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1. Esther Allan Says:

   September 6th, 2008 at 9:41 pm

   Risks Posed by Urban Water Infrastructure in the 21st Century
   I have concerns that Australias water infrastructure managers may not be up to the responsibilities involved.
   By this I mean the states, water corporations like Wide Bay Water and local governments.

   Our own experience of dam gate failure at Lenthalls Dam on the Burrum River is a telling - it is indicative of an inability to understand risk and manage public saftey issues

   You would imagine that Dam infrastructure in Australia is safe - however our experience on the Burrum River in QLD shows just how easy it is to become a fatality when Dam Infrastructure fails.

   Gates constructed in December 2007 at Lenthalls Dam on the heavily impounded Burrum River failed to lower to release flood water as designed in Febuary 2008.
   Wide Bay Water was the constructing authority and responsible for the design and operation of the dam gate infrastructure.
   Our upstream farm house, where the tributaries join the dam proper was cut of when flood water continued to back up much higher than the constructing authority Wide Bay Water had predicted the water levels would ever go.
   Three family members were stuck at our farm house. The emergency evacuation plan found in the Lenthalls Dam Emergency Action Plan called for evacuation after water levels reached RL26.91 - water levels reached 27.4 at the dam wall flowing over the blocked gates and backed up to RL28.5 at our house. No one evacuated the famuily members stranded in rising water.
   No one from the constructing authority Wide Bay Water contacted us to undertake evacuation or explain the risk we faced due to Crest Gate Failure.
   We believe the CEO Tim Waldron was overseas at conference when the event happed. The Operations manuals for the dam place responsibilty with the CEO as does the action plan. He has not been called to account for his failure to take responsible action to ensure an evacuation would occur in his abscence if required.

   If the rain event had not stopped the three people cut off at our flood impacted farm house would have been inundated by metres of water.

   We heard about the dam failure from other locals close to the dam wall who had heard the gates have failed - we now have full evidence to verify the dam gate failure.

   What our situation highlights is that while most fatalities from failed dams and failed dam infrastructure have occurred in the countries of the south ie third world the west is not imune from dam infrastructure failure.

   The capacity of first world dam operators to manage infrastructure/ risk and operational and human failure is not consistent.
   We were very lucky the rain event that caused the flooding to back up over the failed dam gate, stopped.
   It is however only a matter of time before a dam infrastructure failure in the first world causes fatalities.
   We feel that maybe operational and human failures that have occured without fatality have been coverd up and are not generally reported or researched.
   It is likely constructing authorities keep these instances quiet.
   Please see the small news article that did report the event ( not comprehensively).

   See the article:
   Resident fears dam gates risk flooding
   Posted Wed May 21, 2008 8:26am AEST
   Updated Wed May 21, 2008 8:25am AEST
   • Map: Hervey Bay 4655
   A land-holder upstream of a major dam south-west of Hervey Bay says multi-million dollar barriers on the storage are broken, putting her family at risk of flooding.
   Queensland Deputy Premier Paul Lucas will officially open the $16 million project at Lenthalls Dam, which is designed to more than double the storage’s capacity.
   In what is claimed to be an Australian first, the two metre high crest gates sink when the dam reaches capacity to prevent flooding upstream and provide for environmental flows.
   But Esther Allan says in February the gates jammed, causing water to back up onto her property.
   “This is an extremely expensive piece of infrastructure. Ratepayers paid for this and their expectation would be that it would be operable,” she said.
   “If it wasn’t, we need to know why - not only because our family’s safety was put at risk, but because ratepayers expect to get a result from the infrastructure they pay for.”
   The local government corporation that runs Lenthalls Dam says the gates do not work, but it was monitoring the rising water.
   Wide Bay Water general manager David Wiskar says adjustments were needed during the dam’s commissioning and are continuing.
   “The gates were all needing some fine-tuning. At the moment we were able to complete that tuning on three of the gates,” he said.
   “There’s two that remain to be done, but we’re waiting until the level in the dam falls to an adequate level to [do] those final two.”
   The Lenthalls Dam Gates are still not fully operational today September 2008 and heading into the QLD summer flood season.

   We can evidence what we are saying.
   We dont have too much faith that any government authority will maintain our saftey, and our economy is currently healthy and well economically resourced.

   Infrastructure once built needs to be operable ongoing through good economic times and bad. Infrastructure needs to be able to operate as designed in all conditions.

   Climate Change will continue to place increased pressure on infrastructure in Australia the frequency of extreme storm and weather events will be a counterpoint to extreme drought.

   If the infrastructure cannot be managed safely now - those who live in areas affected by damming have much to worry about. Climate change will increase the risks posed by failed infrastructure.

   The risks remain for all of those who live on dammed river systems.

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