Council & Business
20 September, 2024
Carisbrook levee’s designers Entura “dissatisfied” with independent review process
After an independent assessor last month found the Carisbrook Flood Levee to be inadequate, the matter could once again be in troubled waters — with the structure’s designers threatening potential legal action against the Central Goldfields Shire Council.
As part of the independent review conducted by New South Wales engineer Fred Spain, a number of issues were raised concerning the effectiveness of the levee.
According to Mr Spain’s report, due to the presence of various modelling and design flaws, the system would not prevent Carisbrook from being inundated if hit by a similar flood event to 2011.
On August 22, after this review was made public, council received a legal letter from Entura, the specialist water consulting firm responsible for the levee’s design.
In a report tabled at Monday’s council meeting, it was noted that Entura “was dissatisfied with not being given the opportunity to formally respond to the assumptions made by the Mr Spain in relation to the design of the levee prior to the report being released publicly”.
The company also requested the review be taken down from council’s website, as it contains “unsubstantiated criticism of Entura’s design” and that it “ought to have been thoroughly tested before being publicised”.
As per the report, when Mr Spain conducted his review, he was responsible for interviewing technical experts, including Entura.
However, the NSW engineer has confirmed he did not do so — which would suggest the full scope of the review wasn’t met.
Since receiving correspondence from Entura, council officers also sought legal advice from Maddocks Lawyers on August 23.
“The Maddocks representative acknowledged that it was not ideal that one of the key technical experts were not consulted as part of the review, especially as that consultant was involved in the design of the now constructed levee,” the document tabled at the meeting stated.
Following that advice, officers replied to Entura acknowledging the firm’s position, while also noting they were unable to remove the levee’s review from council’s website.
Additional correspondence from the company on September 6 asserted that the report is deficient due to “unsubstantiated criticisms of Entura, and (the review) fails to identify key circumstances and facts, including instructions from council, which were key to the ultimate design of the Carisbrook levee by Entura”.
As it stands, Entura has instructed council to take down the review, failing which the company will undertake injunction proceedings.
To address the lack of Entura’s input in the review, the report recommended — Mr Spain of NSW Public Works put the “assumptions and recommendations in the report to Entura, Water Technology, the North Central Catchment Management Authority and the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action for response and to make any necessary updates to the report as a result of that consultation”.
This, and seven other recommendations included in the report, were unanimously adopted by councillors at this week’s meeting.
“The report gives many recommendations which council can use to improve the safety level for the Carisbrook community, which is great,” councillor Wayne Sproull said.
“There are some specific items that were requested to be addressed (by Mr Spain), which have been missed, and this is not to be critical of the author, but to give reason to some of the recommendations in the officers report.
“This motion will seek to have those missed issues addressed which may not change the report, but will help strengthen it.”
According to fellow councillor, Geoff Lovett, the Carisbrook Levee has been “a vexed issue for well over a decade”.
“I have always been of the view that any review should be seen through critical eyes,” he said.
“Many of the suggestions in the review make absolute sense that I’m sure the next council will look at seriously.
“When I had an opportunity to read the report in its entirety, I must admit that I was surprised by many comments in the executive summary [which were] highly critical of the design and construction of the levee.
“Criticism is fine, however, I found Mr Spain's comments to be unsubstantiated by fact — in fact, I personally doubt the review meets the brief. [But] I will support [this] motion in the best interests of all concerned, so that the process continues to move forward and is not delayed in any way, shape or form.”
As the situation with the review continues to unfold, Monday’s council meeting could also be a step in the right direction for residents in Carisbrook.
Among the recommendations adopted by councillors was an important one relating to the Draft Carisbrook Levee Review Implementation Plan.
According to the report tabled at the meeting, this plan includes a number of actions based on recommendations made by Mr Spain’s review.
“The Draft Implementation Plan includes likely timing for these actions taking place, either short (within three months), medium (within 6 months) and longer term (more than 6 months) based on the officer’s experience and understanding of similar projects /initiatives and current available funding,” the report said.
“Many of the actions outlined in the report prepared by Mr Spain and subsequent implementation plan are in council’s current pipeline of further investigation and additional maintenance works (immediate and ongoing) associated with the levee.”
A total of 34 actions have been identified in the plan, categorised into:
Modelling/Further technical investigations
Infrastructure works
Levee Maintenance/ Management and Flood Mitigation.
“We’re committed to the residents of Carisbrook, and we are committed to implementing the recommendations from the report,” Mr Sproull said at the meeting.