Maintaining your Dam
| Many farm dams suffer from age, lack of maintenance and outdated design standards. Dam Safety Surveillance and Maintenance Partial or total failure of your dam may cause extensive damage to downstream properties, for which you, the owner, are likely to be held liable. Common law liability may also apply if proof of negligence is established. Then there's the expensive repair costs and lost income.  Regularly monitoring your dam and its surroundings will enable timely maintenance of potentially unsafe trends. |  This information summarises Your Dam: an Asset or a Liability, a comprehensive illustrated summary of the causes, consequences and remedies for many dam maintenance problems. Source: B. Lewis, Your Dam - an Asset or a Liability, Dept. Conservation & Natural Resources, Melbourne, 1992. A copy of this publication can be viewed at the DPI Knowledge Resource Centre. |
Related Landcare Note |
Common Farm Dam Problem Areas
The main areas of dam failure are:
Safety Surveillance
Safety surveillance of a dam is a program of regular visual inspection using simple equipment and techniques. It is the most economical means of ensuring the long-term safety and survival of your dam. By regularly monitoring the condition and performance of the dam and its surroundings, adequate warning of potentially unsafe trends will enable timely maintenance.
Your Dam: an Asset or a Liability provides a simple set of dam surveillance procedures and a dam inspection checklist.
Dam Maintenance
Many farm dams fail through lack of maintenance so a definite maintenance plan will protect the life of your storage. A good plan includes the practices to be used, as well as the approximate time of the year when they apply.
Your Dam: an Asset or a Liability provides a comprehensive illustrated summary of the causes, consequences and remedies for many dam maintenance problems.
Suggested Dam Inspection Frequencies
| Hazard Category1 | Quick Visual Inspection | Comprehensive Examination | ||||
Dam Size | Dam Size | |||||
| Notifiable2 | Medium | Small3 | Notifiable2 | Medium | Small3 | |
| High | daily | twice weekly | weekly | weekly | monthly | every 3 months |
| Medium | twice weekly | weekly | fortnightly | monthly | every 3 months | twice yearly |
| Low | weekly | fornightly | monthly | every 3 months | twice yearly | yearly |
| 1 Hazard refers to the potential effects of dam failure. Does not imply a likelihood or risk of failure. (see below) 2 notifiable dams (see below) 3 less than 1 Megalitre (1ML = 1,000m3, or 1 Olympic swimming pool) 1 Hazardous Farm Dams Potentially hazardous farm dams are those which, due to size and location, could pose a significant threat to life or property should they fail. The greater the height of the dam, its storage capacity, or the level of development downstream, the more crucial it becomes to carry out regular and comprehensive inspection and maintenance. 2 Notifiable Dams Even where no dam construction licence is required, DSE must be notified if the dam height or storage capacity exceed specified limits. A 'notifiable' dam is one with either: i) a wall 5 metres or more high above ground level at the downstream end of the dam; and ii) a capacity of 50 megalitres or more. or i) a wall that is 10 metres or more high; and ii) a capacity of 20 megalitres or more. Source: B. Lewis, Your Dam - an Asset or a Liability, Dept. Conservation & Natural Resources, Melbourne, 1992. A copy of this publication can be viewed at the DPI Knowledge Resource Centre. |
© The State of Victoria, 1996 - 2009.
This document was last reviewed on 08/05/2009