Dams Safety Regulation 2019

An emergency plan under section 17(1) of the Act for a dam must set out the following—

the consequence category of the dam,

details of the material contained by the dam,

a description of the circumstances that could cause a failure of the dam and the likely consequences of the failure including, for an extreme or high consequence dam—

details of all credible modes of dam failure, and

details of the persons, property and infrastructure that are likely to be impacted in each scenario and the environmental damage that is likely to occur,

the procedures to be followed by the owner of the dam and staff in the event of an emergency that may cause a failure of the dam, including the following—

a description of the emergency warning systems and how they operate,

the different levels of emergency alerts (being levels that are consistent with those used by the State Emergency Service), the triggers for those alerts and the responses that are to occur when those alerts are triggered,

the procedures for alerting emergency services organisations of the emergency,

the persons who may be at risk if there is a failure of the dam,

the persons responsible for exercising functions in the event of an emergency and the contact details for those persons,

details of the emergency exercises to be undertaken.

The emergency plan may include any other matter that the dam owner considers to be relevant to emergencies at the dam.

For the purposes of section 17(3) of the Act, the emergency plan must be updated at least once every 5 years subject to subclauses (4) and (5).

The emergency plan must be updated to take account of the following changes within 30 days after the change occurs—

a change to the consequence category of the dam,

a significant change, since the consequence category of the dam was last determined, to the number of persons who would be put at risk if there were to be a failure of the dam,

a change to the emergency management arrangements.

The emergency plan must be routinely reviewed, at least annually, to ensure that a change to the contact details of a person responsible for exercising functions in the event of an emergency is updated as soon as practicable after the change.

Dams Safety NSW may direct the owner of a declared dam to update the emergency plan for the dam within a time specified in the direction.

The owner of a declared dam must not fail to comply with a direction under this clause.

The owner of a declared dam must provide a copy of the emergency plan to Dams Safety NSW and the State Emergency Service in a form approved by Dams Safety NSW as soon as reasonably practicable after the plan is prepared or updated.