BDS Evening Meeting - 13th May 2013

The next BDS evening meeting on 13th May 2013 will be on 'An update on the implementation of the Flood & Water Management Act 2010' presented by Brian Pattern (team leader for reservoir safety planning and government liaison at the Environment Agency) and Tim Hill (Divisional Director at Mott MacDonald).  This meeting starts at 6.00pm with refreshments available at the ICE, London from 5.30pm.

More information regarding this evening meeting is available on the event flyer on the meetings page of the BDS website.

This evening meeting will be streamed online. A link to the online meeting is available on the Meetings Page of the BDS website. Online registration can only take place 45 minutes before the start of the meeting. Please allow time for registration before the event. Following registration please click 'yes' when asked if you would like to join the live chat. 

Supervising Engineer's Forum - Wednesday 17th April 2013 - Solihull, Birmingham

The British Dam Society are pleased to announce that the deadline for registration to the Supervising Engineer's Forum has been extended by 2 weeks. Over 170 people have already booked for this event to be held in the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham on 17th April 2013.

Bookings will now be accepted up to Friday 15th March 2013. For more details and a registration form please go to the 'Meetings & Events' Page of the BDS website.

The link to follow this evening's evening lecture online has been changed as a result of technical difficulties. Please use the new link provided on the meetings page of the BDS website.

Monday night's evening meeting (21st January) at the ICE, London with be on the Banbury Flood Storage Reservoir. The lecture, starting at 5.30pm, will be presented by John Ackers & John Hopkins of Black & Veatch. 

Please note:

The ICE have started to use a new webex system to broadcast evening meetings. This will be the first use of the new system so please be patient with any problems that occur.

Each user will be required to register to gain access to the meeting using their first name, surname and email address. Access to the online meeting can only be made 45 minutes before the scheduled start of the meeting.

The next BDS meeting is this Monday 19th November at 6pm

The lecture titled Implementing the new FEH rainfall depth-duration-frequency model for reservoir flood safety assessment will be presented by Lisa Stewart and David Morris of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. 

Refeshments will be available in the ICE from 5.30pm.

The lecture will be streamed live online using the following link:- 

http://ice.adobeconnect.com/predictions/

Would online followers please log in as a guest using their full name.

United Utilities & Askham Construction will be leading a tecnical site visit to New Years Bridge Reservoir on Wednesday 10th October 2012. The site visit starts with refreshments at 12 noon and places are limited so please contact Ian Scholefield to book a place (Ian.scholefield@uuplc.co.uk) or 07765236708.

More details of this technical site visit can be found on the meetings page of the BDS website.

New Years Bridge Reservoir is located in Denshaw approximately 10km NE of Manchester.

New research published on lessons from historical dam incidents

The Environment Agency has recently published the research report on 'Lessons from historical dam incidents'. This is now available on the Agency's website:

This report aims to provide a useful reference for all those involved in reservoir safety including technicians, engineers and managers involved in the operation, monitoring and surveillance of dams, researchers, and design engineers. It is likely to be viewed as an essential reference for aspiring and current panel engineers.

The focus of the report is on incidents at dams that have occurred in Great Britain but some reference is made to some important international incidents. Drawing from international experience is particularly helpful for those types of dam not commonly found in Great Britain.

The introductory section covers the national incident database and the value of post-incident reporting and investigations. Section 2 gives a historical overview which shows how serious incidents have improved our understanding of dam behaviour and the hazards posed by dams. Section 3 shows the close links between historical incidents and failures and the development of reservoir safety legislation and guidance. Section 4 looks at how incidents have been managed, including the role of owners and panel engineers. The significance of drawdown rates and other provisions for dam incidents such as evacuation planning are presented. Four examples of incident management are described: the incidents at Ogston, Rivington Upper, Ulley and Maich Water.

Section 5 represents the major part of research output. It provides an overview of serious incidents and a classification and brief analysis of the modes of failure. This is followed by descriptions of over thirty major incidents and summaries of seventy other incidents. Photographs and drawings have been provided where possible, together with references to the technical papers and articles for additional information. The incidents have been grouped according to the type of incident or mode of failure to facilitate the use of the report as a look-up reference for specific types of reservoir safety problems.

