Terrible disaster in Brazil: Dam rupture launches toxic waste on river basin, Many dead or missing.

This is a terrible disaster in the country. News reports that 18 people are missing and 9 were found killed. Whomever, I saw on the internet people saying that at least 300 people died in the dam-break up.

Most of the ecosystem was also killed and most likely hundreds of thousands have have no water to drink (i saw on the news that people are making riots to get more clean water) couldn’t find the vids and pictures i saw sadly.

For some reason there’s almost no News about the subject on the television and it’s suspected that the company responsible is paying politicians and similars to cover things up.

So here’s the deal

The rupture of a dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais is a social disaster- nine dead and 18 missing have been accounted for so far. Gradually, however, another face of tragedy is unfolding: the environmental disaster caused by the rupture. For now the Rio Doce- one of the most important of Minas Gerais- are the main victims. Experts have stated that he is officially dead.

A laboratory analysis commissioned after the disaster found in river water particles of heavy metals such as lead, aluminum, iron, barium, copper, boron and mercury. According to Luciano Magalhães, director of the Autonomous Service of Water and Sewage (SAAE) Low Guando, the body responsible for analysis, "it seems that the entire periodic table" was trown into the river. According to him, the water no longer has any use, being unfit for irrigation nor animal and human consumption.

Here’s some pictures of how large was the toxic waste contamination, some nearby cities were flooded by the rupture, thanks to Whatsapp, most people were able to escape before water arrived. Children and seniors whomever are most of the missing and killed:





According to this table, there’s over 1.300.000% more than tolerable of heavy metals presente in the water, so it's basically toxic now:

The water collected by SAAE ( Water and Sewage Service) of Valadares points an iron content of 1,366,666 % more than tolerable for treatment-one million three hundred thousand percent beyond the recommended.

Manganese levels, a toxic metal, exceed the tolerable at 118,000 %, while aluminum was present with concentration 645,000 % greater than the potential for treatment and distribution to residents. The changes were felt from 8 am, while the peak of toxic sludge occurred at 2am on the Doce River.

In addition to these heavy metals, the very mud of force damaged the biodiversity of the river forever - environmentalists do not rule out the possibility that entire endemic species have been buried by mud. The amount of sludge is about 20,000 Olympic swimming pools. It’s belived that the river had its natural course blocked, causing it to lose strength and formed ponds, in addition to iron ore, sewage and pesticides were are also being carried by water.

At least people are trying to do something:

Fishermen in the region have created a task force to combat the problem. Operation Noah's Ark wants to act in areas of the river basin Rio Doce that have not been affected by the flood, transferring the fish to clean water ponds using boxes, buckets and plastic sheeting. So far colected fish were being releasing on lake pounds.

Other animals such as tortoises, horses were also cauhght in the flood, here's a series of pictures:







Source 1

Source 2

The company responsible was sued on $50 million to fix the damage....

a reply to: Frocharocha

Worldwide this has been a terrible week.

originally posted by: EA006
a reply to: Frocharocha

Worldwide this has been a terrible week.

Indeed, this fryday is going to be know as "Dark fryday." I'm starting to believe bad things can really happen in fryday 13th.

Thats really terrible and shocking.

originally posted by: Frocharocha

originally posted by: EA006
a reply to: Frocharocha

Worldwide this has been a terrible week.

Indeed, this fryday is going to be know as "Dark fryday." I'm starting to believe bad things can really happen in fryday 13th.

You calling it fryday because of the futurama link? Lol

originally posted by: EA006

originally posted by: Frocharocha

originally posted by: EA006
a reply to: Frocharocha

Worldwide this has been a terrible week.

Indeed, this fryday is going to be know as "Dark fryday." I'm starting to believe bad things can really happen in fryday 13th.

You calling it fryday because of the futurama link? Lol

No because most of the world-wide stuff happend on this fryday 13th.

a reply to: Frocharocha

Friday? Or Phillip j. Fryday?

Brazil, India and China are all ecological disasters. They are also in the developing world. This is like the US when the rivers could burn.

If the people of those nations don't start an environmental movement soon like what happened in the US and Europe and other 1st world countries, the mess could be impossible to clean up.

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: Frocharocha

Friday? Or Phillip j. Fryday?

