Welcome to the September BDS eNewsletter.

Sadly I start with some news from Robin Hawley that Stewart Cale passed away on 7th August 2017. Robin has said “Those of you that knew Stewart will remember him as a fit, strong and determined man with a wealth of experience. He will be a sad loss to his wife Lillian and daughter Natalie and of course the reservoir community. He passed away with Lillian at his bedside in Ashford where he lived”. A full obituary will be included in the News section on the BDS website soon.

This leads on to the news that we have now launched the refreshed new BDS website and would encourage you all to take a look round.  I’m delighted to see a link to our BDS Movie on the homepage and would urge you all to view, like and share this on various social media.  We currently have 300 hits and would love to see this reach 500 by next month.

The Conference Organising Committee is progressing well with the arrangements for the next conference, to be held in Swansea in September 2018.  Although much of the programme will follow the lines of previous conferences, there will also be the option to attend workshops.  The call for papers (available here) envisages that some papers could be given at the start of workshops to kick-start discussions.  Please consider whether you are able to provide a paper on the theme of Smart Dams & Reservoirs, and submit your synopsis by the due date.

Please can I also draw you attention to the following articles in this issue:

• A request for applications to fill the vacancy for the position of Honorary Technical Secretary.
• Guidance on the submissions of Supervising Engineers’ Statements from the Environment Agency.
• New guidance published on ‘Drawdown capacity for reservoir safety and emergency planning’.
• A summary of recent ICOLD Circulars.
• An update on the work of the BDS Strategic Objective Working Groups (available here), BDS Strategy available here.
• Updates from Alan Brown on some research projects (‘Assessing the performance of grass and soil in resisting erosion’ and ‘FWMA implementation and small raised reservoir evidence’).
• An update from Rod Bridle on internal erosion.
• Natural Resources Wales Guide to Reservoir Safety Charging Scheme

Please let us know if you have any news or announcements related to dams and reservoirs that you would like to share with BDS members in the next eNewsletter.

Tracey Williamson

BDS Chair