Nice to see OSFR quoted by newscasters regarding environmental issues instead of the go-to guy Audubon, just for a change. Also nice to see news people reading our website.
Not so nice to see our DEP working with the phosphate industry to pollute our Florida waters and kill the aquatic life there, all in the name of making money. Our protection agencies protect our industry and our polluters first and foremost.
Another point on the subject of this article but not mentioned is that Chemours has the blessings of DEP to release holding ponds with contaminated water in anticipation of impending flooding, such as the storm Ian.
Thus we can expect quantities of pollution headed down to the upper Santa Fe. Chemours has been known to frequently break the laws already, so this is just another release of pollution by a renegade mining company aided and abetted by our DEP.
Pollution from Florida mining a concern with Hurricane Ian
By CURT ANDERSON – Associated Press
Posted:
Updated:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry, more than 1 billion tons in “stacks” that resemble enormous ponds, are at risk for leaks or other contamination when Hurricane Ian comes ashore in the state, environmental groups say.
Florida has 24 such phosphogypsum stacks, most of them concentrated in mining areas in the central part of the state. About 30 million tons of this slightly radioactive waste is generated every year, according to the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute.
“A major storm event like the one we are bracing for can inundate the facilities with more water than the open-air ponds can handle,” Ragan Whitlock, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group, said in an email Tuesday.
“We are extremely concerned about the potential impacts Hurricane Ian may have on phosphate facilities around the state,” Whitlock added.
A leak in March 2021 at a stack called Piney Point resulted in the release of an estimated 215 million gallons of polluted water into Tampa Bay, causing massive fish kills. State officials, overseen by a court-appointed receiver, are working with a $100 million appropriation to shut down that long-troubled location.
“During the past six months, the receiver has made significant progress toward closing the facility,” lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a court filing Monday.
But the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued with other groups to close down Piney Point, noted that 4.5 million additional gallons of wastewater were released into Tampa Bay in August.
“The imminent and substantial endangerment to the environment and human health and safety posed by Piney Point has not been abated” since a judge ordered a six-month stay in the case.
Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall in southwest Florida on Wednesday before cutting through the state — very close to many of the gypsum stacks.
State Department of Environmental Protection records show that Piney Point has about 24 inches (60 centimeters) of rainfall capacity. Another facility in the Tampa Bay area, operated by phosphate giant Mosaic Co., has just over 9 inches (22 centimeters) of rainfall capacity.
A spill could seriously damage rivers and other wetlands near the stacks, according to Jim Tatum of the Our Santa Fe River nonprofit group.
“Valuable aquatic and vegetative resources never fully recover from a spill,” Tatum wrote on the organization’s website. “As the highly acidic, radioactive slime makes its way to the receiving waters, entire aquatic ecosystems are impacted.”
A Mosaic spokeswoman did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment.
Phosphate has been mined in Florida since 1883. It’s used mainly for fertilizer to produce food, animal supplements and a variety of industrial products. Land used in mining is required to be “reclaimed,” or brought as close as possible back to its original state.
The byproducts that wind up in the stacks, however, have few uses acceptable to federal regulators. They can contain radioactive uranium, thorium and radium along with toxic metals such as barium, cadmium and lead, according to the environmental group ManaSota 88.
Fertilizers are made from phosphate rock that contains naturally occurring uranium and thorium, which decay to radium, and radium decays to the radioactive gas radon, the Environmental Protection Agency says. Class-action lawsuits have claimed health effects for people living near the mining waste.
“Phosphate companies have had over 70 years to figure out a way to dispose of radioactive gypsum wastes in an acceptable manner, but they have yet to do so,” said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota 88.
Published by OSFR
Our Santa Fe River, Inc is a Florida not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization composed of concerned citizens working to protect the waters and lands supporting the aquifer, springs and rivers within the watershed of the Santa Fe River. We do this by promoting public awareness pertaining to the ecology, quality, and quantity of the waters and lands immediately adjacent to and supporting the Santa Fe River, including its springs and underlying aquifer.
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