CASE STUDY # 1 STAVA TAILINGS DAM COLLAPSE Chapter 1 – Introduction: 1.1 History of the Event The Stava Tailings dam collapse (also known as Val di Stava Dam Collapse) took place on July 19th, 1985 in a village named Stava near Tesero, Northern Italy. In this disaster, two tailings dams above Stava discontinued to function, resulting in 268 casualties, destruction of 63 buildings and demolishment of eight bridges. Out of the two dams, the upper one was the first one to break, that eventually led to the destruction of the lower dam. The Rio di Stava valley was approached by