Long-term contamination of the Rio Doce estuary as a result of Brazil’s largest environmental disaster

Gabriel, Fabrício Ângelo; Ferreira, Amanda Duim; Queiroz, Hermano Melo; Vasconcelos, Ana Luisa Soares; Ferreira, Tiago Osório; Bernardino, Ângelo F.

doi:10.1016/j.pecon.2021.09.001

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Based on the precautionary principle, they recommend both a fishing ban and the monitoring of people's health in the areas with chronic metal contamination. Gabriel et al (2021) collected and analysed sediments from the estuary, comparing their results with values obtained by Gomes et al (2017). By collecting samples some two, nine, and 11 days before the arrival of the tailings, they established baseline (or background) concentrations.…”

Section: Impact Assessment In Monitoring Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The environmental impacts of a major mine tailings spill on coastal and marine environments: lessons and recommendations for ex post impact assessment

Sánchez¹,

Barbosa²,

Brito³

et al. 2022

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Based on the volume of tailings releases and the distance they travelled, the Fundão Dam failure in southeast Brazil (Mariana, Minas Gerais state) was the largest ever environmental disaster in Brazil’s mining industry, and one of the world’s most serious. As they dispersed downriver, the tailings accumulated along the riverbanks and reached the Rio Doce estuary in the Eastern Brazilian Marine Ecoregion. When the dam failed, the mining company and government agencies conducted rapid assessments. But while the government set up a five-year monitoring programme, it took almost a year after the disaster to issue official guidelines and another two years of negotiations and approvals before the data collection began. In this Thematic Report, the Rio Doce Panel looks at government mandated monitoring reports as well as peerreviewed papers, most of which were authored by independent researchers, to assess our knowledge about the disaster’s impacts on marine and coastal areas.

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Section: Impact Assessment In Monitoring Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Impact synoptic table (with examples)Note: Examples presented for the sole purpose of illustrating the application of the proposed procedure. The authors did not conduct a detailed examination of the cited documents.Sources: (1)Queiroz et al (2018) (2)Gabriel et al (2021), see Table2for concentration results (3) PMBA/Fest-RRDM Annual Report 2021.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The environmental impacts of a major mine tailings spill on coastal and marine environments: lessons and recommendations for ex post impact assessment

Sánchez¹,

Barbosa²,

Brito³

et al. 2022

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“…After the dam rupture, a huge mud wave spread the tailings across the Carmo, Gualaxo do Norte, and Doce Rivers. Additionally, part of the tailings deposited on the riverbed and river banks and started to be transported downstream by the river flow (F. Gabriel et al, 2021), especially during the rainy season, when the bedload carriage and the amount of suspended solids in the water column are augmented (Andrades et al, 2021). Despite the temporal trend of reduction of metal concentrations in the water and sediments of DRB, F. Gabriel et al (2021) estimated the local ecological risks associated with metals and suggested that they could last because the environmental concentrations were still exceeding the toxic thresholds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial–temporal variations of metals and arsenic in sediments from the Doce River after the Fundão Dam rupture and their bioaccumulation in Corbicula fluminea

Pauly

Cruz

Trevizani

et al. 2023

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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The rupture of the Fundão dam in Brazil released tons of mining tailings into the Doce River Basin (DRB). This investigation aimed to determine the bioaccumulation of metals in soft tissues of the bivalve Corbicula fluminea exposed to sediments collected in the DRB in four periods (just after, 1, 3, and 3.5 years after the dam rupture). In the exposure bioassays, the concentrations of Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in sediments and bivalve soft tissues were quantified. The concentration of some elements (As, Cd, Mn, and Al) in sediments exceeded the federal limits or regional backgrounds at some sampling sites, but their concentrations tended to decrease over time. However, higher concentrations of many elements were detected in the winter of 2019. Several elements were detected in C. fluminea soft tissues, but the bioaccumulation factors were generally low or not related to those elements associated with the ore tailings, evidencing that the bioavailability of metals to bivalves, in laboratory conditions, was limited. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;00:1–12. © 2023 SETAC

