Depending on the outcome of the project, regulatory changes could be made to small raised reservoirs (SRR), many of which are located on farms.
The NFU is a member of the Advisory Group assembled to oversee and steer the project.
In view of the potential impact of future regulatory changes on farms, the NFU is urging members to feed evidence into the project when invited to do so. Members who have experience of dealing with the exisitng regulations and who wish to comment to the NFU should contact cGF1bC5oYW1tZXR0QG5mdS5vcmcudWs=
Reservoir safely legislation is guided by the Reservoirs Act 1975 (RA) as amended by the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 (FWMA).
RA regulations apply only to ‘large raised reservoirs’ (LRR), those with an above ground water capacity exceeding 25,000m3.
FWMA made provision for a more risk-based approach to managing reservoir safety by introducing ‘high risk’ and ‘not high risks’ categories. Only high risk reservoirs are subject to the full regulation, resulting in reduced regulatory burden for low risk reservoir owners.
Now that the review process for LRRs is complete with their designation as high risk or not, Defra is embarking on a project to review the current risk methodology applied to reservoir safety with particular focus on the probability of dam breaches or over topping.
FWMA made provision for the possible introduction of a new statutory threshold above which safety regulations would apply. The Act proposed that the above ground water storage capacity of 25,000m3 above which regulations applies could be reduced to 10,000m3 (but also made provision for other volumes to be considered instead).
The 10,000m3 threshold proposal arose from anecdotal community evidence during the 2007 floods that some reservoirs above this capacity had shown signs of distress.
The Defra project will collect evidence about the extent to which SRRs pose a risk in the event of a failure, and help to inform any future political decision on whether the regulatory threshold should be changed.
Reservoirs not covered by regulations are still subject to a duty of care.
There are thought to be up to 1300 SRRsin England and Wales that are potentially affected by future regulatory change, many of them located on farms.