Descomissionamento de áreas de mineração de agregados para construção civil na Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro: abandono ou reabilitação?

Abstract

The group known as aggregated for civil engineering is a terminology that refers to those granular materials which presents established dimensions and priorities, such as, the crushed stone, the gravel, and the natural or unnatural sands. The mineral exploitation of this type of feedstock at Rio de Janeiro state is a field that at present, is in plain expansion, mostly by virtue of increasing consumer market demand for crushed stone. Therefore, the process of extraction and processing of mineral assets bring a variety of social and environmental problems that can even lead to the closure of mineral exploitation activities, where there is no development of actions that can reduce or to remedy the inherent impacts from mineral exploitation. For this reason, when the mining enterprise closes its activities, either because the deposit has been depleted or even for economic, technological and environmental reasons, the mining enterprise should implement actions to ensure the environmental control and restoration of the decayed place. This present research has as main goal to evaluate the current situation of old quarries Vigné Ltda., Ouro Branco Ltda., Macasa S.A., Mineração Sartor Ltda. and Simgra Ltda., located in the Metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, after the closing and/or the standstill of their activities of the mining aggregated to the construction industry, in recent years. For the research to achieve its purpose, were analyzed the Degraded Area Recovery Plans and / or Environmental Control Plan or Decommissioning Plan, when occur, and simultaneously to these analysis, on-site visits were also made in order to collect additional data, to demonstrate different uses that have been allocated to these old areas, by recovering, rehabilitation or even by abandonment of these areas. As a result, it was observed that the companies quarry Vigné Ltda., and quarry Macasa S.A. carried out the recovery and rehabilitation of their deposits, which made it possible to develop new economic activities on the sites, while the mining companies Sartor Ltda. And Simgra Ltda. only carried out the recovery of the area, but did not assign any function to the old spaces, according to the respective PRAD and PCA, so they are abandoned, while the quarry Ouro Branco Ltda. interrupted its activities in an untimely manner, without duly notifying the inspection agencies and environmental control besides not having implemented the recovery of the degraded site, making the quarry area potentially dangerous for those accessing the site. Therefore, the research aimed to demonstrate how actions to recover and rehabilitate degraded areas, especially those related to aggregate mining, are extremely important for maintaining a balanced environment, protecting human health and developing sustainable activities.