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“…Although the tailings sludge composition is mainly Fe and Si oxides, high levels of Al, As, Mn and other elements had been reported in the Doce River water and sediments after the disaster, being gradually mobilized to the biota along the river (Hatje et al 2017;Richard et al 2020). There was a temporal decrease in metal concentration in the sediments from the Doce River along the last five years after the dam rupture, but the estuary has been a significant sink of these sediments, accumulating tailings and metals (Gabriel et al 2021). Additionally, the region where SAMARCO's dam collapsed has a geological composition rich in chemical elements such as arsenic and zinc, acting as a source of these elements, carried into the river bed (dos Reis et al 2020).…”

Section: The Doce River Basinmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Additionally, the region where SAMARCO's dam collapsed has a geological composition rich in chemical elements such as arsenic and zinc, acting as a source of these elements, carried into the river bed (dos Reis et al 2020). Thus, the physical and chemical changes caused by the SAMARCO/BHP Billiton/Vale dam's collapse, the long-term contamination and the accumulation of metals, is an increasing threat to the aquatic environment, due to its toxicity and consequent bioaccumulation and biomagnification along food chains (Gopinath et al 2010;Gabriel et al 2021;Reis et al 2020).…”

Section: The Doce River Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metals concentration in freshwater fish from Doce River and the influences of the Samarco’s Dam collapse, Mariana, Brazil

Ferreira¹

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The Rio Doce basin is located in southeastern Brazil, in the states of Minas Gerais (MG) and Espírito Santo (ES). The basin is characterized by intense economic activity, which, added to the high population density and historical processes of extractivism, makes it one of the Brazilian drainages most impacted by human activities. With the disposal of domestic sewage, agricultural and industrial inputs in the channel of the Doce River and its tributaries, violations of water quality parameters such as total phosphate and fecal coliforms are historically recorded for the basin. The collapse of the SAMARCO dam threw 62 tons of tailings into the Doce River channel. Covering fish microhabitats, foraging and breeding areas, aggravating the state of degradation of the basin and modifying the physical and chemical characteristics of the river bed sediment. The tailings avalanche turned over the river bottom, resuspending the sediment and bio making available metals that were previously trapped in lower river layers. The composition of the tailings is mainly silica and iron oxides, but studies indicate high levels of other elements such as Aluminum, Arsenic and Manganese. Thus, the tailings contributed directly and indirectly to the mobilization of metals for the aquatic biota. Bioaccumulation within fish and biomagnification of metals in the food chain can generate irreversible impacts on aquatic biota given its persistence in biota, not being decomposed, increasing its toxicity. Our results indicate mercury biomagnification and bioaccumulation of several elements such as arsenic and mercury, for several of the studied species, and the result varies in an interspecific way. Some species are more subject to bioaccumulation, among them those with piscivorous and benthic habits stand out. These groups should be a priority target for monitoring the concentrations of metals in the ichthyofauna with a focus on food security and maintenance of fish communities in the basin. Among the tributaries studied, the Gualaxo do Norte and Carmo rivers deserve special attention, mainly due to the high mercury values recorded for the region's ichthyofauna. The historic gold extraction process in the region and the leaching and contamination of aquatic biota makes these tributaries the main target for monitoring and bioremediation studies. Keywords: Fish. arsenic. Mercury. Bioaccumulation. Trophic level.

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Long-term contamination of the Rio Doce estuary as a result of Brazil’s largest environmental disaster

Cited by 24 publications

References 57 publications

The environmental impacts of a major mine tailings spill on coastal and marine environments: lessons and recommendations for ex post impact assessment

The environmental impacts of a major mine tailings spill on coastal and marine environments: lessons and recommendations for ex post impact assessment

Spatial–temporal variations of metals and arsenic in sediments from the Doce River after the Fundão Dam rupture and their bioaccumulation in Corbicula fluminea

Metals concentration in freshwater fish from Doce River and the influences of the Samarco’s Dam collapse, Mariana, Brazil

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