Phosphate Wastewater Injection Well

Another underground injection control well is being proposed to dispose of phosphate waste water. ManaSota-88 continues to oppose the construction of any deep injection well for getting rid of phosphate wastewater.

Groundwater pollution detection is an inexact science. It is easy to miss a toxic plume. Our knowledge of the health risks of long-term exposure to toxic & radioactive substances in phosphate wastewater is very limited.

The facts are that contaminated groundwater may be untreatable, with the resource lost forever. Additionally, our knowledge of the health risks of long-term exposure to low levels of toxic substances is very limited.

There are many problems associated with UIC. All wells are subject to failure, and there are too many unknowns to inject treated or partially treated effluent. The operation of a deep well relies very heavily on predictions and good faith.

Deep well injection is done because liquid wastes that cannot be discharged into surface waters are injected into deep wells. Thus, the worst wastes end up in these wells, and existing DEP regulations are inadequate. There is inadequate knowledge of how to adequately monitor this well. If a failure occurs, very little can be done to correct it. If an aquifer is contaminated, it's too late.

Confining layers don't confine, and effluents will ultimately migrate beyond the point of injection. Monitoring programs are highly ineffective. Little is known of the chemistry and the biology of well-injected wastes, except that those wastes move underground.

The composition of underground aquifer formations is not always as uniform as scientific models would have us believe. Nevertheless, most studies of deep-well injected wastes are based on such models.

While the models upon which decisions to inject wastes are based look good on paper, changing conditions in the aquifers can allow wastewater to seep into the groundwater supply, and it would be too late then to correct the problem.

Inaccurate assumptions can be made about the migration of waste and changes in pressure resulting from deep well injection.

Failure to prevent adverse chemical and biological reactions between injected effluent and the well materials, the injection zone, and the confining layers is possible.

Failure to require mechanical integrity testing at an adequate frequency to detect damage of the well before significant leakage occurs is possible.

Deep well injection results in the acceptance of lower levels of protection for underground sources of water, which directly contradicts the spirit of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Over the long term, treating wastes to advanced wastewater standards is cheaper rather than trying to dump secondarily treated wastes out of sight and finding later that serious pollution problems have occurred.

ManaSota-88 questions whether Mosaic has provided reasonable assurances that the cumulative impacts of the proposed UIC, including applicable past, present, and foreseeable cumulative impacts, will not cause violations of any state or federal standard or whether Mosaic has provided reasonable assurances that the draft permit, if issued, is not open-ended, thus allowing for continued discharges of acutely or chronically toxic discharges.

Unless phosphate mining is stopped, the future prognosis for our surface and groundwater will be severely impacted by mining activities.

Glenn Compton is the Chairman of ManaSota 88, a non-profit organization that has spent over 30 years fighting to protect the environment of Manatee and Sarasota counties.