Federal Police opens investigation after illegal mining change the color of water in Alter do Chão, Pará
January 25, 2022
09:01
Bruno Pacheco – Cenarium Magazine
MANAUS – After the increase in deforestation, mining and sewage caused a change in the color of the water in Alter do Chão, Pará, the Federal Police (PF) opened a police investigation to investigate the case. The ‘Brazilian Caribbean’, as the region is known, is under threat, according to researchers alerted amid the exhibition of aerial photos showing the darkness of the Tapajós river, in the area of the district that belongs to the municipality of the Para city Santarém.
According to the Federal Police, the investigation was opened last Thursday, the 20th. Experts were sent to the region to make an overflight, this Monday, 24, with two aircraft of the Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation and Biodiversity (ICMBio), and collect samples of the murky water at different points of the river for analysis and expert report.
“Besides the Federal Police and the ICMBio, the committee will be composed of members of the Public Ministry, technicians from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and researchers from the Federal University of Western Pará (Ufopa). The inspection aims to analyze, among other issues, the extent of the stain that is causing the change in color of the Tapajós River”, says an excerpt from the note released by the Federal Police.
Dark water
In December 2021, aerial images recorded from a flight made by doctor Erik Jennings Simões over the Tapajós River already showed the change in the color of the water. In a video shared on social networks, it is possible to see the muddy water of the river, while the Arapiuns River has black water, a shade considered normal for the period of the year.
“Tapajós River, 12/30/2021. At this time of year, it rains on both rivers. But only the Tapajós River became muddy. Alter do Chão, 12/30/2021. It’s not the rain that pollutes and dirties the river, it’s man. You can help save the Tapajós”, says the video published by the doctor.
In another post, the doctor recalled that the shade of the water that used to be greenish blue in the months of December and stated that the murky waters bring sediments with mercury, arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals.
“The Tapajós, which used to be greenish blue, now in December is the color of mud. Each year the ‘window’ of clear waters has its time reduced. The murky waters bring sediments with mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals highly harmful to human health, flora and fauna”, he posted on Instagram.
After the repercussion of the case, the coordinator of the NGO Health and Joy Project, Caetano Scannavino, also denounced the change in color of the Tapajós river. On social networks, the activist highlighted that he has been working for answers about the change in the river’s hue.
“Working here together with Dr. @erikjenningssimoes and other colleagues in the battle for a living and clean Tapajós, adding efforts for answers to these changes in the coloration of the once crystal green waters of this blessed river. What we are doing with it is worrying”, Scannavino commented.
In the publication, Scannavino also highlighted a flight he made last August in Itaituba and Miritituba, in Pará, which caught the rivers in the region covered by a green colored mud. The region is the port zone for grain shipping, and is in an area close to mines, which dump up to 7 million tons of sediment annually, according to reports by the Federal Police.
“Just like the illegal mines, this milky sludge keeps increasing. And the algae that green the waters also, multiplying with the excessive accumulation of organic matter (eutrophication). There are natural occurrences, but they have also been growing due to human action (nutrients in sewage, from agriculture, use of fertilizers, removal of natural cover, inadequate soil management, transport of cyanobacteria in ballast water from ships…). It would be worth deepening the research, to know if there is also a relationship between cyanobacteria and grain dust that spreads in the waters among the many loads of soybeans in the transshipment stations, or what is the reason for this above-average proliferation, consequences, impacts”, wrote Scannavino.
Presence of toxins
In 2020, a study by Dávia Talgatti, PhD in biological sciences, from the Federal University of Western Pará (Ufopa), identified the presence of toxins, in relevant quantities, already in the Alter do Chão area. In addition, residents and tourism agencies have been noticing the change in color of the river and demanding that the authorities take measures to analyze the water and identify the problem.
Last Wednesday, 19, technicians from the Secretariat of Environment and Sustainability of Pará (Semas) arrived in the municipality of Santarém to assess the water conditions. Coordinated by the Pará State Secretary for Environment and Sustainability, Mauro O’ de Almeida, the group is carrying out tests to measure the physical parameters to check the turbidity of the water in the Tapajós river. The results of the research have not yet been released.