Dam safety regulation

As a dam owner, you are primarily responsible for the dam’s safety. You have a legal responsibility to achieve minimum compliance and take all necessary measures to prevent dam failure and to lessen the effects of failure should it occur.

Under the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008, the dam safety regulatory framework aims for ongoing industry good practice in dam safety management so that risk to life, property and the environment are within acceptable levels.

The Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water regulates referable dams and their owners including:

• review and acceptance or rejection of failure impact assessment (FIA) (PDF, 2.9MB) submissions
• issuance of referable dam notices (RDNs)
• review and approval or rejection of proposed emergency action plans (EAP)
• review of emergency event reports (PDF, 1.8MB) and flood event reports (PDF, 1.3MB)
• review of technical reports (PDF, 1.3MB)
• observance of technical review (PDF, 1.3MB) of dam projects
• compliance monitoring, auditing and enforcement of referable dam safety conditions (PDF, 1.3MB)
• when requested, authorisation of an alternative operating procedure for gated dams operating according to flood mitigation manuals
• publication of EAPs and other relevant industry documentation.

Our published guidelines provide relevant details for dam owners and informed stakeholders.

Read more about our role as a regulator.