Dam funding could become a political battleground between local and state governments as councils come to grips with the looming cost of new safety guidelines.
A motion to lobby the state government on funding for dam safety upgrades was debated and passed at the Local Government Association of Queensland's annual conference on Wednesday.
Utility company SunWater is currently planning a series of 18 dam safety upgrades spread across the next 10 years, beginning with Paradise Dam in Bundaberg.
A draft copy of Wednesday's motion, which was initiated by Toowoomba Regional Council, outlined how water charges may have to be hiked in order to pay for safety upgrades.
At the centre of the debate are new safety standards set by the Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD).
Applied to Paradise Dam, these standards require safety upgrades in order to withstand a 1 in 15,000 year flood event, whereas the dam is currently built to withstand a 1 in 500 year flood.
It will be significantly cheaper to lower the dam's wall than to upgrade it at the current height.
Toowoomba could foot a particularly large bill because the council, rather than SunWater or Seqwater, owns the Perseverance and Cressbrook dams in the region.
"...this will require Toowoomba Regional Council to upgrade Perseverance Dam and Cressbrook Dam walls in order to meet the new compliance guidelines, at substantial cost and without increasing dam capacity," a copy of the draft motion read.
"The ANCOLD guidelines will also have a significant impact on many councils throughout Queensland as well as SunWater and Seqwater, with all agencies having to make substantial investments."
Local governments own or operate 133 dams across Queensland, according to the Local Government Association.
A draft copy of the motion called on Queensland's Local Government Association to lobby the state government for financial support in order to meet safety guidelines.
In a comment attached to the motion, the association said the new safety requirements were “certain to place substantial financial pressures on dam owners”.
The motion also pushed for the state government to guarantee that, in catchments where SunWater owned the dam infrastructure, safety upgrade costs would not be passed on to councils.
"...otherwise council ratepayers will be faced with substantial increases to water rates needed to fund the multi-million dollar projects statewide."
SunWater officials recently met Bundaberg and North Burnett councils to discuss the future of Paradise Dam, which is the first and most pressing of the state's dam improvement projects.
The options put forward for Paradise are to strengthen its walls at the current height, or to lower the walls.
Lowering the dam's wall is the cheaper option and could save between $50 million and $150 million when compared to keeping the dam at its current height, according to details of a preliminary business case shown to councillors.
It is understood strengthening the dam at its current height could cost around $600 million.
SunWater said it was not in a position to share accurate cost forecasts, although acknowledged the full upgrade option would be "significantly" more expensive.
SunWater’s dam improvement program is a rolling series of capital works prioritised across Queensland’s dams according to risk.
“The definition of risk in relation to dam improvement projects is considered factors that could lead to long-term safety issues,” a SunWater spokesman said.
“This includes factors such as increased populations of people living downstream of dam catchments and increased knowledge of local weather patterns.”
Since 2006 there have been seven dam improvement projects.
