Brazilian prosecutors charge 22 people in dam spill

Brazilian prosecutors said Thursday they charged 22 people and four companies for their roles in the largest environmental disaster in the country's history that killed 19 people and polluted hundreds of kilometers of rivers and streams.

A tailings dam owned by mining company Samarco collapsed near Mariana, Minas Gerais state last November, creating a tsunami of mud and mine waste, which destroyed several small communities.

Investigators found safety problems to the dam, which Samarco ignored. The dam had had small breakages in the past and the company made only minor and superficial repairs instead of a stronger, more concrete restoration.

There also lacked a proper alarm system to warn the town people living around the dam.

Samarco, its co-owners Vale and BHP Billiton, were accused of nine counts of environmental crimes. Consulting company VogBR was accused of issuing a false environmental statement on the dam.

Twenty-one of the 22 accused are Samarco employees, including 16 Brazilians, two Americans, a South African, an Australian and a French citizen. If convicted, they could face sentences of up to 54 years, according to prosecutors.

"There was always the search for more ore, to provide profit to Samarco and its owners. They sacrificed safety in the name of profit," said federal prosecutor Jose Adercio Leite Sampaio.

The prosecution also called for financial reparations for the victims and their families. The amount has yet to be decided.

Following the dam collapse, a wave of mud flowed into the Doce River, the main river in the region, and travelled 800 km, affecting 40 towns in two states, until it spilled into the Atlantic.

The damages to the river and the river banks was incalculable, where fish and other marine animals died, and a hydroelectric power plant was damaged. The disaster also affected the water supply in towns and farms. Endi