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On April 11/12, 2010 the earthen embankment around a large manure storage pond in the Pacific Northwest experienced sudden, catastrophic failure after functioning without problems for 13 years. The 600-foot diameter, 16-foot high embankment suffered a 30 to 40 foot wide breach, and the entire above-ground contents of the pond, approximately 20 million gallons of liquid manure, were released into the environment. The cause of the failure was the presence of an abandoned wooden drainage tile from the 1940s that was inadvertently left in the foundation of the pond. The paper will focus on: 1) the mechanisms leading to the piping failure of the ponds compacted clay liner and the breaching failure of the embankment itself; and 2) the environmental/water quality impacts of such a large scale release of manure. This case history also underscores the risk posed to the safety of liquid impoundments by abandoned manmade features.