Latest News

BDS 15th Supervising Engineers’ Forum

Registration for the Supervising Engineers’ Forum is now open. We are pleased to inform you that the forum will be an in-person event at the University of Nottingham on Thursday 16^th September 2021.

Information regarding the event, provisional programme and COVID-19 precautions can all be found on the Events Calendar page of the BDS website.

Registration to this event can be completed on the SE Forum page of the BDS website.

BDS Young Professionals’ Competition - Now Open

The 2021 BDS Prize competition is now open. Details of the competition are available here. This competition is aimed at our under-35 group of members and offers them a chance to showcase their contributions to dam engineering through a paper. The finalists will be invited to present their paper at our evening meeting on 22^nd November 2021 in London and the paper will appear in our journal. There are cash prizes for the winners. Candidates must submit a 250 word synopsis of their proposed paper by 10^th September 2021.

BDS Photography Competition 2021 - Now Open

The 2021 BDS photography competition is now open. Full details can be found here. You have until 22^nd September 2021 to submit your photos for the chance to win a cash prize, so please submit now and good luck. Please note that entries MUST be uploaded to the BDS website directly in accordance with the competition rules and the files will be checked to ensure the picture width is greater than 3000pixels and the file size is no larger than 6MB.

Next BDS evening meeting - Monday 12th July 2021

The next BDS evening meeting is ‘The History and Development of the London Storage Reservoir System’ on Monday 12^th July 2021 presented by Bryn Philpott of Thames Water. The meeting will be held online starting at 6pm. More information and a link for the meeting can be found on the BDS website ‘Events Calendar’ page.

Supervising Engineers’ Forum – Thursday 16th September 2021 (Action Needed)

The BDS 15th Supervising Engineers’ Forum will take place on Thursday 16th September 2021. The BDS still hopes that this can be an in-person event at the University of Nottingham. If this is not possible then the forum will be held as an online event with a number of different technical sessions and a discussion period. Registration for this event will commence on Monday 2nd August.

Independent Reservoir Safety Review Report

An independent review of reservoir safety legislation and its application was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2020 and was led by Professor David Balmforth.

The review report, published on 13 May 2021, provides a comprehensive assessment of the current safety regime in England. It makes recommendations for improving the safety regime and to strengthen the roles and responsibilities for the regulator, reservoir owners and engineers.

Reservoir on-site emergency flood plans

A ministerial direction to undertakers in relation to reservoir on-site flood plans for large raised reservoirs in England was published on 22^nd April 2021.

Following the publication of the direction the BDS held an evening meeting on Monday 26^th April 2021 titled “Emergency Planning for Reservoirs”. The first part of this meeting heard from Jan Kiernan (Defra) and Tony Deakin (Environment Agency) who explained the new requirements and what is now needed from owners and engineers. A recording of this meeting can be found in the ‘Listen Again’ page of the BDS website.

Reservoir owner and operator guidance: inspection information pack

The Environment Agency recently (6^th July 2021) published new guidance for reservoir owners and operators regarding the creation and maintenance of an inspection information pack for their reservoir(s). This is the first of the new guidance recommended in the Toddbrook Reservoir Incident Independent Review (Part A). The new guidance can be found using the link below:-

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reservoir-owner-and-operator-guidance-inspection-information-pack

ICOLD Vice-President Carlos-Enrique Medeiros

ICOLD President Michael Rogers issued circular letter No.1979 on 7^th July informing the ICOLD community of the death of ICOLD Vice-President Carlos-Enrique Medeiros on 5^th July 2021 after a long fight against the Covid-19 virus. A copy of circular letter No.1979 can be found here.

Upcoming Events

There are a number of events coming up this year organised by the BDS and other organisations. Full details are available on the BDS website. Dates for your diaries:

6th to 9th July – 28th Meeting of the European Working Group on Internal Erosion at the University of Sheffield
12th July – BDS Evening event on ‘The History and Development of the London Storage Reservoir System’ presented by Bryn Philpott. This will be an online only event.
16th September – BDS Biennial Supervising Engineers Forum at the University of Nottingham. We are continuing with our plans for this live event, however, restrictions may require us to run a hybrid or online event.
4th October 2021 - BDS Evening event on ‘Reservoir Industry Review’ presented by Prof. David Balmforth. This will cover the key points of the recently-published review. We hope to be in a position to host this at One Great George Street with associated regional hubs and online streaming.
12th to 19th November – ICOLD 27th Congress in Marseille, France. POSTPONED This event has been rescheduled for 27th May 2022 to 3rd June 2022.
22nd November – BDS Prize Evening where the finalists of our Young Professionals Prize Competition will present their papers to the membership and the prize judges with the winners announced on the evening. This competition is open to members under 35 years of age. The winners of the BDS photo competition will also be announced during this evening meeting. Details for submission of your papers and photos will be sent out shortly.

