08/01/2016
Samarco has been accompanying the behavior of the turbidity plume (generated by the Fundão dam accident) in the marine region and wishes to point out that so far there is no technical evidence that the material observed in the area of the Abrolhos archipelago, off the coast of Bahia, has any relation to the incident. Data about the direction of the winds and the intensity of the tides in recent days indicate a very low probability that the turbidity plume off the coast of Linhares, Espírito Santo, would have traveled to Abrolhos. In any case, the Company has mobilized teams to collect samples there to be analyzed in a laboratory.
It is important to mention that there are other factors which influence the movement of sediments along the coastal zone of Espírito Santo and south of Bahia, and in the past few days climactic phenomena have caused the formation of waves of 1.5 to 2.5 meters on the coast, provoking a natural resuspension of other sediments unrelated to the accident with the Fundão dam.
The Company has been continuously providing resources such as airplanes and satellite imagery, and offered the environmental agencies the use of a plane to fly to the Abrolhos region to evaluate the status of sediment dispersion. Samarco is also continuing its monitoring at various points of the estuary (brackish waters), in the ocean (salt water), and along the entire length of the Doce River (fresh water).
