Traces of arsenic, nickel and chrome have been found in the Rio Doce, into which toxic mine waste was dumped earlier this month after two dams broke in Minas Gerais. An executive of Vale, the joint owner of mine operator Samarco along with Australia’s BHP Billiton, disputed a U.N. report released on Wednesday with regards to the extensive damage caused by “the equivalent of 20,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic mud spewed into the river.” The Vale executive claimed that the amounts of the chemicals were very small, did not flow downstream, did not dissolve in the water and are now diminishing. teleSUR