We are in the process of planning events for 2022. If you have any suggestions or would like to give a talk on an interesting dams-related topic, then please contact Darren Shaw (Darren.Shaw@arup.com). Your presentation does not need to be a full hour as we often combine presentations on similar topics to provide an informative evening event for the membership.

Reservoir on-site emergency flood plans

A Ministerial Direction to require on-site flood plans for large raised reservoirs in England was issued to all undertakers on 22^nd April 2021. A copy of which has been put onto www.gov.uk for reference and information.

Here are links to the Ministerial Direction and the associated guidance documents.

Ministerial Direction – requirement for reservoir on-site emergency flood plans

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reservoir-on-site-flood-plans-ministerial-direction

Guidance documents

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reservoir-emergencies-on-site-plan

Next evening meeting

Our next evening meeting with be The History of Thames Water Reservoirs on Monday 12^th July 2021 at 6pm. This meeting will be an on-line only event.

Further details including the full list of presenters and the necessary links will be made available on our website shortly.

Independent Reservoir Safety Review Report

Royal Society special issue - Intensification of short-duration rainfall extremes and implications for flash flood risks

Royal Society Publishing has recently published a special issue of Philosophical Transactions A entitled Intensification of short-duration rainfall extremes and implications for flash flood risks organised and edited by Hayley Fowler, Conrad Wasko and Andreas F Prein and the articles can be accessed directly at www.bit.ly/TransA-2195.

Update on the Toddbrook Part A review recommendations from the EA

We have a message from Tony Deakin, Head of Reservoir Safety, Environment Agency which provides an update on the work arising from Part A of the Toddbrook review. Tony’s message is reproduced below.

“You may recall the actions as a result of Part A of the independent review into the 2019 Toddbrook Reservoir spillway failure by Prof David Balmforth.

At that time I set out a plan to respond to the Part A recommendations as follows:

Deliverable 1 – Spillway Design Guide
Deliverable 2 – Spillway Inspection Guide
Deliverable 3 – Spillway Failure Mechanisms Research
Deliverable 4 – Guidance on the contents of a well-structured package of information on the reservoir
Deliverable 5 – Guidance to Inspecting Engineers
Deliverable 6 - Guidance to Supervising Engineers
Deliverable 7 – Guidance to Owners

The team which supporting me to deliver this plan:

Kieron Kenny – kieron.kenny@turntown.co.uk

Viktor Pavlov – pavlovvv@binnies.com

Eddie Robinson – robinsoned@binnies.com

Tim Daly – tim.daly@mottmac.com

Many of you have already responded to my initial request and have generously offered your support to develop this guidance, for which I am grateful. If you did respond and haven’t already been contacted by my team, then you should expect to be contacted in the next few weeks. If you haven’t responded and would like to be involved, please get in touch with me or one of my team. It’s important that this guidance is developed collaboratively by a representative cross section of the reservoir community and your support is necessary to achieve this.

Part B of the independent review will consider the legislative and regulatory framework which governs the management of reservoirs in England. In anticipation of potential changes to legislation as a result of this review, we have adapted our plan and now intend to publish deliverables 4, 5, 6 and 7 as interim guidance, which will respond specifically to the recommendations of the Part A review, pending the future introduction of new or updated legislation.

My team has been busy developing the necessary plans to prepare and publish this guidance in the late summer/early autumn of this year and look forward to engaging with those of you who so generously offer your time.“

Next evening meeting

Our next on-line evening meeting together with the AGM is on 26 April at 6pm. This will be followed by a presentation on Emergency Planning for Reservoirs. Further details including the full list of presenters will be made available on our website shortly.

Election of new BDS Chair and Vice Chair

I am pleased to announce that David Littlemore has been elected by the BDS Committee to stand as the next BDS Chair with effect from the AGM on 26 April. Rachel Davies has been elected as the next Vice-Chair. Congratulations on your new roles!

