Report a reservoir incident
Forms for reservoir operators to report incidents at dams to the Environment Agency.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
If you own or operate a large raised reservoir you must report any reservoir safety incident by law if:
- an uncontrolled release of water occurred, or could have occurred
- you took emergency measures to stop it happening or worsening
You must send a preliminary incident report to us as soon as possible. If you require assistance with your incident, you do not need to fill in this form. Contact the National Reservoir Safety Team directly at reservoirs@environment-agency.gov.uk.
You have 12 months to investigate the causes and impacts of the incident and identify any lessons learned.
You must send a final incident report with these learnings. These forms help you fill in the information we need. Use as much detail as you think is appropriate, you may find it useful to ask a qualified civil engineer to help with your form.
We still encourage you to report your incident even it does not meet the above criteria or if it occurred at a small raised reservoir. These lessons can help to prevent similar events happening where more serious consequences may occur.
We have developed the following categorisation to help you decide whether your incident should be reported or not. You may send both part A and B in together if appropriate for your incident. Only one form is needed for a near miss.
Failure
An incident caused by the failure of dam, wall, embankment or other structure causing an uncontrolled release of water.
use forms: report a reservoir incident: Part A and Part B
Incident
Any incident which could have led to an uncontrolled release of water had measures not been taken:
and / or resulted in one or more of the following:
- damage to the site
- an unintentional but controlled release of water resulting in downstream impacts (environmental, social or financial)
use forms: report a reservoir incident: Part A and Part B
Near miss
Any incident which did not result in an uncontrolled or unintentional release of water (or damage to the site) but could have done.
use form: report a near miss
You may also use this category to report any event or procedure from which wider learning can be gained.
There is important learning to be made from incidents. We share this learning, to help reduce the risk of these events happening elsewhere. The information in your forms will be shared, with any identifiable information removed to ensure anonymity.