Fm 3 (fort Meade)

About Fm 3 (fort Meade)

The primary purpose of Fm 3 (fort Meade) is tailings. Tailings dams contain waste material from mining operations — typically a slurry of finely ground rock left over after valuable minerals have been extracted. These structures require ongoing monitoring because tailings can contain heavy metals and other contaminants. The dam is owned by The Mosaic Company (private). It impounds the See Remarks near Fort Meade.

The dam stands 50 feet tall and stretches 13,500 feet across, creates a reservoir covering 76 acres, and has a maximum storage capacity of 14,000 acre-feet. Completed in 1974, the structure is well into its service life at over 50 years old.

This dam has a low hazard potential classification, meaning that failure would cause minimal damage, limited primarily to the dam owner's property, with no expected loss of life. The most recent inspection on record was 09/03/2014. That was over 11 years ago.

At 50 feet, this dam is taller than 93% of dams nationwide.

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