Dams and Reservoirs Editor

We have a new editor of our journal Dams & Reservoirs. Anthea Peters has been our editor for many years and we would like to thank her for the fantastic contribution she has made in securing interesting content for our journal. The new editor is Andrew Pepper who once served on the Committee as our Technical Secretary and is very familiar with our industry and the needs of the membership.

Nominations for new BDS Committee members

Members should have received nomination forms for new membership of the BDS Committee and the Young Professionals Group. We have many spaces available on the committee from April to replace elected members who have completed their term. The deadline for nominations is 29 March. We hope you will consider actively contributing to the BDS.

Extreme flood research

The Environment Agency has started a new project which aims to improve Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) and Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) estimation for reservoir safety.

The project aims to assess the suitability of existing methods for estimating PMP and PMF and develop new methods and guidelines to ensure that we understand the risk posed to our highest risk reservoirs from extreme flood events. You can find further details here. Please click "Read More" for more information.

NRW position statement on risk designation and first inspection of statutory reservoirs in Wales

Natural Resources Wales have recently published an important position statement relating to the processes for risk designation and first inspection of statutory reservoirs of between 10,000 – 25,000m³ capacity. You can find the document here.

ICOLD Congress postponed

ICOLD has advised that the Congress in Marseilles has been postponed until 12-19 November 2021 on account of the pandemic.

Next evening meeting

Our next on-line evening meeting is on 1 March at 6pm. Peter Mason will be presenting on “Concrete spillways – inspections and defects”.

ICOLD General Assembly

The ICOLD General Assembly met on-line on 30 November 2020. The meeting was chaired by ICOLD President Michael Rogers.

The impact of the pandemic on the activities of ICOLD was discussed. The Annual Meeting scheduled to take place in New Delhi, India has been re-scheduled to 2023.

Please click 'read more' to see a more detailed summary of the online meeting.

ICOLD Call for Mentors

ICOLD are seeking experienced engineers to act as mentors as part of the ICOLD 2021 conference in Marseille to assist our international young professionals. You can find full details here.

January 2021 evening meeting

Our next evening meeting (on-line) will be on Monday 11 January on “The use of dam break risk curves to optimise an ALARP assessment” presented by Hermann Stehle, Jon Holland, Rhys Coombs and Tom Wanner. The full details can be found here.

Outcome of the Defra consultation on on-site plans

Defra has published the results on the consultation on on-site plans and presented the Government response. The key points are:

On-site plans will be mandatory for all regulated reservoirs (‘high risk’ and ‘not high risk’ reservoirs)
The plan requirements will be set with respect to the risk designation.
Updated guidance on preparing on-site plans will be developed and published.
New reservoir inundation maps will be published in 2021 by the Environment Agency.
A strategy for training in relation to emergency planning will be developed.

You can read the full report here.

Dams and Reservoirs Journal – position of editor

Anthea Peters has decided to stand down as our editor of Dams and Reservoirs after many years in the position. We would like to thank Anthea for her fantastic contribution to the BDS through her work as editor. We are therefore seeking expressions of interest from any member who would like to be considered for the role. The successful applicant would join the BDS Committee as an Honorary Officer. If you are interested in this role please contact our Technical Secretary, Andrew Thompson (hontechsec@britishdams.org) by the end of November.

EA and NRW reservoir safety guidance relating to the pandemic

NRW has updated its guidance regarding compliance during Covid-19 restrictions and can be found here. The EA’s advice, published in April, remains valid and can be found here.

NRW also advise that with the increased use of social media to showcase work there is an increased risk that photos, diagrams and other information may reveal sensitive detail and expose vulnerabilities. Even small pieces of information, when pieced together over time can be harmful if accessed by anyone with a malicious intent. Before posting material about reservoir construction or maintenance, you are advised to seek the approval of the reservoir undertaker.

BDS YouTube channel

The BDS has recently created a playlist on our ‘YouTube’ page of videos from around the web related to dam safety and history that we feel may be of interest to our members. From educational videos about dam engineering principles to fascinating history of some of the UKs most iconic dams, we have curated many nuggets of information that provide insights into the world of dam engineering. The playlist can be viewed here. Whilst every care has been taken to check the links are appropriate, the BDS is not responsible for the content or comments on these 3rd party videos.

AGM and Binnie Lecture

The AGM will be on-line at 6pm on Monday 5 October and will be followed by the Binnie Lecture by Mr John Gosden. Please refer to the event flyer and link on the website for further information and joining instructions. The winners of the Bateman Prize and the Photography Competition will also be announced during this event.

