The environmental impacts of 2019 oil spill on the Brazilian coast: Overview

Abstract

The oil spill off the Brazilian coast, which reached especially the Northeast in 2019, is known as the biggest disaster of its kind in the country's history. Accidents of this type are not new; however, this episode had enormous proportions with 11 states, 130 municipalities, and more than 1,000 locations affected by oil stains or residues. Considering the extent of this environmental tragedy associated with the Brazilian biodiversity peculiarities is immeasurable the damages to fauna and protected areas, especially those that are more sensitive, such as mangroves and coral reefs. It is known that the oil source is Venezuela, but those responsible for the disaster are not known yet. The neglect in investigating events and decision making to deal with the incident aggravated the effects on habitats and local communities. The first occurrence on the coast happened on August 30, 2019, and the most significant number of affected locations was recorded during November. However, even without a complete solution of the case, in January 2020, the monitoring and evaluation group responsible for monitoring, remediation, and protection actions, officially announce the beginning of the demobilization protocol, establishing the termination points, which represent the end of monitoring in most of the areas. Contradictorily, in some locations considered sensitive, the end of the work will be carried out “even with the significant presence of oil in the area”. Studies in the literature indicate that highly weathered oil, which has a high molecular weight and low solubility PAHs, can have toxic effects as representative or higher than its non-weathered counterpart. These findings contradict a classic paradigm that crude oil with low molecular weight and more volatile PAHs are primarily responsible for toxicity. Regardless of the damages caused by the activities of total oil removal compared to natural degradation, there is a disregard for this issue, a deficit of environmental agencies employees and investments in this sector. Given the initiative to demobilize activities related to this serious accident, this review seeks to contextualize similar accidents, synthesize the events, dimensions, and environmental consequences related to the most significant ecological disaster on the Brazilian coast and discuss its likely environmental impacts considering the physical-chemical characteristics of the pollutant. In recent years, Brazil has been the scene of unprecedented disasters. The oil in the Northeast, along with the Mariana and Brumadinho dam rupture and the fires in the Amazon shows the lack of critical assessment of the environmental issue in Brazil, and what appears to be a society plan that, through structural measures, allows cases of environmental degradation to happen with impunity and the conservation of natural resources is genuinely not a priority of government actions.