Volumes, dredged area measurements and estimated contaminants of material disposed at licensed offshore sites around the UK coast from 2000 to 2020

annually

The dataset was created by combining the regulatory data collected around the UK, including England and the Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish and Isle of Man devolved administrations, with quality assurance and calculations of contaminant loads carried out by Cefas. Regulatory data includes disposal returns submitted to individual regulatory bodies by the licence holders, supplemented by chemical and physical analyses data of samples taken to characterise the disposed material. This information is provided annually to Cefas by the individual bodies. Cefas then collates the various returns datasets and carries out quality assurance. Cefas also calculates the contaminant loads from the sample analysis data, and scales up to individual sites to estimate how much contaminant has been disposed of. Reports produced by Cefas with the finalised data are submitted to LCLP and OSPAR secretariats on behalf of Defra. The spatial extents of the licensed disposal sites are described by the following published metadata `https://data.cefas.co.uk/view/407`_. Disposal volumes are measured using on board volume calculations and reported to the Regulator(s) annually. Contaminant information is measured in samples using established techniques for marine sediment (see `https://www.gov.uk/guidance/marine-licensing-sediment-analysis-and-sample-plans`_ for example) and are then weighted by dredged area proportions and scaled up to the disposal volume. .. _`https://data.cefas.co.uk/view/407`: https://data.cefas.co.uk/view/407 .. _`https://www.gov.uk/guidance/marine-licensing-sediment-analysis-and-sample-plans`: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/marine-licensing-sediment-analysis-and-sample-plans