Tailings Management actions are expected to be completed by 2019
The Doce River Basin Tailings Management Plan was filed on April 20 with the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Renewable Resources (Ibama), the State Environmental Foundation (Feam), the State Institute for the Environment and Water Resources (Iema) and the State Department of Environment and Sustainable Development of Minas Gerais (Semad).
Among the main initiatives presented is the application of the decision-making methodology to define the best socio-environmental recovery solution for the Gualaxo do Norte River, located in Mariana (MG), evaluated as one of the main sources of sediment inputs of the Doce River Basin.
The expectation is that, after the validation of the document by the environmental agencies, the tailings between the Fundão dam and the Doce River mouth will be handled and removed by 2019.
For the development of the Tailings Management Plan, workshops were held with specialists from different institutions. | Photo: Thiago Fernandes
GROUP WORK
To prepare the final archive, three workshops were held with the participation of 80 experts from 30 institutions, including universities, environmental agencies and consultancies. “The subject is complex and the solutions are not obvious, breaking away from common sense. Therefore, the main challenge was to bring together people of different specialties and technical positions to reach a consensus on the guidelines for handling the tailings”, says Pedro Ivo, responsible for handling the tailings and the atmospheric management.