(Adds Samarco comment)
By Jeb Blount and Brad Haynes
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Brazilian iron ore miner Samarco Mineração SA received serious danger warnings from ground sensors in 2014 and 2015, before a deadly dam burst last November that caused widespread environmental destruction, Globo TV's Fantastico news magazine said on Sunday.
The alerts, from probes driven deep into the dam's structure to detect ground moisture and stability, reached as high as "emergency" levels, Fantastico said, citing Samarco-commissioned engineering studies provided to prosecutors investigating the case. The damburst is considered by many to be the worst environmental disaster in Brazil's history. a 50-50 joint venture between Brazil's Vale SA VALE5.SA and Australia's BHP Billiton (L:BLT) Ltd BHP.AX , is in talks with Brazilian federal and state prosecutors and environmental agencies to settle a 20 billion real ($5 billion) public lawsuit. said the studies did not include sensor data from areas critical to the integrity of recent enlargements to the dam, a sign of scant regard for the sensor data, according to a prosecutor interviewed by the television program.
"It is an extremely grave omission that compromised the operational security of the dam," said Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Pinto, who is investigating the accident for Brazil's Minas Gerais state.
The dam's enlargement, he added, "compromised it in a way that was decisive to its rupture".
The accident sent a tsunami of mud through hundreds of miles (kilometers) of valleys and rivers, killing 17 people, wiping out small towns, polluting drinking water for tens of thousands of people and destroying wildlife from the Minas Gerais highlands to the Atlantic Ocean. Samarco lawyer told Fantastico the firm followed all dam safety and environmental laws and the area of the dam where sensor data was missing was the most secure part of the structure.
In response to Fantastico's reporting on the missing data, the company that provided the sensor data to Samarco said it was not required to supply data to the government that was within normal parameters.
In a response to questions from Reuters, Samarco said in a statement that it "repudiated any speculation about prior knowledge of imminent rupture risk at the dam."
"Alerts contained in consultants reports never indicated imminent risk of rupture," Samarco added
Vale and BHP declined to comment.
BHP has said itwould release the findings of an investigation into the dam burst by New York-based law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton when it is complete. = 3.09 Brazilian reais)