Dam spill came too late SRMP execs accused of not following procedures
Did officials of the San Roque Dam follow their operations manual in regulating its water level amid the incessant rain and flooding triggered by Tropical Storm “Pepeng”?
The officials say they did. But based on the extent of the flooding that hit Pangasinan and the magnitude of the devastation, a Dagupan-based environmentalist doesn’t think so.
Nicanor Melecio, president of the NGO Pangasinan Institute for Land and Aquatic Research, said dam officials should have started releasing water at 500 cubic meters per second (cms) when the dam’s level had reached 280 meters above sea level (masl) as indicated in their basic operation rule.
The dam has a maximum elevation of 290 masl.
Under the rule, water release operates from “zero hour to 240 hours” when floods occur, said Melecio, a former member of the San Roque Dam multipartite monitoring team.
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