Call 000 and ask for Police to report a dam safety emergency that threatens life or property. The Tasmania Police coordinate Dam Safety Emergency responses.
NRE Tas Contacts
For further advice and support during a dam safety incident or emergency please contact the NRE Tas Dam Safety Hotline 1800 316 377. This contact is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
What is Dam Incident?
Dam Incident (as defined under the Water Management Act 1999)
Means any incident or event relating to the structural integrity or safety of the dam which causes, or has the potential to cause:
1. Death or injury to a person.
2. Damage to, or loss of, property or services.
3. Material environmental harm or serious environmental harm.
What is a dam safety emergency?
A dam safety emergency is an incident where there is an immediate risk to life, or significant economic impacts on assets or property or environmental damage (also referred to as a Population at Risk).
A dam safety emergency can relate to a range of types of dams including those that hold, permanently or temporarily, liquid, waste or other material.
A dam safety emergency excludes the engagement of flood protection structures like levees during a flood, as the State Dam Safety Emergency Plan for floods will take primacy, and the management of the levee is focussed on flood protection.
What signs could indicate a dam safety emergency?
Where there is a Population at risk, a dam safety emergency could arise from the following types of events:
An actual break in the body of the dam or the abutments causing a release of stored water.
Collapse of the spillway or overtopping of the dam wall causing erosion of the embankment and threatening a break in the dam.
Failure of an intake tower or outlet works, leading to uncontrolled outflows.
Potential failure deduced from surveillance or direct observations, such as increased seepage rates and cracking of any structure that holds water.
Earth tremors of such intensity as to endanger the integrity of the dam.
A combination of extreme weather and/or unstable soil conditions and consequent risk of collapse or breach.
An unplanned release of stored water endangering the community downstream is an emergency which can occur without structural failure of the dam, such as
Overtopping due to a flash flood surge or a wave caused by a landslide, being of a magnitude beyond the capacity of the dams spillway.
Unannounced release due to operational error or malfunctioning valve system or sabotage.
Who is responsible for a dam and for managing an incident or emergency?
The dam owner is primarily responsible for managing an incident or emergency.
The Tasmania Police coordinate Dam Emergency responses.
NRE Tas have an advisory capacity only as required.
- NRE Tas support preparedness by supporting high risk dam owners to have Dam Safety Emergency Plans prepared where a potential loss of life could occur in the event of a dam failure.
What steps should be followed to respond to a dam safety emergency?
- If you have a dam safety emergency (or the incident worsens and becomes an emergency) then call Tas Police.
- For dam owners that have a Dam Safety Emergency Plan the plan should be enacted.
- For dam owners without a plan then contact Tas Police in the first instance and seek advice on steps to manage the risk to life.
2. A dam owner is required to report an incident under the Water Management Act 1999 as soon as practicable after an incident occurs in respect of a dam.
NRE Tas Contacts
For further advice and support during a dam safety incident or emergency please contact the NRE Tas Dam Safety Hotline 1800 316 377. This contact is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.