Dredging plans for Ventnor Harbour and health risks from Hydrogen Sulphide Gas.

Thank you for your information request dated 27 July 2010 which is
currently being considered.

As required by law, the Council will respond to you as soon as possible
and no later than 20 working days after the receipt of your request.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the council is able to charge a
fee where the cost for responding is above the Appropriate Fee Limit as
set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004.  The fee limit is set down by the Lord
Chancellor and is £450 which equates to a maximum of 18 hours of search
and retrieval time. 

Should your request fall into this category, we will notify you as soon as
possible, to discuss any options available to you.

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charges as soon as is reasonably practicable.

If you have any complaints in respect of your information request, please
write to the Corporate Information Unit at the above address, or complete
the on-line appeals form that can be found at
www.iwight.com/information.  If your complaint is not resolved to your
complete satisfaction, you have the ultimate right, once you have
exhausted the internal appeals process, to appeal to the Information
Commissioner.

Regards

Mrs Gill Jolliff | Business Support Manager| Highways and Transport
|Enterprise House | Monks Brook |  Newport |

Isle of Wight |  PO30 5WB

Tel: (01983) 823777 | Internal: 5723

Email: [1][email address] | Web: [2]www.iwight.com

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Thank you for your information request dated 27 July 2010.

Please find below the information you have requested.

1. Has work commenced on clearing the rotting seaweed
from Ventnor harbour? - Yes.

2. Is the Council aware that the foul stench which can be
smelt at low tide throughout Ventnor is likely to be hydrogen sulphide
gas? Yes.

3. This is caused by rotting seaweed. Has the Council
instructed any person, or aware of any person or group which is monitoring
the levels of hydrogen sulphide gas being released into the bay? No, we
have not instructed anyone to monitor the levels of hydrogen sulphide nor
are we aware of anyone who is.

4. Has the Council issued any health warning in relation
to hydrogen sulphide gas to people who work and live near Ventnor
Harbour? No. The risk of people being harmed by decomposition gases is
negligible and therefore does not warrant the issuing of health warnings.

5. How does the Council plan to deal with this problem
long term? We plan to introduce a regular maintenance regime to avoid
accumulations of seaweed in the first place.

6. How will the silt and seaweed which is dredged from
the harbour be disposed of? There are two options available; one way is
for us to collect it, dry it and sell it to farms as fertilizer and the
other is that we pump it over the harbour wall before it decomposes and it
would go away with the tide. Both these options are currently being
explored.

Please contact me again if you require any further assistance on this
matter and I will do my best to provide relevant help and advice.

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 requests will be subject to copyright protection. In
most cases the copyright will be owned by the Isle of Wight Council. The
copyright in other information may be owned by another person or
organisation, as indicated on the information itself.

You are free to use any information supplied for your own non-commercial,
research, or private study purposes. The information may also be used for
any other purpose allowed by a limitation, or exception, in copyright law,
such as news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example by
publishing the information in analogue or digital form, including on the
internet, will require the permission of the copyright owner.

For information where the copyright is owned by the Council, details of
the conditions on re-use can be found on our website at
[1]www.iwight.com/foi.

For information where the copyright is owned by another person or
organisation you must apply to the copyright owner to obtain their
permission.

If you have any complaints in respect of your information request, please
write to the Corporate Information Unit at the above address, or complete
the on-line appeals form that can be found at www.iwight.com/information.
If your complaint is not resolved to your complete satisfaction, you have
the ultimate right, once you have exhausted the internal appeals process,
to appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Regards

Mrs Gill Jolliff | Business Support Manager| Highways and Transport
|Enterprise House | Monks Brook | Newport |

Isle of Wight | PO30 5WB

Tel: (01983) 823777 | Internal: 5723

Email: [2][email address] | Web: [3]www.iwight.com

--
Scanned by iCritical.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.iwight.com/foi
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.iwight.com/