GreenPort on Tour

An integral part of this year’s Green- Port-EcoPorts 08 Conference Programme was the introduction of the 1st GreenPort Environmental Study Tour, which took place during the week prior to the conference in Amsterdam. Nine port authorities - representing Brisbane, Fremantle, Hastings, Transet, Santander, Quebec, Moerdijk, Iskenderum and Felixstowe - together with the US Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Globe International, Finland; the South African Department of Environment and tug boat builder C Mar in the USA convened in London on 20th February 2008.

ABP Southampton

The first port of call was ABP Southampton where the delegation was welcomed by Doug Morrison, Port Director, who outlined Southampton’s position as the UK’s second largest container terminal and number one car-handling port as well as its position as the UK’s cruise capital. Sue Simmonite, Environmental Manager then gave an in-depth presentation about ABP’s environmental policy - full details of which can be found on ABP’s website: http://environment.abports.co.uk/home. htm. Before embarking on an extensive tour of the port, Harbourmaster Captain Phil Holliday explained Southampton’s responsibility to its port users and the management of vessel traffic in conjunction with the variety of recreational activities in and around the Solent. In the afternoon, the Tour Group made a quick visit to Portsmouth, where the City Council have developed the Navy Dockyard in to a fully integrated local facility which now attracts thousands of visitors per year.

Felixstowe

Having seen the UK’s second largest container terminal the study group moved on to the Port of Felixstowe, operated by Hutchison Ports UK, which also own Harwich International Port - the site of the proposed container terminal at Bathside Bay. David Wilson, Hutchison’s Head of Health and Safety, outlined Hutchison’s global commitment to environmental issues. Gavin Reeve, Environmental Manager, put this commitment into context and provided details of some of the initiatives that HPUK have adopted in Felixstowe - such as its ship’s waste recycling system, whereby a converted roll trailer is positioned alongside the ship to aid the sorting of waste material. John Brien Harbour Engineer of Harwich Haven Authority, the conservancy and pilotage authority for Felixstowe, Harwich and Ipswich, explained the authority’s capital and maintenance dredging programmes and outlined how materials were disposed of within the Stour and Orwell estuaries.

 Working together

 The issue of how a port should be working with port users and agencies was expertly addressed by presentations from Andrew Dodd, Head of Site Conservation with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; and Chris Gibson and Roger Morris of Natural England who outlined how they had developed a working relationship with the Port of Felixstowe over a number of years regarding the successful development of Trimley Marsh and, more recently, Bathside Bay. Chris Gibson told delegates of their working relationship with Felixstowe: “By working together, by not taking opposing positions, just taking mutually challenging positions we can all get to a place where we all want to be,” he explained. “That’s what sustainable development is all about. “When Bathside Bay was proposed back in the early 2000’s we had the benefit of hindsight with the success here with Trimley Marsh and the very bruising and expensive encounter that the environment agencies had with the ports industry down at Dibden Bay in Southampton. We brought to the table the new paradigm of working with the industry to achieve sustainable development and took the Bathside Bay case, a landclaim of some 70 hectares, through the public enquiry and achieved a very important and significant mitigation and compensation package to ensure this sustainable development.” As Andrew Hartson, HPUK’s Port Development Director, explained during the tour of the port, “We have to look at whether our port development creates an impact on the environment and we have to look at ways to work with the agencies to develop solutions to mitigate those environmental impacts. We had to carry out assessments on noise and light and also emissions and to project forward for developments like Felixstowe South to replace Landguard Terminal taking measurements of the equipment we’ve got and the equipment we think we’ll be buying is the best available, in terms of emissions and noise levels.” During the field trip around the Orwell estuary Michael Wright of the Suffolk Wild Life Trust explained to delegates how the Trust were worried about the original development and expansion of the port back in the late 1980’s. “Right from the beginning, we were worried about the expansion,” he recalled, “but through negotiation and regularly sitting round a table and discussing all the matters concerning the loss of inter-tidal and how they were going to mitigate against the loss of inter-tidal Trimley Marsh was born. Trimley is now a fantastic wetland reserve for freshwater birds with a variety of habitats from grazing marsh to reed bed and reservoir which works all year round. In the winter there’ll be 7,000 -8,000 birds such brent geese, widgeon, teal and gadwall and in the summertime it’s home to avocets, lapwing and redshank - all scarce birds who require a specialist habitat.” After two intensive days in the UK the Study Group moved on to Antwerp and Rotterdam to see how mainland’s Europe two largest ports were progressing with individual infrastructure projects – Deurganckdock and Maasvlaakte 2.

A Report of the 2nd part of the GreenPort Study Tour will be published in the next issue of GreenPort Journal, together with details of the planned 2009 GreenPort Study Tour of French and Italian ports.