Clive Palmer's toxic dam at risk of overflow A VAST dam storing millions of litres of highly contaminated water produced by Clive Palmer's Townsville nickel refinery near the Great Barrier Reef is operating outside the regulatory "spill risk" limits due to a failure to increase its capacity. A Department of Environment briefing note obtained by The Australian yesterday shows Mr Palmer's business has acknowledged it was required to do structural work to increase the capacity of the dam as part a program agreed with the regulator in January "to transition into compliance with the spill risk condition" by December 2.