Environmental Impact Assessment - Gormican Environmental Services

Re: Proposed dock at 333A Stewart Avenue, View Royal

I have made 2 site visits to the above mentioned property to assess the potential impact to the intertidal and subtidal marine environment through the building of a dock and float. A small rock wall was also constructed on the site and that will be addressed in the impact assessment contained in this letter.

Setting & Habitat

The subject property is located in Esquimalt Harbour on the north east side of the harbour which makes it exposed to the south/south-east. This is a built-up residential area with many docks and private moorages in the immediate vicinity. The shoreline consists mainly of exposed bedrock with a steep backshore (see attached photos). The subject property is a small pocket beach of sand less than 10 m wide, and narrowing in a pie shape to < 1 m near the high water mark. This is where a small rock and mortar wall was constructed, which is nearly above the high water mark.

Likely due to the exposure and substrate of the site, fauna (as observed in May/June) consisted of barnacles. The flora observed in the intertidal was some brown alga which had washed ashore due to the prevailing winds as well as some Fucus sp. attached to bedrock (see photos). The white sand substrate allowed visual assessment of the area to be covered by the float to be conducted from the rock bluff and shore. No eelgrass nor emergent algal species were observed. The sandy bottom appeared rippled, which is indicative of a high-energy wave beach environment.

Impact Assessment

The majority of the dock and approach will be above the high water mark and will have negligible impact on the backshore environment as it is primarily barren rock. The floating component of the proposed works has been moved to run adjacent to the rock bluff. The presence of the float will not add significant shading to the marine subtidal as the bluff shades the area already. The impact of the float will also be negligible to the marine subtidal as the area is very active and would be able to support limited flora and fauna. The float may actually provide increased habitat in the form of a fish aggregating device (FAD) due to future presence of encrusting species and the cover that it will provide.

The rock and motar wall constructed in the higher intertidal has covered a small portion of what was presumably sandy substrate which may have been 1-2 m² in size. While any habitat loss is not permitted under DFO No Net Loss regulations, the small size of the substrate, its high-energy nature, and the fact that native rock was used in its construction, makes this wall's presence inconsequential to the functioning of the marine habitat and it is not necessary to compensate for it.

Providing that the proposed materials are used in construction and work on site is limited to the installation of anchors and above high-tide footings, this project should have a minimal impact on the marine environment and no compensation should be required.

Sincerely,

Stephen J. Gormican, M.Sc., R.P.Bio.