The article below reproduces the response provided to the Environment Agency by the BDS Committee during its consultation on risk categorisation of reservoirs under the new Flood and Water Management Act 2010 legislation.

The British Dam Society’s 11th supervising engineers’ forum is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 17 April 2013 and will be held at the National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull, Birmingham, UK.

The 17th biennial conference of the British Dam Society (BDS) took place at the University of Leeds, with tours to several of Yorkshire Water's reservoirs, and the conference banquet in the Royal Armouries Hall.

The British Dam Society conference was held in Leeds in 2012. As part of this successful conference, the attendees had pre-selected which one of four tour groups they would like to participate on. This short paper describes the visits made on conference tour A to Baitings, Boothwood and Scammonden reservoirs, detailing the scale and specifics of each dam structure.

One of the four tours on the second day of the British Dam Society conference in Leeds in September 2012 visited Agden and Dale Dike dams.

As the enforcement authority for the Reservoirs Act 1975 in England and Wales, the Environment Agency has a legal duty to secure that the ‘undertakers’ of large raised reservoirs observe and comply with the requirements of the Act. To assist in performing its duty, the Environment Agency has sought and obtained external legal advice from counsel on the meaning of ‘undertakers’ for the purposes of the Act. This paper summarises that advice.

Essex is one of the driest parts of England and there is a gap in the availability and demand for water. The Abberton scheme is being undertaken to work towards alleviating this problem. Part of the scheme involves increasing the storage capacity at Abberton reservoir, by raising the full supply level of the reservoir by 3·2 m. The reservoir is owned by Essex and Suffolk Water who are part of Northumbrian Water Limited. The project is large in scope and there are many interesting aspects including raising the main dam while maintaining an operational reservoir, modification of the existing drawdown facilities, construction of several col dams, modification to the existing B1026 causeway embankment and the upgrading of the offtake pumping station. This paper focuses on the modification of the bottom outlet located in the valve tower, on the upstream slope of the main dam. The paper describes the arrangement and condition of the existing bottom outlet and discusses its capacity, for both existing and future conditions. It reviews the drawdown capacity at the reservoir and compares it to standards commonly applied elsewhere in the UK. A description is given of some of the studies that were undertaken during design development to explore how the drawdown capability might be improved. Construction is currently underway and the paper concludes with a summary of progress to date.

During the initial 5 years, spanning over the partial impounding stages of the Satpara Dam project, two independent post-construction incidents were observed at the project. This paper describes in detail the methods of investigation and treatment conducted for the unusual development of depressions observed slightly upstream of the main dam axis, and sinkholes observed upstream of the project area. The former incident was limited within the shell/shoulder zone and rehabilitated subsequently. The second incident was interconnected with a subsurface subsidence and its subsequent treatment was considered to induce self-healing within the natural foundations over time.