May 2020 Board meeting minutes

Acknowledgement to country and welcome - Chair DSNSW

The Chair acknowledged the traditional owners and welcomed all in attendance.

Conflicts of Interest - Chair, DSNSW

No conflicts of interest were submitted

Minutes and actions from previous meeting - Secretariat, DSNSW

Minutes and actions from the previous meeting were accepted.

CEO Update - CEO DSNSW

CEO presented his update which included:

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Members were updated on the status of stakeholder engagement regarding regulatory transition.
• E-Newsletter is being developed and first edition due in June 2020.
• Sources of potential misinformation regarding the Dams Safety Regulation 2019 were discussed.
• Members discussed the nature of DSNSW’s attendance at the 2020 Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) Conference.
• Key theme with initial phone conversations was availability of O&M and Emergency Plan guidelines.
• Chair and CEO updated the Members on their interactions with: The Minister for Water’s Chief of Staff, Representatives from Water NSW and Brian Cooper (former Chair of the Dams Safety Committee).
• DSNSW to meet with National Dams Safety Regulators to increase information sharing and alignment.2 Ref No: INT20/75927
• Members discussed the status of hoop stress water storage structures (tanks) and their noninclusion as dams under ANCOLD and the DSNSW definition of a dam.

Operational Activity

• The first round of engagement with dam owners is currently in progress.
• Two Section 15 (Dams Safety Act 2015) notices have been issued to dams above the safety threshold.
• DSNSW Works Audits to be commence in June 2020.
• Asim Chohan presented the DSNSW Covid-19 Plan.
• Transition Readiness Assessments for individual dam owners to commence next week.
• An Operations Dashboard will be presented at the July 2020 DSNSW meeting.
• Asim Chohan presented DSNSW’s operational transition timeline.

Finance

• DSNSW’s funding issues for 20/21 have now been resolved.

Delegations

• CEO updated the Members on the use of level 1 (CEO) and level 2 (Manager) functional and financial delegations between 22 April 2020 – 19 May 2020.
• A Member declared an interest with Karangi Dam prior to starting with Dams Safety NSW

General

• The DSNSW Strategic Plan is currently with the Minister for Water.
• The CEO’s Performance and Development Plan (PDP) is now available for Member review.
• Overview of the recent dam failures in Michigan, USA, as well as what can be learned from these failures.

Guidelines - Peter Boyd

Members endorsed the Guideline Development Process.

Peter Boyd presented the Guideline Development Plan.

Members confirmed that DSNSW Guidelines are intended to assist dam owners to meet compliance with legislation and are not compliance-based requirements.

Members recommended that the principles be inserted at the front of every guideline developed.

Peter Boyd presented the planned future DSNSW Guidelines and their proposed authors. The Guidelines include:

• Dams Safety Management System Guideline
• DSNSW Competence Guideline
• Incident Management and Reporting Guideline
• Quality Management System.

Members agreed that the QMS and Incident Management and Reporting Guidelines were not required and approved the other guidelines following minor changes.

Peter Boyd to develop policy paper for Incident Management and Reporting if required.

Peter Boyd presented the status of the guidelines currently in development, these include:

• Operations and Maintenance
• Emergency Management
• So Far As is Reasonably Practicable (SFAIRP)
• Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)
• Mining Near Declared Dams.

Members approved the Mining near Declared Dams Guideline and the Emergency Plans Guideline for public exhibition following minor edits.

Cost Recovery Implementation - Margaret Hynes

Margaret Hynes presented the Cost Recovery Implementation options and timeline.

Members discussed the various options and endorsed the hybrid model

Risk Management Strategy CEO

CEO presented the DSNSW Risk Management Strategy.

Members discussed and agreed on the frequency and consequence descriptors.

The risk assessment tools were presented with specific focus placed upon mitigated vs unmitigated risk; as well as the difference between risk consequences for DSNSW staff and the public.

Members approved the Strategy following minor edits.

Strategic Risk Deep Dive - Stakeholder - Chief Executive Officer

CEO presented the Strategic Risk Deep Dive documentation.

Members discussed key potential risks for DSNSW.

Members discussed the possibility of developing a support network for dam owners whereby larger dam owners could assist smaller dam owners to meet their regulatory requirements.

Members discussed the possibility of developing a service delivery approach when dealing with larger stakeholders.

The rate of stakeholder compliance was identified as a key area for DSNSW to apply its efforts.

DSNSW to focus on major safety incident risk at the next meeting.

Annual Report - Kristina Resanceff

Kristina Resanceff presented a skeleton of the proposed DSNSW Annual Report.

Major Occurrence Response Plan - Peter Boyd

Peter Boyd presented the Major Occurrence Response Plan.

Members outlined that the key responsibility of DSNSW in a major occurrence response is to establish and maintain communication with the involved parties.

DSNSW is primarily focused on the dam owner/dam operation which means DSNSW will need to be on-site in any major occurrence response. Peter Boyd presented the Emergency Management Plan flowchart.

Peter Boyd advised members that protocols for existing directions and emergency orders are currently being developed.

Members suggested that DSNSW explore MOU opportunities with larger dam owners.

Members discussed Trigger Action Response Plans (TARPs).

General Business - Chair

CEO presented a Financial Brief to the Members.

CEO presented his draft PDP for discussion.

Next meeting: 23 June 2020. Remote