Case studies - Cable decommissioning
SUBMARINE CABLES ARE ESSENTIAL to modern life - to telecommunications, to the internet and to the bulk import and export of power.
Some cables inevitably become redundant and decommissioning creates its own environmental issues. The cable industry has, therefore, developed a generic local environmental assessment approach which analyses the environmental risks involved in recovery as opposed to leaving cables in-situ.
It provides operators with a ‘generic self-assessment’ tool that can be used to support permit applications for specific cables.
This approach allows sensitive issues to be identified at an early stage of the planning process, and the information helps to generate an environmental case to present to authorities.