Dams and Reservoirs Survey

Further to our recent questionnaire on the proposed change to on-line only publication of Dams and Reservoirs from 2021 we can report that we shared the findings of our survey with ICE Publishing and that a paper copy of the magazine will continue to be published next year.

Updates from ICOLD

The 2020 conference in New Delhi in November/December has now been officially cancelled as a physical event. The General Assembly and certain technical meetings will be held on-line in November/December (refer to the website). The symposium “Sustainable Development of Dams and River Basins” will now take place as a physical and virtual meeting on 24-27 February 2021.

BDS Seminar

In lieu of the 2020 conference we are planning a virtual seminar this September using some of the material which would have been used at our conference. We are aware that many of our members will find it difficult to secure funding this year to (virtually) attend a one-day event and we wish to make access to the content as easy as possible. We therefore plan to present the seminar through four one-hour sessions. The sessions will be available on each Monday lunchtime through September, i.e. the 7, 14, 21 and 28 September. These will be free live events using pre-recorded presentations followed by live Q&A.

Updates from ICOLD

ICOLD has recently published its World Declaration on Dam Safety which you can find here. We have also received an update from Central Office on the status of the 2020 and 2021 annual meetings which you can find here.

We have recently received an update from EURCOLD regarding the Hydropower-Europe initiative. Please contact Alan Warren for further details.

As a reminder, BDS Members should contact the BDS Technical Secretary for the current login and password information in order to access ICOLD documents through their website.

Opportunities for representation on ICOLD Technical Committees

We invite all members to apply to represent the interests of the BDS on a number of ICOLD Technical Committees (TC). The Job Description for our representatives can be found here. We are seeking candidates to take up the role from 1 January 2021 and require applications to be made by 30 September 2020 in writing to Andrew Thompson (Honourable Technical Secretary) at hontechsec@britishdams.org. Existing representatives (as applicable) can apply for a mandate to extend their role by up to three years. New representatives will receive a mandate for up to six years.

Professional development relating to Mine Waste Facilities

Mike Cambridge has provided BDS with a short article outlining the professional development requirements to acquire competency in relation to mine waste facilities. You can find his article here.

Photo Competition

As usual we are running our photography competition. Full details can be found here. You have until 23 September 2020 to submit your photos for the chance to win a cash prize. Please note that entries MUST be uploaded to the BDS website directly in accordance with the competition rules. Good luck!

Toddbrook Seminar and feedback

Thank you for your many messages of praise for the Toddbrook Seminar. We had over 500 participants of which 97% reported they were happy with the event. We received a very large number of questions. A link will be provided by the ICE as soon as the Q&A session is available to view.

We are planning a special edition of Dams and Reservoirs on the Toddbrook incident. The editor will welcome short accounts or thought pieces on the incident from the membership. If you were involved in the emergency response, were one of those affected by the evacuation or simply someone who would like to provide some comment on the events at Whaley Bridge then please write to us before the end of September – but please keep it brief! You can contact the editor at editor@britishdams.org.

Defra consultation on emergency planning

We would like to remind you of Defra’s consultation about reservoir emergency on-site flood plans. The consultation is open until 10 August. Defra would like to hear your views about the type of information you need to assist you with emergency planning, what training would be useful to you and your staff, and for others in preparing and testing emergency plans for the reservoir and corresponding local plans. The link is here.

ICOLD 2021 Innovation Award

ICOLD are offering an Innovation Award, a cash prize of Euro1500 and free registration to the Congress in 2024 for winning submissions on the theme of innovation. Entries must be submitted by 15 October 2020. The presentation will be made in Marseilles during the Congress in June 2021. Full details are on the ICOLD website.

Defra consultation on reservoir emergency onsite plans

Defra has launched the consultation on the industry requirements for reservoir onsite plans. Please read the full news item for more information.

ICOLD 2021

Papers for the Symposium in Marseille next year are now asked to submit their abstract by 15 June (extended deadline) to claire.bellone@mcocongres.com. The full papers are required by 15 September.

Papers for the ICOLD 2021 Congress on any of the four questions must be sent to ICOLD from the national committees by 5 October 2020 so completed papers will be needed by the BDS by mid-September. If you intend to prepare a paper as the lead author could you please send an abstract to Andrew Thompson at hontechsec@britishdams.org by the end of June. Some restrictions on national committees apply. The four questions are:

Concrete dam design innovation and performance
Incidents and accidents concerning dams
Surveillance, instrumentation, monitoring and data acquisition
Dams and climate change

The Initial Bulletin for the event is now available for further information.

