Paradise Dam flood report revealed

THE government has accepted recommendations from an independent report into the Paradise Dam flood event.

The Queensland Government has accepted recommendations from an independent report into the Paradise Dam flood event. Picture: Gary Hutchison

THE Queensland Government has accepted recommendations from an independent report into the Paradise Dam flood event which calls for the dam's Emergency Action Plan (EAP) to be revised and for the feasibility of improvements to the dam to be investigated.

The independent report by the New South Wales Department of Public Works into Paradise Dam, commissioned by Minister for Energy and Water Supply Mark McArdle, was prepared to examine the dam safety management action taken prior to, during and after the flood and to determine what lessons could be learned, especially with regard to any need to improve dam safety.

The report addressed five terms of reference, the first being whether unrectified damage caused during the 2011/2012 flood had worsened the damage caused in the 2013 flood.

The advice given was that the unrectified damage had "no significant effect" on the 2013 flood damage or on SunWater's ability to respond to the incident.

"It is desirable that SunWater review its procedures for assessing the potential for rock scour at its dams, particularly those dams with high specific power discharges," the report stated.

"It is desirable that the potential for further rock scour at Paradise Dam is estimated carefully before the coming wet season and the work is reviewed by an independent peer reviewer recognized for knowledge of and experience in rock scour estimation methodologies.

"It is desirable that the stability analysis of critical dam monoliths is refined before the coming wet season and the work is reviewed by two independent peer reviewers."

The report also called for the feasibility of improvements at the dam and to other infrastructure be investigated as part of the Phase 3 work.

"These are improvements which may assist dam safety management generally and which may reduce the time required for any future remediation in particular," the report stated.

The eight areas to be examined included measures to prevent ingress of gravel or other debris to the environmental flow gate chamber, improvements which would allow a greater release discharge without disrupting any potential future remediation work in the energy dissipation zone, measures to safeguard the hydraulic rams that are designed to open the environmental flow gates and improvements to the right bank access at the dam that would avoid destruction of the access in every large flood.

Mr McArdle said the findings of the review would make SunWater's dam safety management system better.

He said recently completed repairs to Paradise Dam would enable it to withstand a flood event similar to the one which occurred in January this year.

"Further repairs scheduled to be completed by the end of the month will mean the dam should be able to withstand multiple flood events similar to the one which hit the Bundaberg region in January," he said.

"The Emergency Action Plan must also be revised to include additional risk-mitigation measures for Paradise Dam."