History of Phosphate Mining in Florida Fraught with Peril

Throughout the world, phosphate rock is mined and used to manufacture phosphate fertilizers. It is very useful in farming, but phosphate processing plants in the Tampa Bay Region have caused some of Florida's worst environmental disasters.

One example is the recent incident that happened at the Piney Point phosphate plant in Manatee County, Florida. At this site, there was a hole from which more than 200 million gallons of polluted water flowed into Tampa Bay. When this breach in the gypsum stack happened, 300 families were evacuated from the area for several days. The administrator of Manatee County said during a news conference that, “We’re down to about 340 million gallons that could breach in totality in a period of minutes.” It was predicted that in less than an hour it would be as high as a 20-foot wall of water. Incidents like this one go down in Florida’s history books, and this incident isn’t even close to the worst.

In 1997, a dam atop a Mulberry Phosphates fertilizer plant broke during heavy rains, which caused 56 million gallons of acidic wastewater to spill into the Alafia River. All plants and animals within the 42 miles between Mulberry and Tampa Bay were killed, including more than 1 million fish. In 2004, a tropical storm whipped up waves atop a 180 foot tall gypsum stack in Mosaic’s phosphate plant in Riverview (Mosaic is the world’s largest phosphate producer). The waves caused 65 million gallons of polluted water to flow into Archie Creek. Enormous numbers of fish were killed, and acres of mangroves and seagrass were also killed. In 2016, one of the deepest sinkholes ever recorded in Florida opened underneath the Mosaic’s New Wales plant in Mulberry. More than 200 million gallons of contaminated water spiraled underground. These are just a few examples of how treacherous these incidents can get.

Gyp Stacks can be extremely problematic, but we can't simply get rid of them. It would be dangerous to do so, as the water contains pollutants like heavy metals, and is also radioactive.

However, the Center of Biological Diversity is trying to stop problems like these from happening again as the phosphate mining industry continues to grow and change. The Florida Director for the Center of Biological Diversity, Jaclyn Lopez, says that they want to make sure that “it’s not leaving behind this toxic legacy for Florida to deal with.”

Charities:

• Center for Biological Diversity (a nonprofit environmental group based in Arizona) https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/phosphate_mining/