Second Fundão Dam Rupture Science Meeting: Updating the science

• Published in: Integrated environmental assessment and management 2024-01, Vol.20 (1), p.70-73
• Main Authors: Smith, Ross E. W., Furley, Tatiana H., de Souza Abessa, Denis M., Medeiros, Laila C. C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Contaminants; Environmental assessment; Environmental Impact Assessment; Environmental management; Integrated environmental assessment; Meeting summary; Rupture; Science‐based discussion; Special series; Toxicology
• ISSN: 1551-3777; 1551-3793
• DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4863

The second Fundão Dam Rupture Science Meeting was held in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil, on 21 and 22 September 2022. A total of 100 delegates attended the meeting, which featured high‐quality oral presentations and posters over the two days and lively discussions of the science presented. The meeting resulted in nine papers being published in this special series. In the discussion, it was commented that the first meeting had been more a meeting of competitive perspectives but that the second meeting featured a more collaborative sharing of knowledge. Also, there had been substantial improvement in ways to deal with the lack of pre‐event data and account for other stressors in the system, and as a result, stronger conclusions regarding the recovery rates of the system were able to be made. Importantly, there was no evidence for a feasible “time bomb” of a future catastrophic release of contaminants, but it was agreed that different scenarios continue to be researched. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:70–73. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).