The defendant was granted the permission by the Brazilian government to build a landfill in the city of Ponta Grossa. Two environmental institutions, acting as plaintiffs, brought the case in front of the Supreme Court of Brazil.

The claim of the plaintiffs was based on the fact that the agreement for the landfill building may cause “irreparable lesions to the public health and order”. The plaintiffs also claimed that the landfill building was a violation of the precautionary principle as this would mean  that the landfill will be built on an underground aquifer, which supplies more than 300 wells in the city of Ponta Grossa So there is an imminent risk of serious injury to the environment, a damage that will be impossible to later repair, as it would have to consist in the demolition of the building, the enormous financial loss, not to mention the reparation to the environmental damage, with several other implications of economic, social, health and environmental order, if the decision will be reformed in the Superior Court”.

The judge agrees to the appellant reasoning claiming  there is also a  judicial precedent for this class action, which is the the Judgment SLS No. 1279/PR on which the then President of the High Court of Justice, Ari Pargendler ruled. Therefore, for the rule of the extension, the conclusion for this appeal must be the same.

“In terms of the environment, the precautionary principle must always prevail, especially when it concerns underground waters. Nothing should be added about the value of the quality of water, which is already becoming poor”. For all these reasons the judge denies the request of extension of license of the landfill, determining the suspension of the effects of the agreement contested by the plaintiffs