A regional council panel this week considered five submissions about its proposed dangerous dams, earthquake-prone dams and flood-prone dams policy.
Speaking to the hearing, Southland Federated Farmers president Jason Herrick said based on data from other regions, initial engineering assessments showed — for dams that ended up classified low potential impact classification (PIC) — the new policy could cost farmers between $3000 and $7000 per dam.
Ongoing compliance for dams classified as medium or high PIC could cost up to $50,000 every five to 10 years, Mr Herrick said.
"These huge costs could make existing agricultural dams uneconomic and impede water farm storage, which can be vital for farm resilience."
Under the Building Act 2004 and the Building (Dam Safety) Regulations 2022, which came into effect on May 13 last year, regional authorities must manage dam safety.
The dam safety regulations apply to dams at least 4m high that store 20,000cum or more of water or other fluid.
In the draft policy the council proposed it would keep a register of dams as required by the Act.
The register would record the dangerous, earthquake-prone or flood-prone status of each dam which would be given a high, medium or low PIC.
Dam owners would be responsible for identifying, monitoring and reporting on dangerous, earthquake-prone and flood-prone dams and for reducing or removing the risk of harm to people, property and the environment.
Owners were also responsible for engaging an engineer to assess the dam and identify whether it was high, medium or low PIC.
The engineer would notify the council and the owner of the dam if they believed the dam was dangerous, the draft policy said.
During discussion of the draft policy, Environment Southland regional planning team leader Gavin Gilder said dams on the council’s former large dam register had been transferred to the new classifiable dams list.
There were 10 dams on the register, five high PIC, one medium and four low at present.
Only one low PIC was farmer-owned, Mr Gilder said.
There were no dams on the list deemed dangerous.
Aerial inspections staff carried out periodically would reveal if there were any more dams that should be on the list, he said.
Cr Maurice Rodway said it appeared dams on farms were not "really a concern".
Staff will make changes to the draft and the policy will be considered for adoption at a council meeting.
