Otago Regional Council chief executive Graeme Martin is threatening to advise the council to withdraw its support for the Government's proposed dam safety regulations because the "current liability is totally unacceptable".
While the council has expressed ongoing concerns with the "vacuum" in dam regulations, those worries have become more urgent after the recent failure of three small-scale dams in North and Central Otago.
"They've caused a shambles downstream and affected properties but fortunately loss of life or excessive damage to buildings has not happened, but that is only because they were small-scale."
Mr Martin was highly critical of the Government and the Department of Building and Housing during recent council committee meetings which were considering the council's submission on amendments to the dam safety scheme and a report on Otago's non-compliant dams.
"The Crown doesn't want to be liable. It wants to be popular by lowering the cost but it's increasing the costs and shifting the liability," Mr Martin said.
The Government had chosen to give regional councils the role overseeing dams but as the process had gone on, the department had shown a lack of competency and ministers a lack of understanding, he said. Timelines had not been met and the review had further complicated the issues.
He said unless there was "a hell of a good tidy up" of the dam safety proposals, he, as chief executive, could not "recommend playing a part in it" because the liability was "totally unacceptable".
"It's spiralling into mass uncertainty. If this council had behaved like the Government ... we'd have had commissioners installed."
So far the council had initiated legal action for one of the failed dams because it involved a "serious and dangerous situation", he said.
He was not comfortable initiating prosecution given the vacuum that had existed around unsafe dams but it was "essentially an important step to take".
The council, which also oversees dams on the West Coast and in Southland, had identified seven unauthorised dams in Otago in the past year.
It was important dam owners had clarity and certainty concerning the regulations and were not exposed to unnecessary liability, Mr Martin said.
Local Government New Zealand environment and regulations manager Irene Clarke said there were concerns nationally across regional councils about the dam safety regulations.
The Minister of Building and Construction, Maurice Williamson, said Mr Martin's claims were "disappointing" and showed a lack of understanding.
Despite the delays to the dam safety scheme, which were only to ensure it was sound, the Building Act provided regional councils with powers to immediately deal with dangerous dams of any size and any who used that power "in good faith" did not have any liability, he said.
All agreed they wanted clear and simple dam safety requirements in place as soon as possible but these also needed to be at a reasonable cost to dam owners and regional councils.
The only change the Government had made was deferring the introduction of the dam safety scheme, introduced by Labour, by two years to July 2012, to allow for an independent review and consultation to "seek an agreed position".
The department was working on providing advice to him on the scheme before Christmas.
The review recommended that while the definition of large dams be narrowed, regional councils would have the ability, if they chose, to require smaller dams to be in the scheme if they were at risk, although the regional councils disagreed with having this responsibility, he said.