ICE Green Paper consultation on Covid-19 and infrastructure

The ICE are seeking responses to the Covid-19 and the new normal for infrastructure systems Green Paper consultation. The paper discusses the early lessons that the infrastructure sector should take away from the outbreak of Covid-19 in the UK and poses a number of questions to gauge what future infrastructure provision should look like. This consultation runs until 14 June 2020. Responses can be made by emailing policy@ice.org.uk.

Online Event: Early Behaviour of Concretes in Large Dams

The BDS International Lecture by Dr Quentin Shaw on ‘Early Behaviour of Concretes in Large Dams’ will be streamed on-line on Monday 18 May at 6pm. Refer to the website for full details.

Toddbrook Incident Bulletin

Further to the investigation reports on the incident at Toddbrook Reservoir last year, the Environment Agency has published a technical bulletin covering the key messages for the industry. The bulletin can be accessed here.

Defra research on small reservoir risk published

Defra has released the report on the three-year research project completed by Mott MacDonald on reservoir risk. The report reviews the risk designation process for statutory reservoirs, evaluates the number of small raised reservoirs in England and the risk that they pose. The work will inform a review of present legislation.

The report can be accessed here.

ICE Reservoirs Committee

Further to the earlier call for new members of the Reservoirs Committee, the deadline for applications has been extended to 12 May.

Regulatory guidance in relation to coronavirus

You may wish to refer to the relevant regulatory guidance and position statement in relation to reservoir safety enforcement and COVID-19. The Environment Agency site is here; an information notice from NRW has also been circulated and is available here; and SEPA has also issued guidance and a regulatory position statement.

ICOLD 2021 - Marseilles, France

We wish to remind you that abstracts for the 27^th ICOLD Congress and 89^th Annual Meeting to be held on 4-11 June 2021 in Marseille must be submitted to ICOLSD by 30 April. All details can be found at cigb-icold2021.fr/en/#.

If you have already submitted an abstract or plan to do so could you please inform our Technical Secretary, Andrew Thompson (hontechsec@britishdams.org) with the details of the paper.

Toddbrook investigation reports

The Government independent review report on the Toddbrook investigation was released on 16 March and can be found here.

Access to a video on the report findings by CRT Chief Executive Richard Parry and the CRT investigation report can be found here.

We strongly encourage members to take time to carefully study and learn from the findings.

Calendar changes for events

The current global health crisis has had an inevitable impact on the events that we had hoped to bring you this year. As the situation with coronavirus and any government restrictions over the coming months is very hard to predict, the forward planning for our events is also in a state of flux. Dates for future events will be determined when circumstances allow.

Reservoir Committee – new membership

The following notice has been prepared by the ICE Reservoirs Committee:

“Applications are requested for forthcoming vacancies on the Reservoirs Committee. From the October 2020 meeting, the Committee will be appointing 1 Supervising Engineer and 3 All Reservoirs Panel Engineers to the Committee.

The appointees will serve a term of three years, or shorter if determined by the Committee. Applications shall be submitted to the secretary of the Committee at Institution of Civil Engineers (at reservoirs@ice.org.uk), by 1 May 2020. Applicants must include a brief statement (200 words) on their suitability for appointment. All applicants shall have their employer’s approval to serve on the Committee, if appointed

Send us your videos!

We recently received a video produced by Storm Geomatics to promote the British reservoir industry and their contribution to it. You can view the video here. We will be happy to receive similar videos from other companies with the aim of producing a catalogue of interesting videos on dam engineering.

New CIRIA and Environment Agency Guides

A number of new guidance documents are available which may be of interest to members:

CIRIA C786F Culvert, screen and outfall manual, December 2019, available by free download from CIRIA;
Environment Agency SC110005/S Blockage management guide, November 2019, available here.

In addition, publication of CIRIA R1071: Pipework, Valves and Associated Equipment in Dams. A guide to operation, maintenance, condition assessment and rehabilitation (the subject of this month’s evening meeting) is due this Spring.

BDS Supervising Engineer Mentoring Scheme 2019/2020

The steady decline in reservoir panel engineers is a real threat to the dam industry. Encouraging and supporting the next generation of dam engineers is key to overcoming this threat. With this in mind, the British Dam Society Supervising Engineer Mentoring Scheme has been established.