Central Coast Council / The Entrance Channel Dredging Ecological Impact Study - CPA/157964

In 2006, Wyong Shire Council adopted the Tuggerah Lakes Estuary Management Plan (EMP). The EMP was developed over a nine year period and provides strategic direction for the management of Tuggerah Lakes and its catchment. The EMP is the platform by which Council will manage the estuary over the next five years.

Significant implementation of the program has recently commenced following receipt of a “Caring for our Country” grant administered by the Australian Government’s Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA).

Council currently operates a dredge in The Entrance channel to keep the estuary mouth open, and to alleviate the effects of severe flooding around the estuary margins. The spoil that is removed from the channel is relocated to the North Entrance beach.

Priority Program 18 of the EMP (p 127) recommends that Council “Maintain current flows through the entrance” and undertake a study to assess the effects of dredging on key estuarine/physical processes.

The principle objective of this contract is to assess the impacts of the current dredging program on the ecology of the lakes with particular emphasis on the entrance channel zone. General reference should be made to the effects of the current program on water quality as it relates to ecological processes. The study should be undertaken with a view to recommending entrance management strategies that would improve the overall ecological condition within Tuggerah Lakes. The socio-economic implications of any recommendation should be clearly defined and any management strategy should be rationalised in accordance with the EMP’s Socio-economic Action Plan.

NSW Regions: Hunter, Sydney

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