However, chief executive Richard Saunders told councillors this week any new requirements for owners of Otago’s about 350 consented dams would come from New Zealand dam safety regulations that come into effect in May, not the council.
"We are not consulting on the dam safety regulations: they’re done, they’re set," he said at this week’s council meeting.
Mr Saunders said the new national dam safety regulations — separate from the council policy — made it incumbent upon dam owners to have their dam inspected and to notify the council if their dam was found to be dangerous, earthquake- or flood-prone.
The council needed to update its dangerous dams policy to make sure it could deal with anyone who reported a dangerous dam to the council after an inspection under the new regulations, Mr Saunders said.
"We have to have the policy that enables us to deal with that notification."
A draft policy summary included in the council agenda outlined the steps the council would take upon learning of a dangerous dam.
If there was an immediate danger to public safety, the council chief executive could take "any action necessary to remove the danger".
And the council would recover the costs from the
dam owner.
Acting regulatory general manager Joanna Gilroy said although the policy was years overdue for review, the council did have a dangerous dams policy in place and it was meeting its legal requirements.
Now, after waiting for the new national regulations to become clear, regional councils across the country were putting similar or the same dangerous dams policies in place, she said.
Once a dam was identified as dangerous, earthquake-prone or flood-prone, a council contractor would work with the dam owner to identify the next steps, but Ms Gilroy could not say at the meeting who would pay for that work.
The council had yet to use its present policy, because no dams had been identified as dangerous, earthquake- or flood-prone, she said.
Consents team leader Rebecca Jackson said there 105 large dams with building consents in Otago.
In total, there were about 350 dams with resource consent, she said.
