Paper short abstract:

This work analyses the disaster resulting from the disruption of the Mariana dam in Minas Gerais, Brazil, when its waste, after travelling more than 500 km along the Rio Doce, expanded by an enormous stretch of the Brazilian coast and resulted in numerous economic and environmental damages.

Paper long abstract:

The sea, as a large receptacle of land-based waste, was scarcely as battered as it was due to the disaster resulting from the disruption of the Mariana dam in Minas Gerais - Brazil, when its waste, after travelling more than 500 km along the Rio Doce, expanded by an enormous stretch of the Brazilian coast and resulted in numerous economic and environmental damages. This paper aims to present actions (and inaction) in the face of a marine environmental disaster that, in a certain way, was predictable; since in front of the river current there was full awareness of when the waste would reach the coast. In addition, it intends to analyse how (and if) local, regional and national contingency plans foresee actions for this type of acute environmental aggression. From the analysis, it is also intended to present the damages already measured from the disaster until the passage of one year after it.