At a large, former mining facility where gold, copper, and cobalt were mined until the late 1960s, three dams retain either water or tailings materials. Barr was hired to perform a third-party dam safety review of the facility.
Barr reviewed all three dams, including a dam safety risk assessment. This work included leading the review team, the client, and the facility’s dam safety consultant through a potential failure mode analysis to identify, categorize, and provide recommendations for managing relevant dam safety risks.
The risk review process was developed based on the Potential Failure Mode Analysis (PFMA) of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dam safety program and the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) of the Canadian Dam Association. The process included brainstorming potential failure modes, evaluating each failure mode to assign a risk category, and identifying potential risk reduction, surveillance, and monitoring measures. Each potential failure mode was categorized by failure type and risk category, and for each potentially viable failure mode, the PFMA team identified risk reduction, surveillance, and monitoring measures. The risk review workshop included representatives of the consultant dam safety team and the site owner’s management, environmental, and operations staff.