By Paul Homewood
h/t John Cooknell
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49189955
You will no doubt recall the Whaley Bridge dam collapse last summer, which Sir James Bevan, Chairman of the Environment Agency, predictably blamed on climate change:
We are seeing impacts on national infrastructure as it comes under greater pressure from climate change. A few weeks ago Toddbrook Reservoir in Whaley Bridge nearly failed after heavy rainfall. A disaster was narrowly averted – and the Environment Agency was at the heart of that operation. But like Toddbrook, much of our infrastructure is Victorian: it’s aging and it wasn’t designed for the more extreme weather climate change is causing. That is bringing greater and greater risks
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-climate-emergency-this-year-the-answers-are-different
Well, it appears that Bevan and his chums at the EA were asleep at the wheel, because a full independent review into the near catastrophe, published a couple of months ago but seemingly not well publicised, puts the blame firmly on a combination of poor design, exacerbated by inadequate maintenance.
The Report by Sir David Balmforth finds that the rainfall, though extremely heavy, was a 1 in 100 year event, and was well within what the spillway should have been able to accommodate. Also that it had dealt with significant floods in the past:
Balmforth goes on to describe the design failures
Overall responsibility for the safety of England’s reservoirs lies with the Environment Agency. Perhaps the clown Bevan should concentrate on his day job, instead of pontificating about climate change.
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