[ad_1]
When the Vale mining dam erupted on Friday, the town of Juatuba, located on the banks of the Paraopeba River, was put on alert. Located only 36 km from Brumadinho, the municipality has done its best to prepare for the arrival of the plume, the appetizing form with which some authorities and technicians call the mud of residues and the water that advances on the river . "We urged people to take the boats out of the water and we created a school to accommodate the local residents if we had raised the river," said Majesty Wagner, secretary of the government and the environment from the city.
The concessioner Águas de Pará de Minas said that as early as Sunday 27 already, changes in quality standards of raw water from Paraopeba to Juatuba have been identified. The mud has changed the turbidity of the water, but the fish, for now, continue there. "We did not see fish mortality in our area, the ones we found dead came from Brumadinho," says the secretary somewhat relieved. Majesty states that initial badyzes show that immediately after the landslide, the turbidity level of the water rose from an average of 80 to 90 NTU ( nephelometric turbidity unit, the higher the level of turbidity) at 130. NTU. "After the Mariana disaster, for example, the turbidity of the Doce River reached 5,000 NTU, which shows that our situation is not alarming," he says.
According to the Brazilian Geological Survey, turbidity greater than 2,500. NTU makes treatment difficult in conventional water treatment plants. "We are watching, we know that the level of oxygen in the water has gone down, but we do not yet know the level of heavy metals," he said. Although Juatuba does not depend on Paraopeba for drinking water supply, other activities are compromised. The city has ordered that the water of the river is not used for drinking or irrigation. "It's a cascading effect." The problem of irrigation mainly concerns family farming, which is the main provider of food for school meals, he explains.
Juatuba counts 22 000 inhabitants.Rating fishermen living on the Paraopeba River to be able to calculate the environmental and economic impact and load of Vale. said that he was installing membranes and curtains of retention near the town of Pará de Minas, which is in front of Juatuba in the course of the river. "The mud advances very slowly in the gutter. It is about 40 km from Pará de Minas. It is expected that in 48 hours, the mud will reach the city, but these curtains are very fast to install and we hope that they will be sufficient to contain this waste and leave no problem for the capture of Water, "he said Luciano Siani Pires, responsible for finance and investor relations, at a press conference.
Majesty ensures that municipalities understand that Vale must give priority to the rescue of the victims.However, the slowness of society to share its emergency plan in case of environmental disasters worries. "Vale has promised to end the debates in Pará de Minas, why do not the # Did not he do it quickly, just outside Brumadinho, if it's quick action, as they themselves have said? "On Wednesday, the company introduced to the public prosecutor and environmental agencies its plan to contain the residues in the Paraopeba River, which covers a total length of 210 kilometers.
Still on the way to the mud, São José da Varginha, which has 5,000 inhabitants, is organizing to try to mitigate the damage. Located a little over 90 km from the scene of the tragedy, the city should receive mud Thursday. "We organized a committee with technicians, veterinarians and environmental experts," said Vandeir Paulino da Silva. The main concern is to map the environmental and economic impact on producers who use water for irrigation, since drinking water does not come from Paraopeba. "For the moment, no one has come from Vale here," said the mayor.
Brazilian river basin committees closely monitor the advance of mud in cities. Anivaldo Miranda, chairman of the São Francisco River Basin Committee, said that if water contaminated by the dam's discharge reaches Sobradinho Lake, already in Bahia, it would be diluted and should not affect the uses of the lake. River. "It's the best scenario, which indicates a practically acceptable impact, but it's too early to make predictions.It's raining a lot, everything can change," Miranda said. The characteristics of the Paraobepas River, flatter than the Doce River, for example, and the characteristics of tailings sludge are some of the factors that can be considered positive, so that the damage is not as from the Samarco disaster to Mariana
According to forecasts by the Geological Survey of Brazil, the feather should arrive at the Três Marias plant, the border to enter the São Francisco River, about 300 km from Brumadinho , between the 5th and the 10th of February. Containment of the dam should help mitigate the damage. "The speed of the water is decreasing, we were at 1 km per hour and today we only reach 0.8 km," Miranda said. He believes that there is a chance that mud annoys. "The scenario for San Francisco is much less threatening than previously thought, but in terms of biodiversity, the losses are incalculable."
Source link
