2021 – Emergency Preparedness for Tailings Dams
Olle Wennstrom, Andrew White
Over the last few years tailings dams have come under increased scrutiny, partly due to two highly publicised TSF failures in South America, but also because of several other incidents in Australia and elsewhere in the world. As investors came under pressure to positively impact the projects they financed, the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) was released in August 2020.
Topic 5 of GISTM, “Emergency response and long-term recovery”, comprises Principle 13: “Prepare for emergency response to tailings facility failures” and Principle 14: “Prepare for long-term recovery in the event of catastrophic failure”. The topic further introduces the term “Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan” (EPRP).
This paper explains what the term “Emergency Preparedness” means and how the owner/operator of a mine can achieve it. The paper also delivers a concept for long-term recovery planning.
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2021 Papers
2021 – Ewen Maddock Dam Upgrade – Draining down the risk (with siphons)
Learn moreAnna Hams, Lindsay Millard, Elizabeth Jackson, Zara Bostock, Helena Sutherland
The Queensland dam regulator requires that dam safety risk during construction must not increase from its existing profile. The Stage 2A upgrade of Ewen Maddock Dam required excavation of its homogeneous embankment to retrofit chimney and filter blankets, and also the construction of a concrete parapet wall. Due to the constraints of the embankment profile and a constricted site, it was necessary to excavate the downstream face of the embankment. This excavation increased the risk of embankment failure due to overtopping, piping and instability. This paper discusses the measures taken to manage those dam safety risks, and includes:
● use of a temporary system consisting of six large siphons to regulate the lake level to a Restricted Full Supply Level (Restricted FSL). This encompassed the optimisation of lake level and capacity of siphons required to balance competing risks; dam safety, environmental, community and water security. This optimisation was based on a probabilistic assessment of hydrological inflows and lake levels, the development of a flow management plan;
● implementation of a Dam Safety Management Plan which outlined the roles and responsibilities for
managing dam safety during construction at each pre-determined lake level trigger levels. This includes how the contractor was involved to ensure quick response from the “eyes and ears on the ground”; and,● development of recommended construction methodologies including a “rolling front” and placing
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filters vertically to increase production, maintain quality and limit the extent of embankment excavation underway. -
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2021 Papers
2021 – Design and construction of large post-tensioned anchors to stabilise spillway pier structures
Learn moreJonathon Reid, Mark Sinclair
Large concrete piers supporting gates on spillways can be impacted by earthquake loading and often found deficient in cross-valley loading. However, piers can also be susceptible to damage from upstream-downstream seismic loading and from additional pressures from increased flood loading requirements. This can have detrimental impacts on the connection of the pier with the main dam body. In recent years, a number of projects have required spillway piers to be upgraded by post-tensioning into the dam body with large multistrand anchors, up to 65 strands, to prevent failure mechanisms (bending, shearing, rocking) from forming and causing serious damage. These, often very short anchors, present special design and construction challenges that are explained in this paper. This situation also often requires the anchors to be very closely spaced with bond zones overlapping. Case examples demonstrating potential limitations in the design of spillway pier anchors and the different requirements to the more usual vertical post-tensioning of a dam body are presented.
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2021 Papers
2021 – Analysis of an embankment dam on permeable rock foundations
Learn moreJonathon Reid, Brendan Trebilco
The dam reviewed was designed and constructed in two stages, with the embankment completed in 1965. The dam comprises a 37 m high earth and rockfill maximum section on the creek alignment and zoned earthfill embankments of varying arrangements on the abutment flanks with a total crest length over 2km.
A Dam Safety Review was undertaken as part of the owners on-going commitment to maintain its portfolio of dams in a safe and functional state. The dam has suffered from high seepage rates that were first observed in 1971 after the reservoir rose to a historic high level, which was then exacerbated in 2011 after the reservoir rose a further 10m to reach the Full Supply Level for the first time. Reviews of the embankment stability at this time resulted in operating restrictions being placed on the reservoir level.
Detailed instrumentation data collected over a range of filling events showed the rock foundations to be highly responsive in the areas of observed seepage. This resulted in rapid pore pressure responses in foundation soils and the lower portion of the embankment after a rise in reservoir level, but a much slower pore pressure response in the upper parts of the embankment.
Seepage and stability analyses were undertaken based on the high quality instrumentation data to review the stability of the sections for various operating levels and with projected pore pressure increases for rapid flood loading scenarios. The paper explores the sensitivity of the analyses completed and how different construction standards applied to varying sections on the same embankment resulting in acceptable and undesirable outcomes.
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2021 Papers
2021 – Remedial Works To Lock and Weir One – It seemed like a good idea in the design office
Learn moreChristopher Dann, Chad Martin, Garry Fyfe, Nigel Rutherford
This paper presents a case study on remedial works that were undertaken at Lock and Weir One
along the River Murray, that to our knowledge are the first of their kind in Australia.
The weir structure’s left abutment is comprised of a stepped concrete structure founded on timber
piles, with timber sheet piles extending beneath the structure to cut off seepage through underlying
alluvium. A piping incident occurred at the left abutment in late 2014 and a filter blanket was
installed as an emergency response measure. A detailed review of historic construction documents
showed that there was a “missing” timber sheet pile upstream of the piping boil. Geotechnical
investigations, including piezometer installation confirmed the missing timber sheet pile was the
likely cause of the piping incident. A piping risk assessment showed the residual risk of further piping
was reasonably high.A range of remedial works was considered as permanent risk reduction works. However, these
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solutions required extensive temporary works to expose the missing timber sheet pile including a
cofferdam to access the defect and partial demolition of a recently constructed fishway structure.
An alternate Secant ‘Grout Column’ solution was developed that comprised targeted drilling and
backfill grouting to close the gap where the sheet pile was not installed and to grout an inferred void
under the abutment structure. This solution was successful at reducing seepage through the
abutment structure, as indicated by monitoring piezometers. -
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2021 Papers
2021 – Demonstrating SFAIRP
Learn moreRichard M Robinson, Siraj Perera, Gaye Francis
SFAIRP (so far as is reasonably practicable) is the ‘modern’ definition of ‘safe’. Shrouded in the legal
concept of the ‘safety case’, it is actually the judicial form of the principle of reciprocity – the golden rule – do unto others, incorporated into the common law by the Brisbane born English law lord, Lord Atkin in 1932.In dam safety terms, it asks the question; “If you lived downstream of a dam, how would you expect the dam to be designed, operated and maintained in order for it to be considered safe?”
The answer is that it now requires a public demonstration that all reasonably practicable precautions are in place in a way that satisfies the will of our parliaments and our sovereign’s courts, otherwise known as a SFAIRP safety case.
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