Marine construction and deposits in the Sea/FEPA guidelines

In Northern Ireland, the Department of Environment (DOE) is responsible under Part II of the Food and Environment Protection Act (FEPA), 1985 to control deposit of articles in the sea.

The Act aims to protect the marine environment and human health, and to minimise nuisance or interference to other legitimate users of the sea.

The Department is responsible for controlling all deposits into the sea up to the High Water Mean Spring (HWMS) tidemark.

The Department operates a licensing system under the FEPA, which regulates the deposit of substances or articles in Northern Ireland's territorial waters (from HWMS out to 12 nautical miles), or under the seabed. This includes dredged material.

Activities that require a licence

There are a number of acitives that require a licence from the Department of Environment

The disposal of dredged material
Construction work which involves the placing of material below the HWMS tidemark, including the building of harbours, jetties, and the reclamation of land.

The implementation of FEPA Part II, which deals with deposits in the sea, is one of the ways that the UK meets its commitments as a signatory to the following international conventions:

The London Convention 1972 (prevention of marine pollution) which is applicable worldwide
The OSPAR Convention (1998) for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic.

Under Annex II of the OSPAR Convention, all countries who have signed up must control deposits in the sea and are only permitted to dispose of the following at sea:

Dredged material
Inert materials of natural origin, including solid, chemically unprocessed, geological material, the chemical parts of which are unlikely to be released into the marine environment
Fish waste from industrial processing operations