Your Dam – Your Responsibility

It is common practice to have dams to manage water and minimise off site sediment disposal on a quarry site. ROGER BUCKLEY provides a summary of the Government requirements for licensing and safety management of dams.

AS part of the Government changes to sustainably manage surface water in Victoria, a licensing system for commercial dams has been introduced to ensure they are appropriately designed, built, operated and maintained together with an adequate dam safety management plan.

LICENSING REQUIREMENTS

New dams used for commercial purposes, which includes those on extractive industry sites, will generally require:

1. A Licence to Take and Use water.
2. A Construction Licence is required for a new dam built off a water way if:
   a. The dam wall is 5m or higher with a capacity of 50 megalitres or more, or
   b. The dam wall is 10m or higher with a capacity of 20 megalitres or more, or
   c. The dam wall is 15m or higher, regardless of capacity.
3. An Operating Licence – depending on the size of the dam, its potential hazard and volume of water used, you may require to have an operating licence that may include conditions on maintenance, surveillance and management of dam safety. These conditions may require the services of a suitably qualified engineer, depending on the complexity of the situation.
   

Generally the requirements of a new dam will be considered as part of a work plan/work authority approval process and these licensing conditions would be determined during the endorsement phase, but may also be revisited during the planning permit approval phase. This is just another example of duplication of regulatory requirements.

An existing dam should have already been registered and it may also require an operating licence if the dam wall/capacity figures exceed those listed above under items 2a-c.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT PLAN

A Dam Safety Management Plan is often required for potentially hazardous dams. The Plan should outline procedures to follow in the event of certain circumstances such as dam wall failure. This will allow a considered response by people not fully familiar with dam safety procedures.

Employees should be familiar with, and have access to, the Dam Safety Management Plan which would include a contact list of key emergency services to be contacted such as police and the local SES.

A sample Dam Safety Management Plan is available for download from www.ourwater.vic.gov.au/saving/farms/dams

More details are available of specific licensing requirements by contacting the relevant water authority in your area.

• Goulburn-Murray Water for northern Victoria; 40 Casey Street, Tatura 3616; Phone 1300 135 011.
• Southern Rural Water for southern Victoria; 88 Johnson Street, Maffra 3860; Phone (03) 5139 3113 or 1 Tower Road Werribee; Phone (03) 9974 4710.
• Lower Murray Urban and Rural Water for northwest Victoria; 741–759 Fourteenth Street, Mildura 3502; Phone (03) 5051 3400.
• Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water for western Victoria; 11 McLachlan Street Horsham 3402; Phone 1300 659 961.
• Melbourne Water for metropolitan Melbourne; 100 Wellington Parade East Melbourne 3002; Phone 131 722.

Guidelines on managing dam safety, planning, constructing, operating and maintaining dams, and general licence conditions are available at www.ourwater.vic.gov.au/saving/farms/dams

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