On August 27th, a huge sink hole appeared under a gypsum stack at a plant operated by the Mosaic company that manufactures fertilizer in Mulberry, Florida which is about thirty miles east of Tampa, Florida. The hole is forty five feet in diameter. An estimated two hundred and sixty million gallons of waste water in the retention pond flowed down through the sinkhole which is believed to reach into the Floridian aquifer which is beneath the whole state. The porous rock layer extends under southern Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, supplying groundwater to the cities of Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Tampa, and St Petersburg. Thousands of wells for domestic, industrial and irrigation also draw water from the Floridian aquifer.
The waste water contains a chemical called phosphogypsum which is a byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer production process This chemical contains uranium and radium that occurs naturally in soil.
When the sinkhole was discovered, Mosaic began diverting the water in the retention pond into another holding pond in order to reduce the quantity of polluted water that was flowing into the sinkhole. The water that had flowed underground was being recovered by being pumped from wells that are used to obtain water for the production of fertilizer.
A mosaic spokesperson said that "ground water moves very slowly." He said that "We have an extensive monitoring system. It's already indicating that it's recovering the material, but it will take some time for that process to complete." He added that the incident would not affect production at the plant. He claims that there is no threat to public health but that the company would offer free water testing for any Floridians concerned about the incident.
The Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity was not comforted by the Mosaic announcement. She said pointed out the fact that the incident was not reported to the general public until September 16th which was three weeks after it happened. Mosaic only released a statement to the public after stories about the sinkhole and waste water drainage appeared in the media. This does not inspire confidence in Mosaic's credibility.
The fertilizer industry in Florida has a bad record of polluting bodies of water and soil with byproducts from their production process. Less than one year ago, Mosaic settled an environmental lawsuit with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mosaic agreed to spend almost two billion dollars improving and cleaning up its plants.
A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said that, “Along with reviewing daily reports, DEP is performing frequent site visits to make sure timely and appropriate response continues in order to safeguard public health and the environment. While monitoring to date indicates that the process water is being successfully contained, groundwater monitoring will continue to ensure there are no offsite or long-term effects." It is estimated that the cost of dealing with the sinkhole and waste water will be between twenty million and fifty million dollars.
Mosaic fertilizer plant in Mulberry, Florida:
