*Pic: Undermining backwash turbulence at toe of dam wall created by gate valve being opened …
On Friday 13th April 2018, TasWater fully opened the Emergency Gate Valve of the Waratah Reservoir.
You can see in the pictures that this badly positioned Gate Valve is creating a backwash of turbulence against the toe of the Dam wall behind the Valve, which TasWater personnel themselves have stated to the Waratah Community at meetings on more than one occasion that this can cause serious erosion of a Dam wall.
One has to ask the question, “Is this an act of deliberate vandalism?”
If so, isn’t that a criminal offence?
The “Friends of the Waratah Reservoir” were informed today (Monday 16th April 2018) by the Tasmanian Dam Safety Regulator that “TasWater are permitted to release water as an emergency measure, but they are not permitted to use an ’emergency’ as an excuse to draining the dam.
TasWater is not permitted to conduct any works until a Class 3 Permit is issued.”
To open a Dam Emergency Gate Valve without the authority to do so and without an actual emergency is an illegal act. Is a Permit required to open an Emergency Gate Valve?
Waratah has received one inch of rain on three days during the 13th to 16th April 2018 period. That hardly constitutes any “emergency”.
That leads to the questions “What constitutes, and who declares an emergency situation?”
The Dam Safety Regulator seemed to imply there was not one. The Waratah Community agrees.
If TasWater believed there was an “emergency”, why wasn’t a required Emergency Plan initiated and the Community and the general public informed?
Watch this space.
*Bill Smith is known to the Editor
