Remains of Samarco's Collapsed Dam Unstable Because of Heavy Rains
28 January 2016 - 8:10AM
Dow Jones News
RIO DE JANEIRO—The ruins of a waste-storage dam that collapsed
at a Brazilian mine in November have become unstable due to recent
heavy rains, mining company Samarco Mineraç ã o SA said Wednesday,
raising concerns about a possible aftershock to the country's
worst-ever environmental disaster.
Samarco said it detected "a movement" in the remains of its
destroyed Fundã o dam on Wednesday afternoon, prompting an
evacuation of employees who were in the area. Local
emergency-response authorities have been alerted, the company
said.
Additional information wasn't immediately available. The company
said its other two dams in the area, Germano and Santaré m, remain
stable and are being "continuously" monitored.
The Fundã o dam's sudden failure on Nov. 5 released an
avalanche of muddy mine waste, known as tailings, that killed at
least 17 people, wiped out a number of settlements and polluted
more than 400 miles of rivers. Samarco, a joint-venture between
Brazilian mining giants Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd., faces a
criminal investigation and civil suits totaling some $5
billion.
The company was widely criticized in the wake of the accident
for having lousy contingency plans. Residents of the nearest
village, Bento Rodrigues, say they were alerted to the dam break by
word-of-mouth and barely had time to evacuate before the mud came.
An engineer who worked on the dam said earlier this month that he
had alerted Samarco to serious problems more than a year in
advance, an allegation the company challenges.
In the weeks following the disaster, Samarco had been working to
stabilize Germano, which is larger than Fundã o, and Santaré m,
which is located downstream, amid concerns they were damaged by the
break. The movement detected Wednesday was between these two dams,
Samarco said.
Write to Paul Kiernan at paul.kiernan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 27, 2016 15:55 ET (20:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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