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OSPAR annual report on dumping and placement of wastes or other matter at sea in 2015

Executive Summary

Data are available on ODIMS via:  https://odims.ospar.org/documents/359

Background: EIHA 2016 adopted a new reporting format for dredged material ( Agreement 2016‐08 ), as a further update of the revised Annual report (agreement 2014‐07).
 
The revised Annual Report aims to provide an overview of:
 

  • the quantities of material deposited at sea (per country and overall);

  • the quantities of contaminated material (above national upper action level) deposited at sea (per country and overall);

  • the quantities of material dumped;

  • the quantities of material placed;

  • the quality of material deposited at sea;

  • comparisons to earlier years (per country and overall).

Full Report

Reports received: reports were received from Belgium (BE), Denmark (DK), France (FR), Germany (DE), Iceland (IS), Ireland (IE), The Netherlands (NL), Norway (NO), Portugal (PT), Sweden (SE), Spain (ES) and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GB). 

Indications from data:

Reports indicate that the total amount of material dredged and dumped or placed at sea in the whole OSPAR area appears to be broadly in line within the variability of data reported from the previous four years.

Contaminant concentrations, having been on a gradual decline since 1990 appear to have stabilised in recent years. Further information on trends in contaminant concentrations can be found in the report ICG‐Trend has prepared for the Intermediate Assessment 2017. 

The amount of material containing one or more determinands exceeding the upper national action level accounts for less than 3 % of the total amount of dredged material deposited at sea. 

The amount of material used beneficially, at roughly 63 million tonnes, is equivalent to approximately forty percent of the total amount of material managed during this year and is a clear increase compared to last year 2014. 

During this year a total number of 335 deposit sites was reported by Contacting Parties (331 for dredged material and 4 for inert material), with an average amount deposited per site of 435.346 tonnes, ranging from 11 tonnes to more than 14 million tonnes.

Locations of dumping or placement of waste or other matter activities in 2015. Available via https://odims.ospar.org/layers/geonode:ospar_dumping_at_sea_2015_01_001