Brazil reaches a $23 billion deal with mining companies over the 2015 environmental disaster | News, sports, jobs

FILE – A car and two dogs stand on the roof of destroyed houses in the small town of Bento Rodrigues after a dam burst in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Nov. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana , Archive)

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s federal government reached a multimillion-dollar settlement Friday with mining companies responsible for a 2015 dam collapse that the government said was the worst environmental disaster ever recorded in the country.

Under the agreement, Samarco, a joint venture of Brazilian mining giant Vale and Anglo-Australian firm BHP, will pay 132 billion reais ($23 billion) over 20 years. The payments are intended to compensate for human, environmental and infrastructure damage caused by the release of an immense amount of toxic mining waste into a major river in the southeast of Minas Gerais state, killing 19 people and devastating entire towns.

“We are solving a disaster that could have been avoided, but wasn’t.” “Said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a hall of the presidential palace, surrounded by governors of the affected states, members of his administration, journalists and victims.

Lula’s speech, full of criticism of what he called the irresponsibility of mining companies in seeking profits over safety, was received with applause from the audience.

Toxic sludge, enough to fill 13,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, flowed down the Doce River for 420 miles to the Atlantic Ocean, contaminating waterways and coastal areas in two neighboring states.

Mining companies told the federal government during negotiations that they had already paid 38 billion reais ($6.7 billion) in reparations.

The agreement includes compensation for more than 300,000 victims, although that figure does not include all those affected. Twice as many people (620,000) took their case to a UK court on Monday seeking reparations.

The class action filed at London’s High Court seeks an estimated £36 billion ($47 billion) in compensation from BHP. The case was brought in Britain because one of BHP’s two main legal entities was based in London at the time.

The London lawsuit prompted Brazil’s Supreme Court chief justice, Luís Roberto Barroso, to personally seek Lula’s commitment to ensure the parties reached a national settlement.

“I spoke to Lula and told him: ‘Mr. President, there is a case abroad and it would be very damaging to the Brazilian courts if this matter is resolved outside the country.’” Barroso said Friday at the presidential palace.

Brazil’s federal government said victims would receive 35,000 reais ($6,150) each, while fishermen and farmers would receive 95,000 reais ($17,000) in total through monthly installments over four years.

Cristiano Sales, 42 years old, was born and raised in Bento Rodrigues, one of the neighborhoods in the municipality of Mariana that was devastated by mud nine years ago. When he returned to the ruins of his house three months later, the only thing he found was a jersey from his favorite soccer team, Cruzeiro.

Sales lives in a new house in a neighborhood built by mining companies as part of compensation to his father. After filing a lawsuit, he personally received 100,000 reais ($18,000) and is still seeking additional reparations through the London lawsuit.

“Money can’t pay for what we’ve been through here.” said. “We accept the money because it is our right. But to say that 100,000 or even 200,000 or 300,000 could give us back the life we ​​had… I don’t think any amount of money can do that.”

BHP, based in Melbourne, Australia, said in a statement on Oct. 19 that it believes the U.K.’s action is unnecessary because it duplicates matters covered by redress efforts and legal proceedings in Brazil, but will continue to defend itself.

Pogust Goodhead, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, said Friday that the settlement in Brazil should have no impact on the London case and that there will be no double compensation. The firm added that its clients were excluded from the negotiations and are still seeking comprehensive reparations for unresolved damages.

“The Mariana agreement signed this Friday in Brazil shows that, after 9 years of negligence, the mining companies finally decided to react to the pressure of public opinion and the trial in England, which began last Monday.” the law firm said in a statement. “Even so, the amounts defined are far from covering the deep losses suffered by the victims, who continue to fight for justice and comprehensive reparation.”