Further to yesterday’s message (repeated below), DCWW has advised us that it was human error that resulted in SWOAPG not being alerted as usual to the planned release yesterday. They are investigating internally how this happened and will be putting in place measures to ensure it cannot happen again. They have also explained that the scour valve that releases the water was changed a couple of years ago which is why the recent releases have been larger than they used to be – making it even more important that we know about them in advance. We’ll pass on the results of their investigation in due course.
************
Dwr Cymru Welsh Water usually warn us in advance when they are releasing water from Ystradfellte reservoir, so that we can warn cave and gorge users. Today there was a release that we had not been told about, which caught out a number of groups and could have led to very serious consequences, potentially even fatalities (it seemed to be a more significant release than previous ones). We have asked DCWW to investigate why we had not been alerted in advance (and have also requested that wardens at Cwm Porth alert cavers on-the-day if they themselves are aware of a planned release). We understand that everyone got out safely, but this was clearly an avoidable near-miss. We’ll let you know when we get a response from DCWW…