The ability of the reservoir industry to gather and disseminate points of learning on dam incidents is only possible through the willingness of dam owners, operators and engineers to share information in an open manner. The Agency continues to administer the national post-incident reporting database and to gather information on incidents. Incidents can be reported to the Agency's reservoir safety team in Exeter (reservoirs@environment-agency.gov.uk, tel: 01392 442001). Live incidents should be reported to the incident hotline on 0800 807060. An annual report is published on the Agency website and the latest report can be found at:

The game is especially suitable for children and is a fun way of learning about dams and reservoirs.

Information such as the height and length of a dam, the surface area or capacity of the reservoir and its age are just some of the details that will enable the player to win the ‘trick'.

The winner will be the player who ends up with all of the cards or the most cards at the end of a set period of time.

The deadline for the BDS Photography Competition is 1st September 2010. We already have a number of entries, but there is still time for you to submit your winning photo!

The Pitt Review of 2008 included Chapter 19 on the Effective Management of Dams and Reservoirs.  In response to the review the Environment Agency put forward proposed changes to the Reservoirs Act 1975 to Defra.  The principal proposed change is to introduce a risk-based approach to the legislation and ensure that those currently unregulated reservoirs that constitute a significant risk are managed.

The Government has announced that it will publish a draft Floods and Water Bill in the Spring for pre-legislative scrutiny. The Bill is expected to address how the Government will implement its response to the recommendations of the Pitt Review report including issues relating to reservoirs.

Follow this link to Chapter 19 of the Pitt Review  entitled Effective Management of Dams and Reservoirs

The Water Act 2003 amended the Reservoirs Act 1975 to include the requirement for reservoir flood plans. As part of his extensive review following the floods of 2007, Sir Michael Pitt recognised the need for inundation maps to be provided to local resilience forums.

Defra has instructed the Environment agency to produce inundation maps for all reservoirs subject to the Act by December 2009.

Follow this  link to more information on flood plans and inundation plans .   

On 13th February 2008, the Scottish Government launched a Flooding Bill Consultation aiming to modernise the flood risk management system in Scotland. The broad objective in promoting new legislation is to provide the framework to ensure that a fully sustainable approach to flood risk management is in place across Scotland and to simplify radically the focus through which local authorities promote prevention measures.

Chapter 4 of the bill deals with reservoir safety and provides for the duties and powers given to local authorities, except those relevant to local authorities' functions as reservoir undertakers, to be transferred to one single body with responsibility for the following:-

• Maintaining a register of reservoirs (and making this information available to the public),
• Ensuring that the Undertaker has appointed a Supervising Engineer,
• Ensuring that the Undertaker commissions regular inspections of the dam by an Inspecting Engineer,
• Enforcing the Reservoirs Act 1975 by influencing, warning, cautioning and ultimately prosecuting non-compliant Undertakers,
• Commissioning essential works required in the 'Interests of Safety' in the event of non-compliance and recouping full costs incurred from the Undertaker,
• Producing a Biennial Report for submission to the Scottish Government,
• Acting in an emergency if the Undertaker cannot be found or identified.

Currently, the enforcement of the Act in Scotland is the responsibility of the 32 Scottish local authorities. The biennial reports they submit indicate varying staffing and financial resource allocation to reservoir responsibilities amongst these authorities. This can be attributed partly, to geography and topography; for example Highland Council has some 125 reservoirs which fall within the ambit of the Act, whilst Glasgow City Council has only 2. However the enforcement role is considered an onerous burden which is disproportionate to the reservoirs located within many local authority areas.

The Bill does not yet specify who the single enforcement authority should be but the consultation questions on the subject of reservoir safety give an indication of the expected outcome:

• Do you believe enforcement responsibilities under the Reservoirs Act 1975 should be transferred to a single national body?
• If so, should it be SEPA or another as yet unidentified body?
• Are you content with the proposals for dealing with reservoir flood maps under the provisions of the Floods Directive, or do you think that there should be a statutory duty on reservoir undertakers to prepare reservoir inundation maps and plans, similar to the duty in the 2003 Water Act for England and Wales?
• Do agree that enforcement powers be extended and post incident reporting included as an additional requirement?

The Scottish Government are seeking responses to the consultation by 23rd April 2008 - go to http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/02/13095729/0 for the full consultation bill and online response form.