priority to finding effective alternative
means of cleaning harbour structures and vessels
with the aim to discontinue the use of products
that contain phosphates and chlorine. Consider,
where appropriate, introducing new surfaces which
require less cleaning.
- Provide adequate reception facilities for the
safe disposal of maintenance wastes, including
bins and skips for non-hazardous sweepings and
debris and special points for the disposal of
hazardous substances, such as concentrated cleaning
chemicals, oils, antifouling paints and contaminated
scrapings.
- Where good working practices are considered
insufficient to prevent an identified pollution
problem, harbour infrastructure in outside maintenance
areas can be modified to minimise the amounts
of contaminants entering the marine environment.
This may include the following steps which will
require a cost to the harbour that should be considered
against the potential for environmental improvement:
- installing permanent scrub-off facilities
to collect maintenance residues from boat cleaning
operations,
- constructing a bund around maintenance areas
and collecting wastes in a sump to allow debris
to settle out before the water runs into the harbour
or sewage drain system, and
- investing in a separator for oil to be removed
from wash down wastes.
- Increase public awareness of the steps taken
in harbours to protect the environment from the
possible effects of maintenance activities.
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