Both are required by law to be upgraded by their owner,the statutory agency Seqwater,by 2035,with neither having met national large dam safety standardsfor about two decades, when the true potential of extreme rain events was realised.
Full drinking supply levels were lowered in 2016 ahead of the planning and upgrade work. Wivenhoe levels are now being dropped further — to 80 per cent — until February amidconcerns about the looming wet season.
In 2017,after the dam owner commissioned a two-year,$2 million study to back “once-in-a-lifetime” upgrades to Wivenhoe,a spokesman said plans were to finish the work “well before 2030″ andinitial planning was already under way.
But five years later,the final business case for the first round of upgrade work — upstream at Somerset — is still not complete. A 2019 fact sheet had suggested this would be finished that year,with construction to start from 2021.
The cost of upgrading both dams,among some of the largest in the country,could easily surpass $1 billion. A Seqwater spokesperson told this masthead that upgrades of this scale were “extremely complex”.
“It’s important we get the planning right to ensure the dam remains operational throughout construction,and that this major investment delivers strategic outcomes and value for money for taxpayers,” they said.