Can we change it to Phillip J day?

It seems like it's only gonna get worse. Whenever it rains, the mud will keep travelling and destroying everything. It's a bit similar to a tsunami.



This is a terrible tragedy for MANY reasons. The toxicity is destroying the ecosystem. The "sea of mud" (it's how people are calling it) is destroying houses, as you can see above. Many people there lived on what they could fish in the area. Not anymore, so they're slowly starving. There's no water, obviously.

So far, it's affected at least two states (Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo). I don't think it's gonna stop there, though.

Oh, and come on. English is not our first language. This is a serious tragedy in the country. How would you feel if someone started mocking your spelling of a foreign language while you were trying to talk about something like Katrina? Show some respect, guys.

The problem with caring about the environment is twofold:

1.) In nations with a lot of poor/subsistence level people is that people will do what it takes to survive day by day before they will worry about the land around them. It takes the country lifting enough people out of that level of subsistence before enough people will start look around at the disaster in the environment and plan long term for it.

2.) Nations that do not have a governmental structure based on individual liberty also will not tend to have as much environmental care. It prolongs the period of time that people are mired at day to day subsistence before they begin to build critical mass toward long term planning on the land around them.

a reply to: Frocharocha

...wait so the misspelling isn't related to Futurama?

Either way, thanks for posting.

Terrible news though. Hope no one else was killed.

originally posted by: LukeDAP
Oh, and come on. English is not our first language. This is a serious tragedy in the country. How would you feel if someone started mocking your spelling of a foreign language while you were trying to talk about something like Katrina? Show some respect, guys.

Nobodies poking fun mate, it was crossed wires.

So terrible for the people living there. So terrible for the ecosystem and the long term consequences.

Sometimes I feel so lucky in my little safe haven and my problems suddenly seem soooo insignificant compared to this...

a reply to: Frocharocha

"It raises the question: are all of their other tailings dams across the world structurally sound?" Mr Burton said. "This could raise eyebrows about how they are managing the risks at other operations."

www.smh.com.au...

There are reports that locals fear the sludge from the dams may be toxic. But Samarco claims the mine waste is "inert".

"It consists mostly by silica [sand] from the iron ore processing and presents no chemical that is harmful to health," the firm's statement said.

Other tailings dams could burst and the owners will claim the sludge is harmless.


www.theguardian.com...

Brazil’s national water agency, ANA, has warned that the presence of arsenic, zinc, copper and mercury now present in the Rio Doce make the water untreatable for human consumption.

"Early next week the mudslide is expected to reach the Atlantic, with a potentially devastating impact on the fishing communities along the coast of the state of Espírito Santo."

"On a visit to the affected region on Thursday, President Dilma Rousseff described the incident as “possibly the biggest environmental disaster to have impacted one of the major regions of our country”.

She compared the scale of the damage to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and laid the blame squarely on Samarco."



www.afr.com...
"It looked like a scene from hell. It even smelled of sulphur,"

"The local schoolmistress became a national heroine, leading all 56 of her young charges in a wild scramble for safety."

"The muddy mass slowly but surely made its way into two river systems, Rio do Carmo​ and the bigger Rio Doce​, in a 500 kilometre journey to the Atlantic Ocean."

"Some 228 municipalities in two Brazilian states (Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo) are located in the Rio Doce basin, many of them affected as the mud slurry travelled down river systems, killing off masses of fish life, causing hydroelectric plants on the route to shut down to protect their turbines from the mud and making the water temporarily undrinkable for hundreds of thousands of residents whose cities draw their water from the system.

According to Samarco, the mudslide for the most consists of sand particles and presents no chemical element harmful to health. According to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the sludge is mainly composed of iron oxide and sand. Local government has collected mud to test if it is toxic or not and results are expected by the beginning of December."

It makes one wonder how many of the S.A. cichlid species will soon owe their survival to hobbyists. Like the Lake Victorian cichlids.

It is very sad.

I hope they get a handle on it, but when our own EPA can't even keep tailings from being released, what hope does Brazil have to stop them all?

Documentation now is essential.

Trucking in water. How long is this going to be needed?

Another fine mess by the Corporations... not giving a flying # about people who live in the region.