Mapeamento de áreas potencialmente contaminadas em município industrializado de médio porte

Abstract

The process of mapping potentially contaminated areas facilitates actions to manage urban environments in this condition, and generates information that enables them to be remediated and adequate urban planning in order to protect public health and the environment from contact with contaminants. The first studies were developed and controlled in the United States and in the European Community in the mid-1980s. Recently, Brazil has invested, in isolation, in researches that deal with the management of these places. These actions depend, first of all, on the identification of areas that are not yet contaminated, i n other words, they have a potential for contamination. In this way, it is evident the need to map areas with potential contamination in Brazil as a whole, taking into account their States and Municipalities. Thus, from a methodology for identification and quantification of potentially contaminated areas developed in a study entitled "Diagnosis of Potentially Contaminated Areas in Urban Environments", the research developed the mapping of potentially contaminated areas in the Municipality of Erechim - RS. The definition of the municipality of application of this research was due to the fact that industrial activity is the main sector that has grown in recent years, besides being considered the major cause of soil contamination. Therefore, the proposal of this research was to map the potentially contaminated areas in the city, from the application of a methodology of identification and quantification of the CETESB method. In order to achieve this objective, the work took place in three main stages: characterization of the historical, industrial and spatial evolution of the Municipality under study, survey of potentially polluting activities and activities in the urban area of Erechim and use of Qgis® software for the elaboration the mapping of potentially conta minated areas located in urban environments. The analysis of most of the data for the identification of potentially contaminated areas required the consideration of some aspects: collection of historical information about the use and occupation of the area s; on-site visits; photographic analysis; association of potentially polluting activities with codes of economic activities. The mapping in Erechim-RS allowed the identification of potentially contaminated areas, distributed in the different regions of the municipality. At the same time, the economic and industrial development of Erechim had a strong relationship with the railroad, since the history of the first industries relates the location to its surroundings. The polluting potential with the highest occurrence of the activities raised in this research is the Medium. Although it was possible to identify areas with potential contamination, the work brought important conclusions regarding the preparation of the municipality to act on the subject. There wasgreat difficulty in finding technical information about the areas under study, and the municipal public power does not present actions aimed at them, a fact that highlights the need to initiate discussions and concrete actions for the future management of potentially contaminated areas. Concomitantly, it was verified, the need of attention on the part of the public power on the control of these areas, because a consolidated structure does not yet exist responsible for the subject.