US experts will review Seqwater's Wivenhoe Dam operating manual, which came under extreme scrutiny at the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry.
The review of the operating manual and the dam operator's Flood Event Report will be jointly conducted by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the United State Army Corps of Engineers, in line with recommendations made by the inquiry into last year's Queensland floods.
Water Minister Mark McArdle said it was best "fresh expert eyes" reviewed Seqwater's flood mitigation manual, which was called into contention at the inquiry.
And flood victims are considering a class action against the state government.
"While the government's preference was to use Australian dam and flood mitigation experts, this appointment gives Queensland residents, especially flood victims, absolute independence in this important review," Mr McArdle said.
Wivenhoe Dam's role in Brisbane's January floods came under scrutiny at the commission of inquiry, with critics arguing more water should have been released sooner.
In July last year, the commission issued a report from independent hydrological expert Mark Babister who concluded Wivenhoe engineers achieved close to the best possible mitigation during the January floods.
This was despite 59 per cent of floodwaters in southeast Queensland coming from dam releases.
But in the inquiry's interim report last August, Justice Catherine Holmes found dam engineers were not properly trained in the most serious water-release emergency level W4 under the operations manual.
The commission also found Seqwater made a “technical” breach of the legal dam manual that guided water releases because one of the flood engineers was not registered with the Board of Professional Engineers Queensland during the last wet season.
A hydrology report, commissioned by the Insurance Council of Australia, ruled the Brisbane flood to be a "dam release flood".
It named the release of water from Wivenhoe Dam as being the “principal immediate cause” of the riverine flood, as rain ceased about 6pm on January 11, more than 24 hours before the Brisbane River peaked overnight on January 12-13.
In its long-awaited final report, the commission of inquiry found non-compliance with the manual under which Wivenhoe Dam was supposed to be operated ahead of the January 2011 flood that swamped Brisbane and Ipswich.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation is the largest wholesaler of water in the USA - operating 457 dams including the Hoover Dam - while the United States Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates more than 600 dams.
Their final report is due to be completed by September 24.
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