Abstract: Regarding the currently prevailing academic viewpoint that low safety design standard is one of the key causes for the frequent occurrence of tailings pond accidents and the severe safety production situation of tailings pond, the author points out that the design flood standard for tailings pond currently used in China is not lower than that in developed countries, on the contrary, it seems a little higher, based on the study on lots of domestic and overseas data. Higher design flood standard of tailings pond results in higher flood design data, which increases the construction investment of tailings pond and social input, wasting a considerable amount of public funds. The cause of this problem is mainly the insufficient study on the combination of overseas experience into China’s situation, and the solution for this problem is to lower the design flood standard reasonably.