PICK N PAY STORES LIMITED Environmentalists challenge road extension that threatens endangered Western Leopard Toads
- A new road in Noordhoek,
Cape Town , could drive the local toad population to extinction, says a group of environmentalists. - The
City of Cape Town acknowledges that there will be some impact. - But the City says measures can be taken to maintain toad numbers.
- The matter is in court from Wednesday 8 November.
A new section of road through the Noordhoek wetlands could cause the local extinction of the endangered Western Leopard Toad, a keystone species whose presence or absence is an indicator of environmental health - "like the canary in the coal mine".
This is one of the arguments in an application that starts in the
The
The approval process for this road construction project is described in the voluminous court papers of several thousand pages as an "acrimonious and controversial" affair that has "generated controversy and a complicated record".
NEAG wants the court to review and rescind approval granted for construction of this 1.2km section of road, known as
The contested section of new road will run along the south-eastern edge of a wetland of some 50 hectares, commonly called the "
"It is hard to underplay the importance of the Western Leopard Toad. It is regularly referred to as a 'flagship' or 'umbrella' or 'indicator' species," NEAG states in its court papers.
"The
Masiphumelele
In replying papers, the City points out that
"The unchecked encroachment of Masiphumelele into the habitat of the Western Leopard Toad represents a far more fundamental threat to the existence of the toad than what will be a permeable roadway on only one of four sides of the wetland.
"The City is, as a result, significantly constrained in its ability to deliver municipal and emergency services to Masiphumelele."
The Western Cape's
Western
The City's environmental practitioner for the project, Chand Environmental Consultancy, is the third respondent, and the consultancy's two employees,
Roadkill
In his Heads of Argument, NEAG's counsel, advocate
"It is a matter of record that the wetland adjacent to Masiphumelele is to all intents and purposes 'dead'," Bridgman states. "For this reason NEAG and ToadNuts [an associated local specialist toad conservation group] have no objection to the construction of HAE2, the portion of road which is intended to provide a hard boundary between Masiphumelele and the wetland, and [to] end the ever-encroaching shacks on stilts further and further into the wetland."
He says breeding Pond 2 in particular will be "drastically" affected by HAE1.
"Roadkill will be an enormous factor. Pollution and noise by themselves could destroy Pond 2 as a breeding pond. The effect of the two-and-a-half year construction period is unknown.
"The fact is that the road reserve is only 10 metres wide in most places, sufficient for a small suburban road, but not for the proposed HAE1 which is 20 metres wide and is designed for heavy rush hour traffic."
NEAG contends that its application can be easily resolved, Bridgman continues, "on the basis of the straightforward fact that there is no expert study on the impact that the construction of the road will have on the Western Leopard Toad". He calls this omission "a fatal flaw which is incapable of correction", and argues that it contravenes National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) regulations - "particularly as the Western Leopard Toad is an endangered species".
"Vital information was not included in the environmental assessment ... and vital information was therefore not put before the decision-makers. It is not possible to do an ex post facto expert study."
Experts
In their Heads of Argument, counsel for the City, advocates
But they argue that the potential impact of the project on the toads was indeed flagged as an important issue from the outset of the environmental assessment process, and that toad-related impacts were assessed by two "pre-eminent specialists": faunal expert
Both investigations "converged" on several findings and recommendations, some of which are:
- construction of the road could affect the toads through habitat loss, habitat degradation and road mortality;
- the potential impact on toads does not amount to a fatal flaw in the project proposal but should nonetheless be mitigated;
- further necessary mitigation measures will include road design that enables safe passage by toads and toadlets across the road, and concerted efforts to conserve and protect the breeding ponds;
- a landscape architect experienced in rehabilitation and a freshwater ecologist must be involved in conceiving and implementing the rehabilitation plan; and
- an amphibian specialist must be involved in the optimisation of the road design, and for monitoring and reporting on mitigations measures for five years.
"We submit that the specialist studies pertaining to the Western Leopard Toad produced credible findings and recommendations and provided a satisfactory basis for the decisions taken by the Director [Toefy] and the MEC [Bredell]," Edmunds and Blomkamp argue.
"In summary, the deponents have failed to identify a single respect in which the public participation process failed to comply with [environmental] regulations. We submit there is no basis whatsoever for the allegation that the basic assessment process was procedurally unfair."
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