Observations on reservoir risk designation for the amended Reservoirs Act Available to Purchase

One of the recent changes to the Reservoirs Act requires all statutory large raised reservoirs in England to be designated as ‘high risk’ or ‘not high risk’. The task of designating reservoirs was devolved by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to the Environment Agency, who set up a reservoir risk designation panel. To show transparency of the process the British Dam Society was invited to send representatives to panel meetings. This paper is the result of the authors attending two different panel meetings. They conclude that the risk designation process being adopted by the Environment Agency is robust and transparent with a clear audit trail.