Processing oil sand involves material handling on an unprecedented scale, and creates vast quantities of waste or tailings. Large retaining structures are constructed from the sand tailings and used to retain the finer-grained waste products. The retaining structure must remain intact during construction and resist erosion until protective vegetation is established, support the fine-grained waste product until they consolidate and are able to stand by themselves, and erode at a controlled rate that avoids release of large quantities of sand into the surrounding area. Present construction methods appear adequate for short-term stability considerations, but the support will succumb to rapid natural erosion by running water and wind and not meet long-term stability requirements. Alternate construction methods that are more likely to meet long-term stability requirements include accelerating consolidation of the fines, controlling surface runoff even while the overall structure is eroding, and introducing barriers to prevent rapid erosion of the sand.