Page - 1438 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

in the time domain over decades and a comprehensive multi-disciplinary analysis with the boundary conditions of the overall national development in the considered time period. Since such task would go far beyond the frame of this report, further below we’ll aim only at the qualitative and structured presentation of the main safety-related groups of problems of the small dams operation, the sources of these problems and some ideas for solutions. 2. CURRENT SITUATION, LEGAL AND REGULATIVE ENVIRONMENT 2.1. STATE OF THE SMALL DAMS IN BULGARIA – GENERAL REMARKS In the last several years, intensive work is being done by all involved parties for qualitative improvement of the conditions for technical maintenance of the dams in Bulgaria. In fact, there are no problems with the large ones owned either by the National Electricity Company and serving with priority production of electricity from hydropower, or by the state enterprise Irrigation Systems, or by the water supply companies. They all have special operational units with experienced staff and the necessary resources for proper maintenance of the facilities. The main problems with the status – both technical and operational, are connected most of all with the small dams owned by local municipalities. However, a key person in the latter relation is the local district governor who is directly responsible for the safety of every dam in the district and its appurtenant structures. Once a year, he/she must organize an expert commission for analysis of the status of these facilities. Twice yearly, every dam owner must arrange thorough technical review of the facilities. In general, this has become a working mechanism recently, however, the governors hardly have the resources needed for implementation of the results from these analyses. Since July 2015, the State Agency for Metrological and Technical Surveillance (SAMTS) is officially responsible for all issues of the technical operation of the dams in Bulgaria and their safety. This transition was accompanied by a still running substantial transformation of both administrative structures and regulative documents. The Main Directorate “Supervision of dams and their appurtenant structures” at SAMTS has only control functions, i.e. it is not engaged itself in performing technical operation and / or maintenance of dams and their facilities. In general, the experts there examine the technical state of the dams periodically, formulate improvement requirements if necessary and control their fulfillment. Currently, a global national information system is being developed with online platform for data management and status monitoring of all dams in Bulgaria. Although the SAMTS works together with all related parties if necessary, some administrative tension sometimes arises, especially when contradictory interests are present – for example, if an act of violation is drawn up of a dam owner while it is objectively evident that he/she has not had the possibility to 1438