Gerenciamento de risco no licenciamento ambiental: o caso do rompimento da barragem de Fundão

Abstract

November 5, 2015 will be remembered for the tragedy of breaking the dam of tailings of Fundão, of the company Samarco in the city of Mariana / MG. This accident is considered of great dimensions and of the most serious socio-environmental tragedies of Brazil. Given the importance of this tragedy in the country, the present study had as objective to evaluate the environmental licensing process of the Samarco mining dam, which was broken, emphasizing the adoption of measures to prevent and manage dam risk, identifying the processes project licensing, impacts identified in the EIA, environmental measures, constraints and proposed risk management. The study was conducted from a literature review and documentary content analysis of licensing processes. From the data collected, it was possible to observe that the impacts of a possible tragedy due to the rupture of the dam were underestimated, both by the company and by the environmental agencies of the State, since the company did not consider this possibility in a significant way and the environmental agencies did not presented no condition for this situation, evidencing a serious flaw in the venture's risk management process. This ineffective risk management adopted by the company can then be considered as one of the main factors or failures that allowed the occurrence of the tragedy. After the tragedy, the Minas Gerais government published changes in the environmental licensing process, dealing, among other things, with the specific case of the licensing of tailings dams. In view of the economic importance of the mining industry for the Brazilian economy and, given the innumerable environmental impacts inherent to this activity, it is concluded that the licensing process must provide security and guarantee a responsible and capable risk management of its size impact in an attempt to avoid further tragedies.