MPMG begins series of inspections on dams built upstream in Minas Gerais

Environmental Defense Prosecutors from the Public Ministry of Minas Gerais (MPMG) began inspections this Wednesday, April 24 on site in dams built using the upstream method throughout the State of Minas Gerais. There are 38 structures that are in the process of decharacterization, determined by the Mar de Lama Never Again Law (Law nº 23,291, of 02/25/2019), and which will receive visits from the MPMG technical teams and contracted independent audits.

The first structures to be inspected were the B2 Auxiliar dams, owned by the company Minérios Nacional, located in Rio Acima; to Sul Superior, from Vale, in Barão de Cocais; and B3/B4, also owned by Vale, located in Nova Lima.

The action is part of the Deactivating Time Bombs project, designed by MPMG to monitor, through preventive action, the deactivation of these remaining upstream structures. “The audits aim to assess compliance with the decharacterization stages and the agreements provided for in the Terms of Conduct Adjustment”, explains the Public Prosecutor and Environment and Mining coordinator, Lucas Marques Trindade.

The forecast is that all upstream dams in Minas Gerais will be destroyed by 2035. According to the coordinator of the Operational Support Center for Environmental Justice Prosecutors (Caoma), prosecutor Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Pinto, “sometimes, these structures , especially those at emergency level 3, do not allow workers access. The work needs to be done with all the necessary caution so that decommissioning does not increase this risk. So, it’s not simply closing the structure and planting on top. It is a very difficult, very technical decharacterization process that requires responsibility and seriousness. It needs to be done in the shortest possible time, with the necessary technique and caution.”

Tracking website

In Minas, there are 54 structures using this method, 16 of which have already completed the decharacterization process. Citizens who want to follow the decharacterization of the 38 upstream dams that still exist in Minas Gerais can check the progress of the processes through the website barragens.mpmg.mp.br.