Brazilian petrochemical company settles with city where mining destroyed entire neighborhoods

abcnews.go.com:

Brazil’s petrochemical giant Braskem says it has reached a $356 million settlement with a coastal city where four decades of the company’s rock salt mining destroyed five urban neighborhoods and displaced tens of thousands of people

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's petrochemical giant Braskem said Friday it had reached a $356 million settlement with a coastal city where four decades of the company's rock salt mining destroyed five urban neighborhoods and displaced tens of thousands of people.

Around 200,000 people in the Alagoas state’s capital of Maceio were affected by the excessive extraction of rock salt, according to the Brazil Senate’s website. In recent years, several Maceio communities became ghost towns as residents accepted Braskem's payouts to relocate.

The settlement — about 1.7 billion Brazilian reais — between Braskem and Maceio will be used for structural works in the city and for a residents’ support fund, the municipality said in a statement. The agreement does not invalidate negotiations between Braskem and the residents of the affected areas, it added.

The company has so far paid over 3.7 billion reais ($775 million) in various compensations, including financial aid, Braskem said earlier this month. It said that Friday's settlement “represents yet another important advance" in the issue of Alagoas.

According to Braskem, over 17,000 residents — or over 90% of all residents that the company plans to compensate — and over 5,000 businesses had received compensation by the end of June.

Local activists were less enthusiastic following Friday's announcement.

Pastor Wellington Santos at the Baptist church in Pinheiro, one of the affected neighborhoods, said he recognizes the funds will be used to “modernize the