Foulness Island passing of the Ministry of Defence Act 1946 and the subsequent rationalisation of five agencies in 1971, ownership of the island passed from the War Office to the Ministry of Defence. In 2003, a contract to manage the testing of munitions was awarded to the defence contractors QinetiQ, and they also control access to the island. In the 1850s, the South Essex Estuary and Reclamation Company proposed a grand scheme to reclaim around of land on the Essex coast, which would have included most of Foulness Sands and Maplin Sands. The civil engineer Sir John Rennie produced the plans, and
Island of Ponds Island of Ponds Island of Ponds is an island off of the east coast of Labrador. The Labrador mainland lies to its south and a channel called Domino Run separates it from Spotted Island to the north. The only remaining settlement on the island is Black Tickle. It is connected to the mainland by a seasonal coastal ferry service. Island of Ponds consists mainly of igneous rock with a shallow cover of sediment, insufficient to support trees. The island is named for its 366 shallow ponds. Despite the many ponds, access to safe drinking water has been a long-standing problem