Reservoir safety review continues

摘要

PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE THE approach for reservoir inspections, ensure reservoir owners are more proactive in ensuring safety, and giving the Environment Agency more regulatory powers have been welcomed by the government in England. The second part of an independent review of reservoir safety, which was released by Professor David Balmforth in May 2021, acknowledges that England already has some of the toughest reservoir regulations in the world and a 'well-established' regime to manage their safety. Floods Minister Rebecca Pow added that the legislation that supports the safety regime "is well understood by all those involved, with high levels of compliance". However, the report recognises that although many reservoirs have appropriate surveillance, operation and maintenance it raises concerns that "this is not applied consistently across the industry as a whole"."The report found that both the legislation and industry practice has not always kept pace with the risk-based approach adopted for health and safety in other industries, resulting in a potentially disproportionate approach for measuring risk.Professor Balmforth also found that not all reports received from engineers were clear or well understood by owners and operators, which may be leading to delays in repairs, and/or ongoing regular maintenance at some sites," Pow said, adding that the Environment Agency has limited opportunity to quality assure the overall processes and procedures, which is a key role of other regulators.