Head Office Press Office
- 1-Nov-2007 - The Environment Agency has
recommended reservoir safety legislation
be reviewed to take into account the impacts
of climate change and ageing reservoirs.
In October 2004, the Environment Agency
became the enforcement authority for managing
the safety of more than 2000 reservoirs
across England and Wales, which includes
maintaining a register of reservoirs and
making sure that undertakers (owners, operators
and users) have their reservoirs regularly
inspected and repaired when necessary to
reduce the risk of dam failure.
Releasing the biennial report today on
reservoir safety, which covers 1 April 2005-31
March 2007, Chief Executive Barbara Young
said overall compliance with the Reservoirs
Act 1975 had improved since the Environment
Agency became the enforcement authority,
but there was still work to be done.
"Dams and reservoirs store large amounts
of our nation’s water, but if owners don’t
monitor their condition and repair them
when necessary, the huge amounts of water
that they hold can threaten life and property,"
Barbara Young said.
"Reservoir undertakers are responsible
for the safety of dams, including appointing
supervising engineers, arranging inspections,
and carrying our work where necessary. We’re
in charge of making sure they do this.
"When we took over as the enforcement
authority from local authorities, we faced
a huge task. There was a significant backlog
of non-compliance potentially placing people
and property at risk, where some 379 reservoirs
had no supervising engineer and 202 had
inspection reports overdue.
"Since then, failure to carry out
regular safety inspections has been cut
by 80%, and over the past two years, we’ve
issued 118 notices and prosecuted the undertakers
at two reservoirs for failing to comply
with the Act."
Barbara Young said the Environment Agency
worked hard to encourage reservoir undertakers
to comply with the Act, but the risk of
dam failure was likely to increase because
of more extreme weather events with climate
change and an ageing reservoir stock. The
average age of dams in the UK is 110 years.
"Because of these issues, and along
with our experiences over the past three
years, we believe a review of the legislation
is timely," Barbara Young said.
Legislative changes that the Environment
Agency has proposed include:
• Better enforcement powers for reservoir
(emergency) flood plans. Currently there
is no legal requirement for an engineer
to sign off an emergency flood plan, and
the Environment Agency does not have the
power to serve notice on a reservoir undertaker
to prepare a plan or prepare one on behalf
of an undertaker.
• Funded powers to act at reservoirs with
no owners. Reservoirs situated on land that
is disclaimed following business failures
have no legal owners, unless the Crown chooses
to take ownership. This does not always
happen. Currently there are at least two
reservoirs in England that have no legally
responsible reservoir undertaker.
• Mandatory post-incident reporting. Currently
it is a voluntary system and reservoir undertakers
don’t always inform the Environment Agency
about emergency incidents at their reservoirs.
It would be in the public interest for all
emergency incidents to be reported for lessons
to be learnt and information to be disseminated
to the industry.
• Better definition of a reservoir within
the Act. Currently the definition is volumetric,
based on a minimum capacity of 25,000 cubic
metres of water above ground. The definition
of reservoirs should take into account the
nature of the downstream community and possible
consequences of a reservoir failure or dam
breach.
The Environment Agency reports to Defra
and the Welsh Assembly Government at two-yearly
intervals on the actions taken to get undertakers
to comply with the Reservoirs Act. Improving
safety, protecting lives - the biennial
report on reservoir safety - is available
on the ’Environment Agencys website http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/flood/1217883/1217968/907848/1897007/?version=1&lang=_e
Meanwhile, the Environment Agency is leading
on a new Reservoir Safety Advisory Group
to help with research and development. Key
roles will include advising on the first
10-year reservoir safety strategy to be
developed and overseeing the production
of a guide to help reservoir owners prepare
emergency plans for their reservoirs.
Key facts about reservoirs:
• Under law, a large raised reservoir is
classified as a body of water holding or
capable of holding more than 25,000m3 above
the natural surrounding ground level.
• About 80% of the dams across England
and Wales are made of clay and earth. The
oldest dams were built in the 12th century,
and many were built during the Victorian
era.
• The failures of two dams in Scotland
and Wales in 1925, where 20 people were
killed, led to the Reservoir (Safety Provisions)
Act being passed in 1930. This was superseded
by the Reservoirs Act 1975. The Acts made
it a legal requirement for operators and
owners to have their dams regularly inspected
and repaired by government appointed experts.
• Since 1930, when the legislation was
introduced, there have been no dam failures
involving loss of life.
