Consideração de riscos na avaliação de impacto ambiental de barragens de mineração em Minas Gerais

Abstract

The Environmental Licensing and the Environmental Impact Assessment are instruments of environmental policy that complement each other, and are useful for controlling the development of enterprises or activities that may cause an impact on the environment. Mining activities have an economic importance, but, on the other hand, they cause a significant impact on the environment, as well as on the surrounding community. The dams, which are used for the final disposal of tailings, are the focus of concern and risk, as they can cause irreversible damage if they break, taking as an example the cases that occurred in the state of Minas Gerais, in the years 2015 and 2019, with the ruptures of the dams in Mariana and Brumadinho, respectively. In order for these disasters to be avoided or to have less impact on society, it is important that during the Licensing and Environmental Impact Assessment decision process, the Risk Assessment (RA) is applied to the project to be installed. The associated risk must be an important factor for the analysis of the environmental viability of the activity. Thus, the objective of the present work is to analyze whether the normative changes brought in 2016 brought about changes in the incorporation of risk assessment in the EIA of mining dams in the state of Minas Gerais. For this purpose, Environmental Licensing processes were selected, supported by an Environmental Impact Study of mining dams. The identification of processes occurred through research on the websites of: Consultation of Environmental Licensing Process Decisions, Consultation and Request for Public Hearing and the Integrated Environmental Information System of the state of Minas Gerais. Thus, 25 Licensing processes were analyzed, between 2004 and 2022, which were available: the Environmental Impact Study and the Single or Technical Opinions, being analyzed as to how the risks were treated in the study and in the decision-making for the issuance of the prior license. An analysis of the perspective of before and after the implementation of State Law nº 21.972/2016 was also considered, which brings the requirement of Emergency Action Plans, Contingency and Risk Communication for the Environmental Licensing of undertakings or activities that may put in serious risk human lives or the environment. In the documents, a general search was carried out using keywords that referred to the theme of risk and the possible studies developed. Of the processes, 20 correspond to before the enactment of the law and five are post-enactment of the law. In the processes analyzed, two presented the Risk Analysis, four presented the PAE, three presented the Contingency Plan and no process presented the Risk Communication Plan. The results allow us to infer that the edition of State Law nº 21.972/2016 did not bring significant changes to the consideration of risk, since RA and plans were found in greater quantity for processes prior to the edition of the law. In general, it can be concluded that the risks of mining dams in Minas Gerais are accepted, without any assessment and regardless of their classification level, leaving only the option of being managed later.