Ladybower Reservoir - Who pulled the plug and why?

[matty40s]

Yesterday saw a major flooding event in the Yorkshire side of the Pennines, it had been under Met Office warnings for days, and this certainly delivered.

Meadowhall Shopping Centre should have cancelled their Christmas opening night far earlier - then nobody would have had to buy Primark pyjamas.

Peterboat has saved most of the Rotherham fleet for future use.

 

However, in the Derwent Valley below Ladybower Reservoir, yesterday and into today, have seen record levels on the Derwent, causing loss of life, major flooding and loss of business in places like Matlock and Matlock Bath...the A6 is shut in several places, continuing down into Derby which is now experiencing its worst floods in 20 years and it hasn't peaked yet.

Further down are marinas on the canal South of the Derwent and in Shardlow itself, which can be inundated and many boats sunk as they do not normally experience rising waters.

 

For some reason yesterday morning/lunchtime, the Ladybower sluices let over 1/2 a metre depth out of the reservoir whilst the levels were fairly stable. The levels from the hills even now after the rain front has gone havn't gone halfway back to the level the release started at yesterday

1 day gauge map

maybe this was in anticipation of the forecast rain but Ladybower didnt get the worst of the rain, and the capacity is far higher than it reached yesterday in fact, it has been very well controlled in the last month

1 month gauge map

 

and is obviously able to deal with far larger volumes on a long term basis when needed.

3 month gauge map

So why was so much dumped yesterday morning/afternoon when the Derwent would have struggled to cope with the normal catchment run off as well as the lake ejection?

Has the Todbrook reservoir failure at Whaley Bridge at the start of August highlighted structural issues if concrete wash wall overflows are not maintained, and is this the case at Ladybower? 

This wouldn't have gained as much interest if someone from the guilty management at Severn Trent hadn't tried a disinformation headline late yesterday regarding a bloke taking photographs on the plug at the height of the drought in July......why was it paramount to release it this morning.....??

Then this afternoon arranging lovely pictures on the BBC of the plug draining exactly as it should..."being well used"

 

So who pulled the plug and then went shopping??

 

 

 

 

Edited 51 minutes ago by matty40s

[Dr Bob]

I'd blame Boris. He's being blamed for everything else. ?

[pearley]

Ladybower reservoir was being rebuilt about 20 years ago when we had a weekend break up there.

[cuthound]

1 minute ago, pearley said:

Ladybower reservoir was being rebuilt about 20 years ago when we had a weekend break up there.

 

I always imagined that a project of that size would have taken longer than a weekend to rebuild. ??

[pearley]

From Wikipedia

 

During the 1990s the wall was raised and strengthened to reduce the risk of over-topping in a major flood. The original dam wall contains 100,000 tons of concrete, over one million tons of earth and 100,000 tons of clay for the core. The upstream face is stone faced. Materials were brought to the site on the Derwent Valley Water Board's own branch line and their sidings off the main line in the Hope Valley.

[Athy]

As a small boy, I was taken to Ladybower by my parents after a dry summer; we walked amongst the remains of Ashopton, one of two former villages which were submerged when the dam was built. For years, even when the water lavel was normal, you could see one of the church spires sticking up above the surface. I think it was eventually blown up, though I'm not sure why: it wasn't in anyone's way.

[Sir Nibble]

I see the OPs point, well backed up by the way. Has the effectiveness of the reservoir in flood control, been compromised by poor maintenance leading to fears that the structure may not cope with full load. A very good question.

[furnessvale]

Nervous about overtopping following Toddbrook?

[Detling]

Possibly more worrying is that poor Annie Hall was swept away by the River Derwent in Darley Dale yesterday. I hope the increased flow had nothing to do with it.