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THE PROJECT ANITÁPOLIS

An iceberg in the mountains of Serra Catarinense in the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina, a serious risk to human beings, fauna, flora, soil and water, against any concept of sustainability and preservation of the environment. 

 
The Anitápolis Project is a Joint Venture of the  Multinacionals Bunge (U.S.) and Yara (Norway), for exploring during 33 years the phosphate source in the valley of the River Rio Pinheiro, in Anitápolis in Greater Florianópolis. The location of the project, with the area of 1800 ha, is located within a nature reserve - on the banks of a river which is part of the watershed of the River Braco do Norte, in the further course Rio Tubarão.To deposit the resulting excess material, both from the mining industry as originating from the beneficiation, is planned. the construction of two tailings dams 80 m high. These dams will disrupt the natural flow of the Rio Pinheiro And for the manufacture of sulfuric acid is projected an industrial complex. The estimated annual production is 240,000 tons of phosphate and 240,000 liters of sulfuric acid. The planned investment volume is 180 million euros, around 2,000 direct and indirect jobs were created, including 1250 during construction and would bring for the municipality of Anitápolis and the state of Santa Catarina financial improvements in the form of taxes.. These facts are well known.

 
 
It´s only talked about the benefits, but as with the icebergs, where only 10% are visible, and the rest is hidden below the surface, you need maximum caution.  
 
Someone is aware of the risks of the Project Anitápolis?  
 
Someone has already been informed about possible risks?  
 
And why there is a big silence hovering over everything?  
 

What counts for the entrepreneurs is the opening of the project, and one day it appears, maturated, initiated, supported, one more accomplished fact for the population who, as usual, don´t takes part at the party, but pays the bill 

 
  • Approximately 10,000 hectares of Atlantic rainforest destroyed by mining.  
  • Air pollution not only affects Anitapolis, but also the neighboring communities.  
  • Pollution in the watershed of the River Rio Braco do Norte through extraction and                                  
      processing of phosphate.

  •    Serious problems for the welfare of the population. 

   Has anyone already heard about these facts?

 
The technique used for extraction of phosphate will be surface mining, which is deforesting first, then remove all surface soil to reach the mineral and then digging, leaving huge areas devastated at the mercy of erosion. This means that the opencast mine suffers permanent exposure to the influence of the uncontrollable forces of weather, this being dry producing dust, what is harmful to the health of employees on site or those who live in the neighbourhood, and rain causing leaching and infiltration into the soil, so that the waste can reach the watercourses and groundwater. 

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The real danger - the tailings dams  

The most critical point of the Anitápolis Project comprises two tailings dams. For more technology we have, we are not able to measure forces with nature. It is not the man who controls the rain, storms, Katrinas and the Catarinas - unfortunately, the tragedy of the flooding on 23-24 November 2008 here in Santa Catarinaof showed that again.  

Anitápolis is among the municipalities of Santa Catarina most prone to environmental disasters produced by floods. Rio Pinheiro is reported as very torrential in these occurrences. How many times in recent years was declared a state of emergency in any municipality of the basin of the Rio Braço do Norte? How many bridges the water has drawn  away, how many floods there were, how many landslides? 

And with global warming causing climate change, the trend is increasing the frequency and intensity of those events.  

Two lakes, full of mud (toxic?), swallowing everything that appears in front. Definitely a scary prospect. In the last 3 decades, dozens of accidents with dams happened worldwide, with strong environmental impacts and priceless damages. Here in Brazil the ones with the greatest impact were: 
 

In January 2007 the municipality of Mira, in the State of Minas Gerais(MG), was the victim of a major flood after the breaking of the dam belonging to the mining company Rio Pomba Cataguases, belonging to the Chemical  Corporation of Cataguases. 12.000 people dislodged. Over two billion liters of water mixed with mud and chemical waste used in the processing of bauxite, after destroying the town of Mira, invaded the River Muriaé and thus destroyed several cities in the region (Muriaé, Patrocinio, Lages de Muriaé, Italva etc.) and in the north of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Itaperuna, Laje of Muriaé, Italva etc.).. 

 

This was the second accident in the region in charge of mining company Rio Pomba Cataguases.The damage to the environment was gigantic. 

2006 – as a result of a rainfall with higher intensity than predicted by hydrological calculations of the project, it came to the breaking of a dam belonging to the mining company Rio Pomba, the 400 million liters of waste from bauxite - water and clay – met a river in the region and arrived at Rio de Janeiro, due to possible contamination was suspended the water supply of Laje Muriaé. The environmental impacts were in the flooding of riverine agricultural areas, killing fish, turbidity of the water of the rvers

Muriaé and Fuba, significantly affecting the water quality.

 
 2003 - the breaking of a dam belonging to the company Cataguases Paper and Cataguases Florestal caused the outflow of 1.2 billion liters of toxic waste into the rivers Pomba and Paraiba do Sul, in the North and Northwest of the State of Rio de Janeiro, affecting 100.000 of people.

 
2001 - the breaking of a tailings dam of the mining company Rio Verde in Macacos/ MG, a sea of mud of kilometers in length, causing siltation and degradation of water courses, destroying riparian vegetation, leaving marks up to today.

 
These examples illustrate that accidents with dams are not so rare. 

Nobody is entitled to compel anyone to live together with risk of any nature, nor with the possibility of the risk being small. Leaders aware of their duty demonstrate competence in focusing on well being and greater security for those who trust them. The dams forecasted in the Project Anitápolis represent a risk that no municipality should take.  
 

And the materials which are deposited in the tailings dams?  

