Brazil Plans Suit On Dam Breach, Toxins In River
November 28 2015 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 11/28/15)
By Paul Kiernan
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's government said it is preparing to
sue mining giants Vale SA, BHP Billiton Ltd. and their joint
venture Samarco Mineracao SA in response to a catastrophic dam
failure earlier this month, as Vale acknowledged the presence of
toxic elements in a river downstream for the first time.
The civil suit demanding damages of 20 billion Brazilian reais
($5.3 billion) is expected to be filed on Monday, the Attorney
General's office said on Friday. The proceeds are intended to
create a fund to help recovery efforts in the Rio Doce, a major
river that was contaminated with mud and toxic mining waste in the
wake of the Nov. 5 collapse of Samarco's dam in Minas Gerais.
As many as 13 people were killed and hundreds displaced as the
mud swallowed up entire villages below the dam. An additional 11
are missing.
The lawsuit will represent by far the biggest government
response yet to what is widely considered one of Brazil's worst
environmental disasters. Environmental agency Ibama had previously
announced a fine of 250 million reais, while prosecutors secured a
preliminary commitment from the mining companies to create a
1-billion-real emergency fund.
The amount of damages sought, the Attorney General's office
said, "is preliminary and could be raised over the judicial
process, since the environmental damages of the mud's arrival at
the ocean have not yet been calculated."
Vale's admission about the contamination came two days after a
United Nations report alleging "high levels of toxic heavy metals
and other toxic chemicals" in the Rio Doce and criticizing the
mining companies and the Brazilian government for their "defensive"
response to the incident.
Vale, BHP Billiton and Samarco all say the tsunami of mud
unleashed by the dam break comprised water, mud, iron-oxide and
sand, none of which are harmful. But Vania Somavilla, Vale's
executive director of human relations, health and safety,
sustainability and energy, said the mud may have upset toxic
elements settled in the bed of the Rio Doce or along its banks.
"In fact there was lead, arsenic -- not mercury -- detected in
some points along the river," Ms. Somavilla said. "When the dam
breaks and that stuff washes out the banks of the river, it could
have picked up some kind of material that was already present, from
the most diverse of origins, but they're all materials present in
nature."
She cited a report by the Minas Gerais state Institute of Water
Management, or IGAM. The report was dated Nov. 17 but was only
published this week, after prosecutors ordered it to do so. A
spokesman for IGAM said he didn't know why the institute didn't
publish the report earlier.
The 29-page document includes samples collected at 12 points
along the Rio Doce between Nov. 7 and Nov. 12, as the mud from
Samarco's dam snaked downstream. At various collection points, the
report showed record levels of toxic metals.
Brazilian authorities have come under fire for their reaction to
the catastrophe. Citing more than 40 water samples between Nov. 14
and 18 taken by federal agencies, the government said Thursday that
"there was not an increase in the presence of heavy metals in the
water and sediments." In a statement Friday, the government said
metals detected in the earlier tests by IGAM had likely settled by
the time its samples were collected.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2015 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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