ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200567
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BRASILIA, BRAZIL                                LENGTH: Short

BRAZIL CITES MERCURY POLLUTION IN AMAZON

The government plans to clean up one of the largest waterways in the Amazon rain forest where illegal gold miners have dumped mercury, officials say.

"Without a doubt, there is an ecological time bomb set to go off in the Tapajos River," geologist Elmer Salomao, director of the National Department of Mineral Production, said in an interview Thursday.

Salamao said about 600 tons of mercury have been dumped since 1980 into the Tapajos, a 37,200-square-mile basin and tributary of the Amazon River located in the northern Amazon state of Para.

The government plans to decontaminate the river with a $200 million World Bank loan after a study is completed in December, Salamao said.

Prospectors use mercury in gold panning to join gold dust particles.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB