The Environment Agency has published its annual report on reservoir incidents during 2013.

In 2013, the Agency received information on one incident that occurred in 2012 and four incidents that occurred in 2013. The report gives a description of and the lessons learned from the five incidents. No reservoir incident investigations were carried out in 2013 as none of the incidents that occurred required a more detailed investigation.

The Agency has produced an annual report on reservoir incidents in the UK since 2007 when Defra requested the Environment Agency to collect information on incidents at all reservoirs in the United Kingdom.

The Agency collects and record information on incidents at raised reservoirs, both large and small. Large raised reservoirs are currently those with a volume of more than 25 000 cubic metres and are covered by the Reservoirs Act 1975.

The information is used to:

• Investigate incidents where appropriate;
• Inform the reservoir industry of any trends and key lessons identified;
• Contribute to research into reservoir safety and incident frequency analysis.

For incidents at large raised reservoirs located in England, incident reporting is now a legal requirement under the Reservoirs Act 1975. As soon as the incident is under control a reservoir owner or operator must provide a preliminary report of the incident to the Agency. Incidents are classified according to the following levels of severity:

Level 1: Failure (uncontrolled sudden large release of retained water).

Level 2: Serious incident involving any of the following:

• Emergency drawdown;
• Emergency works;
• Serious operational failure in an emergency.

Level 3: Any incident involving:

• A precautionary drawdown;
• Unplanned physical works;
• Human error leading to a major (adverse) change in operating procedures.

Post-incident reporting for small raised reservoirs in England remains voluntary.

Click here to read the report.