FEARS that thousands of tonnes of mud could be dumped in the upper reaches of the River Tamar with the building of the Navy's new munitions jetty may be exaggerated, according to English Nature.

It has been reported that if the Navy gets the go-ahead to build its weapon-loading facility at Bull Point near Saltash, 12,000 tonnes of sediment could be dumped every year at Cargreen and Weir Quay, upsetting yachtsmen already struggling to find sufficient water.

But the idea was just one proposition suggested to counter possible sediment loss in the river as a result of the new facility.

English Nature has objected to the building of the RAFT — Remote Ammunitioning Facility Tamar, as has the

Environment Agency, because of the adverse effects on the area which is an EU-designated wildlife site.

However, Environment Minister Michael Meacher, currently considering the proposal, could over-ride environmental concerns since moving the ammunitioning facility away from the dockyard could dramatically reduce risk to 14,000 residents in Plymouth and Torpoint.

Roger Covey, of English Nature, said their main concerns had been the direct effect of dredging 200,000 tonnes of sediment — a rich wildlife habitat — from the river for the initial construction, to be dumped off Rame Head, and the effect of a huge hole in the riverbed on tidal flows, and hence sediment erosion and deposition, in the area.

Mr Covey said the MoD had commissioned Hydraulics Research of Wallingford to work out the likely effect of their dredging. Based on a model, the results suggested there would be little effect, except that to maintain the hole, maintenance dredging would have to take place and that would result in a large nett loss of sediment in the river.

'We suggested one of the options to counter the long-term loss of sediment may be to dispose of the sediment within the estuarine system,' he said.

'We have discussed it with the MoD — if RAFT does go ahead we want them to do trials. It may be that they put it wherever and it just stays there, or it may disappear and go back into the hole. Neither would be at all suitable.

'Ideally, we hope they would deposit the sediment and it would filter onto the inter-tidal mudflat, countering the sediment loss.'

He said they were trying to look at the whole system and would be consulting widely before taking any action.

Glen Honey, commodore at Cargreen Yachting Club, said: 'We are horrified with the potential of any dumping up the river. It has been silting up over the years and over the last five years I've been sailing here we have much less water — at very low tides it's impossible to sail down the river at all. Any dumping at all is likely to cause difficulties for navigation.'

Mr Honey said the boats working the river at the turn of the century used to drag a chain to stir up the bottom and keep the river clear.

'I think English Nature may be trying to keep the river as it is rather than as it was 100 years ago, leading to even more silting up,' he said.

A decision from Mr Meacher on the future of RAFT is expected in the near future.