Expert advice on documents about the effects of nitrogen disposal into nature protection areas originating from the coal power plant of RWE in Eemshaven/The Netherlands
The permission under nature conservation legislation granted in 2008 for the RWE coal-fired power plant in Eemshaven (1600 MWel.) was declared invalid by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands in 2012, in particular because the effects of nitrogen emissions on nature reserves in Germany were not further investigated. The power plant is located in the immediate vicinity of the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park and numerous other FHH (fauna-flora habitat) and bird sanctuaries.
As a result, several studies were carried out on the impact of nitrogen on the reserves. Three preliminary investigations and the objection decision of the approval authority come to the conclusion that the effects are so minor that an in-depth FFH impact assessment is not necessary. However, investigations by the City of Borkum contain numerous indications of the need for in-depth investigations.
On behalf of Greenpeace Netherlands, Ökopol has investigated whether more in-depth FFH tolerability tests are necessary. The opinion shows that the preliminary FFH tests examined are based on a questionable pollutant dispersion calculation because no local weather data were used. Furthermore, obsolete nitrogen load limits were applied for the preliminary tests, although specific, predominantly stricter load values for the investigated habitats were published by the Lower Saxony Nature Conservation Authority (NLWKN).
For many nitrogen-sensitive habitats it was not taken into account that they are already in a critical conservation state, so that an FFH test is absolutely necessary. In addition, Ökopol sees the necessity of FFH tolerability tests for further reserves, which were not considered in the previous preliminary assessments without nature conservation specialist justification.
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