transcript
Not currently failing
Board of Inquiry, Hollis Reservoir Collapse
Board of Inquiry, Hollis Reservoir Collapse
Day three of hearings | Witness: consulting engineer, retired
COUNSEL:
You inspected the dam in the spring. Your report described it as safe.
WITNESS:
[adjusting glasses] My report did not use the word safe. I was careful about that.
COUNSEL:
What word did it use?
WITNESS:
It said the structure was not currently failing. Those are different sentences and I was paid to know the difference. A dam is never safe; it is either failing or not yet.
COUNSEL:
Did anyone on the board understand it that way?
WITNESS:
[long pause] I cannot speak to what the board understood. I can tell you that the second paragraph recommended drawing the reservoir down by two metres until the spillway could be inspected from the inside.
COUNSEL:
That recommendation was not acted on.
WITNESS:
It was priced. Pricing is what happens to a recommendation when the people who read it would rather it were advice.
CHAIR:
Is that a technical term, sir?
WITNESS:
[laughter in the gallery] No, madam chair. It is a retirement term.
COUNSEL:
When you wrote not currently failing, how long did you expect currently to last?
WITNESS:
Through the summer, with a dry summer. We did not get a dry summer. I put that in the third paragraph, which I understand nobody reached.
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