Echunga dam: Calls for a dam review unanswered while dozens of pose potential catastrophe
Despite dozens of dams being in “risky locations” across the Adelaide Hills and presenting a potential catastrophe, there are no plans to implement an auditing system.
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Despite dozens of dams in “risky locations” presenting a potential catastrophe across the Adelaide Hills there are no plans to implement an auditing system, the Landscape Board has revealed.
Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board water resources team leader Paul Wainwright warned “many dams are at 100 per cent capacity” across the Adelaide Hills due to a very wet winter which presented an “elevated level of risk”.
“There are many dams around at 100 per cent and they are spilling,” he said.
“There is an elevated level of risk because you’ve got a significant weight of water sitting behind the wall.”
“Many of these dams were built prior to regulations coming into play so there are some in what you might consider to be riskier locations that might be in proximity to a township.”
It comes after Emergency services spent more than 24 hours trying to prevent a dam on a Echunga farm – located eight minutes from Mount Barker – from collapsing.
A spokesman from the Mount Barker District Council revealed the dam in Echunga was built between 1949 and 1968, prior to planning controls.
Despite acknowledging the potential catastrophe sitting dormant across the Adelaide Hills Mr Wainwright admitted the Landscape Board has no plans in place to audit dams, nor have any plans been made to introduce an audit since the near miss disaster in Echunga.
“Most of the dams in the environment are quite historic, some are decades old like the one in Echunga,” he said.
“Dam safety and maintenance is the responsibility of the owner although I think it is desirable to have a process in place so we can identify those landscapes that might present a higher risk.”
SES Volunteers’ Association executive officer Susan Caracoussis said the Department of Environment and Water needs to “review everything”.
“Everything needs to be looked into and reviewed after a period of time,” she said.
“Over the years the environment has changed and I think this could be an example of the department losing touch with the coalface.”
Echunga dam safe: ‘They were lucky, it was ready to give way’
Echunga residents are returning to their homes after the threat of dam failure was reduced on Thursday morning.
SES incident control Craig Brassington said on Thursday afternoon the dam’s level had been lower three metres.
“We had a safe measure of two metres and we’ve actually lowered it down to three metres,” Mr Brassington said.
”For the town it means everyone’s back into their houses, all the roads are reopened up and it’s back to normality.
However, he said the town was lucky to escape flooding.
“Looking at it today, they were lucky, we’ve gone back and had a look at it and it was almost ready to give way,” he said.
“I think it we left if for longer, another week or so after rain, we could have had a bigger problem.”
He said the dam could become a risk again if heavy rains filled the dam back up, but the SES believed forecasts didn’t suggest that was likely.
The dam has been handed back to the owner, who will now work with the local council to make it safe.
“He’ll be working with SA Water, who will make contact with him, and follow it through,” he said.
Residents were allowed back in their homes earlier than expected.
“We found out it wasn’t on the eastern side as steep, there was quite a shallow end so that’s why it drained a lot faster than we thought, but we couldn’t notice that until we started pumping,” he said.
He said about 40 people were evacuated for the emergency period while some chose to stay in their homes.
“They were supportive of it … we didn’t want to be in a situation where we were actually rescuing people out when there was water going through their properties,” he said.
“There’s about 14 properties that people did stay in their houses last night.”
He praised the owner of the property for his assistance during the emergency, but encouraged other private landowners to inspect their dams to avoid a similar incident.
He said the government would foot the bill for the emergency response.
“This will come under a normal incident, just like bushfires and everything else like that,” he said.
The SES issued an advice message just after 9am after crews worked through the night to lower the water level at the dam using controlled pumping.
The SES still doesn’t know how deep the dam is, but believed they’ve drained about 50-60% of the water.
About 14 properties weren’t evacuated and had people inside them overnight.
Water was released at a rate that did not exceed the capacity of the local drainage system to avoid flooding in the Echunga township.
An SES spokesperson told ABC Radio Adelaide the long-term impacts would be discussed as more rain was forecast for the area next week.
“We’ll be talking those questions through with the engineers and what strategies need to be employed so that everyone does stay safe,” she said.
Echunga resident Brett Carmack also told the breakfast show because the dam was on private property, the resident would be responsible for ensuring it had a suitable drainage system.
“My understanding is they will drain the dam as much as possible and then it is up to the farmer to rebuild and get it all engineered properly if he wants to keep it,” he said.
The incident has brought to light dozens of Adelaide Hills dams potentially on the brink of collapse due to a planning loophole, community leaders say.
Emergency services spent more than 24 hours trying to prevent the dam on the Echunga farm – located eight minutes from Mount Barker – from collapsing and independent MP Dan Cregan has warned there could be others across the region.
Mr Cregan – Speaker in the Lower House – told The Advertiser the Echunga dam was one of many “that is at capacity in the Hills”.
“Private dams are important in our community because they offer fire and stock water over the summer,” he said.
“But landowners often don’t have the significant resources or engineering expertise to manage high rainfall events or other weather impacts.
“We need to provide more support to landowners after an extremely wet winter.”
The SES said on Tuesday the Echunga dam was leaking and slippage at the wall meant about 40 properties were at serious risk of being inundated.
Mr Cregan said many homes and businesses were directly threatened by the emergency unfolding in the Adelaide Hills.
“Several local families have spent the day taking shelter in Mount Barker and won’t be able to return home tonight.
“I’m thankful to the SES and CFS for the urgent and careful work they have been undertaking.”
The SES created an emergency evacuation area around the dam, however the Australian Defence Force remains on standby to offer defence aid if the wall should break.
A spokesman from the Mount Barker District Council revealed the dam in Echunga was built between 1949 and 1968, prior to planning controls.
Local MP Josh Teague said the last dam audit across the Mt Lofty region was completed by the Department of Environment and Water about 10 year ago, however, the audit only investigated location and volume.
Mr Teague said the situation in Echunga is a prompt for “others to consider where there could be other areas of risk”.
“This is a clear demonstration of the potential risk if something should go wrong with a dam,” he said.
“This event also highlights the need for improvements to manage flooding in the town.”
WHAT IS A DAM?
A dam is a wall-like structure that is built across a creek or river, to block the flow of water through the landscape.
DO I NEED A LICENCE TO BUILD A DAM ON MY PROPERTY?
Under the Development Act 1993 a Development Approval authorised by the relevant local Council is required for dams larger than five megalitres or that have wall heights greater than three metres.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DAM IF IT FAILS?
Dam owners are responsible for the safety of their dams and accountable for the damage these dams may cause if they fail.
Dam performance and maintenance is the responsibility of the dam owner, even if the dam was built by someone else.
Even small dams have the potential to cause damage, not only to property and the environment, but to persons, even resulting in death.
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Originally published as Echunga dam: Calls for a dam review unanswered while dozens of pose potential catastrophe
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