Tailings dams safety - implications for the dam safety community

In the context of the impact of privatization and globalization on traditional dam safety practice and the Canadian experience of the environmental dimension of dam failures, various aspects of tailings dam safety have much to offer the wider dam safety community. General design principles for tailings dams are not described, rather an attempt is made to frame some contemporary issues of tailings dam safety in ways that bring out their relevance in a broader dam safety context. Lessons applicable to future dam safety practice in related areas are examined, and the dam safety traditions of the mining, hydroelectric and related industries in Canada are brought together by illustrating some of the common elements and concerns they share. It is becoming evident that future dam safety activities for the hydroelectric, water supply and related dams will be carried out in a more privatized and globalized context by organizations less acquainted with traditional dam safety practices than in the past. If so, then tailings dam experience can be a pathfinder for how and why dam safety needs to be addressed in a corporate setting. It shows that the perceived effects of dam failures, environmental and otherwise, influence corporate damowners in ways that can amplify manyfold the objective consequences that dam safety assessments usually address. Dam safety professionals might do well to better understand and effectively communicate the financial and organizational impacts of dam failure on the corporate entity in ways that go beyond the traditional assessment of downstream hazard and failure consequences. Dam safety efforts can come to be seen less as imposed burdens of dam ownership and more as activities consistent with shareholder accountability and corporate self-interest. The Canadian mining industry, in adopting this perspective, is confirming that support for dam safety activities from the highest corporate level is essential for implementing them throughout the organizational structure. 9 refs., 8 figs., 4 tabs