Dam safety risks exposed years ago

A safety report on Paradise Dam was delivered to the state four years before it took action to release water now pouring into the ocean.

Farmer Andrew Lewis chose the property near Bundaberg to plant macadamia nut trees because of its access to water from Paradise Dam. Picture: John Wilson.

A comprehensive safety report on the Paradise Dam in the drought-declared Bundaberg region was delivered to the Palaszczuk government four years before it took action to release 105,000 megalitres of water now pouring into the ocean.

State-owned SunWater — which operates the 300,000ML dam, opened by the Beattie government in 2005 — suddenly ­announced last month it needed to almost halve the stored water levels because of structural safety ­issues with the dam wall if there was a major flood.

The decision has stunned locals in the region, the state’s largest agricultural employer, which has been experiencing an investment boom on the back of its once-lauded water security that ensured farmers this year were still able to access most of their irrigation allocations despite the drought.

Already, real estate agents are reporting investors have frozen or abandoned property deals and farmers are concerned they won’t be able to properly irrigate vast tracts of maturing fruit and nut trees planted in recent years.

Locals were told at a community meeting on Thursday night that repair work would take until 2025, and that the storage levels — now being cut from 75 per cent to 42 per cent of the dam’s capacity — could not be raised again until it was completed.

A regional emergency response plan has now been updated, with downstream residents in Bundaberg and its surrounds — some of whom had to be airlifted to safety in the 2013 floods — set to receive a series of mobile text alerts in the event of a looming disaster.

Now residents, local politicians and farm groups are questioning how such serious structural problems in the dam wall were not detected in the 2013-15 safety review or, if they were, why the government hasn’t acted sooner.

A spokesman for Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham initially said on Friday the ­review had only concentrated on the damage to the dam, one of the country’s newest, from the 2013 floods.

But a July 2014 ministerial briefing note to then Newman government energy and water supply minister Mark McArdle, obtained by The Weekend Australian, indicates that the review extended well beyond the damage and should have investigated the structural integrity of the dam.

“The dam’s owner, SunWater, recently completed repairs of the most seriously damaged areas, and other works to progressively bring the dam back to full operational capacity,” the briefing note said.

“As a responsible dam owner, SunWater brought forward the comprehensive dam safety review of Paradise Dam, originally scheduled for 2025, and commenced the review in late 2013.

“The dam safety review, currently under way, is looking at a wide range of possible risks to the dam’s safety.”

The note shows the review was scheduled to deliver a “Final Dam Safety Review” report in October 2014 and its “Risks Assessment and Options Analysis” report by January 31, 2015, the date of the state election when Labor’s Annastacia Palaszczuk defeated the Liberal National Party’s Campbell Newman to win government.

A spokesman for the LNP said Mr McArdle did not receive the final report before the election.

For the past month, SunWater and DrLynham have offered little detail about what is wrong with the dam wall and have repeatedly refused to release technical reports that led to the extraordinary move.

In a subsequent statement on Friday night, Dr Lynham confirmed the review looked at more than damage sustained in the 2013 floods.

Dr Lynham said $65m was spent to repair the flood damage — with a large part addressing flaws with a concrete dissipator slab — with further investigation launched after new nationwide safety standards were introduced.

“Following a comprehensive safety review and risk assessment, SunWater identified that further upgrades are required to ensure the dam meets the latest design standards and operates safely during extreme weather events,” Dr Lynham said.

“We are acting upon new information and advice that was provided to us in September this year following those investigations.”

It is understood that some of the work relates to core samples taken from the wall.

It is understood technical experts are investigating the possibility that the original design and $200m construction of the dam by a ­government-private consortium could be at least partly to blame.

Canegrower Mark Mammino, who has chaired SunWater’s Bundaberg Irrigation Advisory Committee since 2008, said he had never been told about the review and called for its release, along with the latest technical reports on the dam wall, saying the lowering of the dam’s storage levels was ­already hurting investment that had boomed in recent years with the massive expansion of macadamia, avocado and sweet potato farms, alongside existing canegrowers. “We were never told about a full dam safety review, we should have been told and they need to release these reports,” he said. “But our main aim is ensure our water security is returned … if the dam is taken away, it will destroy our economy.”

Firth-generation farmer Andrew Lewis bought a farm in the Bundaberg region in 2009, later going into partnership with his parents in 2013 with a second property to develop a macadamia nut farm and has already planted more than half of the 50,000 trees planned for the venture.

Mr Lewis had settled on the property near Bundaberg because of the Paradise Dam water supply.

“The water has been amazing, given that we are on restrictions in the drought and still able to access 70 per cent of our allocation,” he said. Keeping the water storage at 42 per cent represented a loss of 174,000ML, which could be used to support an estimated 43,500ha (at a rate of 4ML/ha).

“The accepted estimates is that one person is permanently employed for every 40ha, so that is a loss of 1000 direct jobs and about 2½ indirect jobs.

“The government is talking about us receiving free water, but it came too late for the canegrowers who have just harvested and have been operating on their lowest margins in years. What we want is water security into the future for local production and local jobs.”

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, who last week moved an unsuccessful motion in parliament for a full inquiry into the dam problems, said the government needed to release the reports.

“There are serious questions that the Labor Party refuse to ­answer about the design and construction of Paradise Dam,” Ms Frecklington said.