About Infrastructure & Water Services Operated Dams
The Capital Regional District's Infrastructure & Water Services (IWS) department maintains and operates 23 dams for the purpose of drinking water supply. 15 dams are located within Greater Victoria and 8 dams are located throughout CRD's electoral areas, including Salt Spring Island, the Southern Gulf Islands and the Juan de Fuca electoral area.
IWS staff continue to develop a comprehensive Dam Safety Program with the goals of maximizing public safety, maintaining compliance with the BC Dam Safety Regulation and building a formalized Dam Safety Management System to establish a systematic and consistent way of managing IWS dams
How Does IWS Monitor Dam Safety
The CRD IWS Dam Safety Program utilizes a multipronged approach to safely monitor its dams by incorporating a variety of strategies and tools including:
- Dam Safety Instrumentation: Several field instruments are installed at higher consequence dams to collect data on the performance of our dams. Trained CRD staff visit the dams to collect the data and then performance data is reviewed by expert consultants annually.
- Dam Inspections: All higher consequence dams are visually inspected at least once weekly and receive a more thorough and extensive inspection by qualified dam safety engineers at least once a year.
- Reporting to the BC Dam Safety Office: The Dam Safety team submits dam status check sheets to the BC Dam Safety Office annually to provide an update on the current performance and dam safety issues at each of the dams. A Provincial Dam Safety Officer also visits the dams periodically to conduct audits.
- Dam Safety Reviews by Expert Consultants: The Dam Safety team hires expert consultants every 7 to 10 years to conduct formal dam safety reviews, which include thorough reviews of each dam’s technical information, field review, and a technical report capturing all dam safety issues that require action.
- Independent Dam Safety Expert Advice: IWS’ dam management system is evolving and has gone through an external review by a dam safety expert in 2017 and the CRD is acting on recommendations from this review to further improve safety.
- Staff Training & Exercises: The CRD conducts dam safety training and exercises to address a variety of emergency response scenarios.
Additional Information
Contact Us
Dam Safety Program
water@crd.bc.ca
