1               INTRODUCTION

Background

1.1         Paul Y. Construction Company, Limited (the Contractor) was commissioned by Drainage Services Department (DSD) to undertake the construction of “Harbour Area Treatment Scheme Stage 2A – Construction of Sewage Conveyance System from Ap Lei Chau to Aberdeen” (hereinafter called the “the Project”) under Contract No. DC/2008/09. The Contractor was further commissioned by DSD to appoint a Monitoring Team and carry out the baseline monitoring for the Project.

1.2         The sewage conveyance system (SCS) comprises a network of interconnected sewage tunnels and vertical shafts. The vertical shaft collect sewage from the preliminary treatment works in North Point, Wan Chai East, Central, Sandy Bay, Cyberport, Wah Fu, Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau. The preliminary treatment works handle the sewage collected from the catchment areas which comes from around 70% of the population of Hong Kong Island. The collected sewage if conveyed to the Stonecutters Island Sewage Treatment Works via a total of 21km of deep tunnels with depths in general varying from 70m to 160m below sea level.

1.3         In the Project, SCS connecting Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau will be constructed using twin pipes of 1.3km long with 600mm in diameter. The depth of the pipes will be over 80m depth from sea level generally. Site layout plan of the Project is shown in Figure 1. The construction was commenced on 17 August 2009. The anticipated date of completion is August 2012.

1.4         An Environmental Permit (EP) No. EP-322/2008 was issued on 19 November 2008 for Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) Stage 2A to Drainage Services Department as the Permit Holder. Later, the further Environmental Permit (EP-322/2008/A) was issued in July 2009 for vary Figure 1d and 1e of the Environmental Permit No. EP 322/2008. The Environmental Permit was then amended for the construction and operation of the designated project. (EP-322/2008/B)

1.5         Cinotech Consultants Limited (Cinotech) was commissioned by the Contractor to undertake the Environmental Monitoring and Audit (EM&A) works for the project. This Baseline Environmental Monitoring Report is prepared by Cinotech for the Project prior to the commencement of construction activity in accordance with the EM&A Manual.

Purpose of the Report

1.6         The purpose of the Baseline Monitoring Report (hereinafter called the “the Report”) is to set out baseline levels for the noise in accordance with the updated EM&A Manual.  These baseline levels will be used as the basis for compliance check during the impact monitoring in construction stage of the Project.  This Report presents the locations, equipment, period, methodology, results and observations for the noise monitoring during the baseline period. 


Structure of the Baseline Monitoring Report

1.7         The structure of the Report is summarized as follows:

Section 1:      Introduction, purpose, background and the structure of the report.

Section 2:      Noise, which describes the baseline noise monitoring.

Section 3       Revisions for inclusion in the updated EM&A Manual

Section 4 Conclusion