A London judge ruled on Friday that global mining giant BHP Group is responsible for Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, which happened ten years ago when a dam collapsed and released tons of toxic waste into a major river, killing 19 people and destroying villages downstream.

High Court Justice Finola O’Farrell said BHP, based in Australia, was responsible even though it did not own the dam at the time. BHP owns half of Samarco, the Brazilian company that runs the iron ore mine where the dam broke on November 5, 2015. Enough mine waste to fill 13,000 Olympic-size swimming pools poured into the Doce River in southeastern Brazil. The sludge destroyed the busy village of Bento Rodrigues in Minas Gerais state and badly damaged other towns. The disaster also killed 14 tons of freshwater fi

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