The overburden consists in other substances without interest to the phospate industry, causing their own environmental impacts. And even in low concentrations, over time, through the cumulative effect reaches the potential to cause serious damage to health of living beings and the environment. In the U.S., precisely in the dam at Milltown, Montana, workers are removing 2.4 million m³ of sludge contaminated with arsenic, only discovered after a century of copper mining, with devasting consequences for fish and drinking water from groundwater 

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The regional economy 

The river Rio Pinheiro is close to the headwaters of the Rio Braço do Norte, an important component of the Rio Tubarão Basin. Many municipalities are part of the watershed of the Rio Braço do Norte, starting with Anitápolis, followed by Santa Rosa de Lima, Rio Fortuna, Braço do Norte. A population close to 200 thousand people is living along the Rio Braço do Norte, later Rio Tubarão, crossing the town with that name, running into the sea at the town of Laguna. Many municipalities have in the small farming their earning and enrich our daily meals with their products, emphasizing the organic ones, all of excellent quality. An association of small farmers (AGRECO) in Santa Rosa de Lima is among the most qualified organic farmers in Brazil. In the community Braco do Norte piggery is an important contribution to export, and Laguna is famous for shrimp.

Another important point in the regional economy is the wealth of scenic landscapes. The escarpments of the Serra Geral of Pinheiro are of incomparable  beauty. In that moment comes to mind the old slogan of  Santa Catarina – BLESSED AND BEAUTIFUL CATARINA. Indeed, scenic landscapes, which presented the right way to tourists could generate much income. This means investments in the tourism sector. Regions with much less natural beauty in Europe, Australia and the United States have an significant economic growth through tourism. The association " Acolhida na Côlonia” (welcome at the settlers) focusing this scenario, is booming with its model of eco-agro tourism. 

In recent years major steps were taken, with dedication, love and conviction of sustainable, healthy progress, important steps in harmony with nature. 

 
Fertilizer  
 
Without proper fertilization there is no agricultural production. Depending on practicing a type of agriculture, exists an option for a form of fertilization. The fertilizer commercially most used today, especially in ecologically incorrect monocultures of soybeans and corn, is the one based on phosphate. 

The extraction of phosphate, as all variants of mining activities, are predatory practices. What is becoming increasingly urgent are companies, rather than deplete the resources, focus on real sustainability and the preservation of the environment still existing. There already exists a process called "Urban Mining" to extract phosphate and other fertilizers

from the ash of sewage sludge, fertilizers ensured being totally free from heavy metals like cadmium or uranium. It is a form of recycling, the major urban centers as raw material suppliers, with the great advantage of not destroying the nature. 

 
Better safe than sorry  

"What we damage here, we benefit elsewhere." A comment by a government official referring to the extraction of phosphate in Anitápolis, and justifying the degradation of the valley Vale doPinheiro. It seems the point of view of someone who has his home far from the zone of occurrence, with no ties to the place, just as the gentleman of the multinational companies, the engineers of the project and politicians of the state. Who loves his place does´not destroy him, neither permits being destroyed by anyone else, concentrating all his efforts on the preservation of what exists and to improve what needs to be improved. 

"What concerns to environment, there is no room for late intervention, under penalty that the environmental degradation reaches a point where there is no turning back, becoming irreversible damage." (State Attorney Selene Maria de Almeida).  

The threat to living beings by phosphate occurs during and after mining, and for years ahead. Mine exploitation in a watershed is irresponsible, even more today, with the increasing scarcity of water quality. Mining causes a redistribution of phosphate, metals, salts, and radioactive material previously fixed in the phosphate rock. In higher concentrations and released into the environment, they become toxins and degrade the water quality, health and increase the risk of life, even more intensely of whom in direct contact with the extraction process.

 
In addition to the calculable factors, which then in practice sometimes are able to behave different than on the office desk, there are other unknowns in the Project Anitápolis, forces exceeding our human potential to be controlled safely, after all, although influencing the weather, man "still" does not create it. Technical explanations are nothing else then attempts to minimize contretemps, but not to avoid them. An honest analysis of the facts and circumstances, a correct assessment of the advantages and disadvantages, and above all, to make priority the safety of people and the environment, leaves to no other conclusion different than that it is the best to let the Project Anitápolis stay in the drawer. Be aware of possible risks, and omitting or distorting, or ignoring them in order to achieve what one aspires to, demonstrates a total lack of consideration with life. And saying that the risk for any disaster of catastrophic proportions to happen is little, is the same as saying that there are risks.  
 

Are the inhabitants of the Basin Rio Braço do Norte / Rio Tubarão willing to live with a constant threat? 

 
In addition to all the facts mentioned above, do Anitápolis have any notion of the consequences the phosphat industry can bring to everyday life? Suddenly living together with 1,300 strangers, trucks of 35 tonnes coming in and leaving town all the time, an increase of traffic in general, are Anitápolis and region, in terms of infrastructure as well psychologically, prepared for a situation similar to that of goldfields.  
 
It´s true, 180 million euros invested is an impressive number, but little in sight what can be lost with the installation of the phosphat industry. The Project Anitápolis seems to apply the old formula where someone is able to buy something that  interests him, and believes that he thereby acquired the right to do what ever he wants, without worrying about what already is existing in this place and about the consequences his act may cause. For centuries the world is exploited in this way, bringing to an end the balance at the costs of human beings and nature. Where is the evolution? 

It is the obligation of leaders to protect the tranquility of citizens and to ensure an optimistic and promising perspective, but it is up to us all to take care of the environment in the best way. Because if we continue to allow the destruction of our living space, what quality of life will we have, what kind of future we will reserve for our children. 

 
So, for loving life – No to the phosphatmine  

"The goal and the means are one thing only, and if the means do not contribute to human happiness, nor the goal will do so" (Eckhart Tolle).