Brazil mining toxic flood could devastate environment for years

[LazyLion]

The collapse of two dams at a Brazilian mine has cut off drinking water for quarter of a million people and saturated waterways downstream with dense orange sediment that could wreck the ecosystem for years to come.

Nine people were killed, 19 are still listed as missing and 500 people were displaced from their homes when the dams burst at an iron ore mine in southeastern Brazil on Nov. 5.

The sheer volume of water disgorged by the dams and laden with mineral waste across nearly 500 km is staggering: 60 million cubic meters, the equivalent of 25,000 Olympic swimming pools or the volume carried by about 187 oil tankers.

President Dilma Rousseff compared the damage to the 2010 oil spill by BP PLC in the Gulf of Mexico and Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira called it an "environmental catastrophe."

Scientists say the sediment, which may contain chemicals used by the mine to reduce iron ore impurities, could alter the course of streams as they harden, reduce oxygen levels in the water and diminish the fertility of riverbanks and farmland where floodwater passed...

Full Article....
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015...ent-idUSKCN0T40PY20151115#hV06HCyATYWPel0x.97

 

[LazyLion]

Article is about a month old, but it's the first I heard of it.
They are calling it the Brazilian Fukushima

I came across it in this imgur post....
http://imgur.com/gallery/kSv4f

 

[Electric]

Wow, that's heavy.

 

[bgotapen]

What toxic chemicals? They never say... last time I checked pretty common chemicals were used in iron ore mining.

The "orange" or "red" or "yellow" color comes from the iron oxide complexes in the water. The same stuff that gives our red soil it's color.

So it seems the culprit is some sort of surfactant... the msds won't load but I can't see this being a problem now if it was released into the environment it would have caused this damage a long time ago with overflows and ground water drainage.

http://www.airproducts.com/products/Chemicals/Surfactants/Ether-Amines-Diamines.aspx

 

[Mach III]

F*** man,

can they stop killing us?? What the f***.

 

[LazyLion]

What toxic chemicals? They never say...

The toxic mud is from an Iron Ore mine in the area. The mud is comprised of Mercury, Arsenic, Lead, and other heavy metals.