Superfund and Phosphate Mining

There are 1,340 Superfund sites in the US, and many are located near residential areas. An estimated 78 million people, including some 10 million children, live within three miles of a Superfund site. Florida currently has 47 active Superfund sites.

Children are most vulnerable to neurotoxins such as lead and mercury present in water and soil at Superfund sites. There is little consideration for the health risks associated with living in close proximity of potentially harmful land uses. Living near toxic air pollution and toxic waste sites has been linked to health risks ranging from cancer to birth defects. Thousands of families, however, continue to live in polluted neighborhoods.

Congress continues to be deficient in funding the clean-up of the most toxic sites throughout the United States. This is deplorable. In this failure, Congress is allowing the financial burden of the Superfund program to shift from polluters to U.S. taxpayers.

There is concern that Florida is not adequately regulating the phosphate industry. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has been derelict for years in collecting sufficient fees to ensure the safe and timely closure of an abandoned phosphogypsum stack. The ongoing efforts to close the abandoned Piney Point gypsum stacks in Manatee County clearly demonstrate the need to address the true cost of phosphate mining in Florida.

The cost to clean up the abandoned Piney Point phosphate plant will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds have already been spent, and millions more will be needed to remove the sulfuric acid-tainted water from the holding ponds.

The gyp stacks at Piney Point remain a serious threat to human health and the environment. Piney Point will forever be a hazard to the surface and groundwater of Tampa Bay, Terra Ceia Bay, and Bishops Harbor.

The Tenoroc Fish Management Area (TFMA), located in Polk County, is a 6,000-acre tract of partially reclaimed phosphate strip mines donated to the state of Florida in 1982. The Borden Chemical Company conducted phosphate mining at the site between 1965 and 1978. TFMA is one of 21 potential Florida Superfund sites linked to former phosphate-industry operations. TFMA has been identified as having extremely high radiation levels and significant chemical contamination. 14 reclaimed phosphate sites are currently used as public recreational areas.

ManaSota-88 has requested that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conduct additional studies to determine the long-term health effects of exposure to toxic and hazardous substances on employees living or working at TFMA. We have recommended that signs be posted at multiple locations to advise the public that areas of TFMA may be unsafe for swimming, fishing, and human contact.

Inorganic and radiochemical surface-water and fish-tissue sampling must be conducted at TFMA. A comprehensive health risk analysis of all Florida phosphate-reclamation mine sites is needed. We are concerned that too little is being done or is being done too slowly to address a serious health problem. Thus far, our requests for additional studies at Tenoroc have fallen on deaf ears.

A Phosphate Environmental Impact Statement Update is Needed.

Piney Point and the Tenoroc Fish Management Area confirm that more needs to be done to protect its citizens from the harmful effects associated with phosphate mining, fertilizer production, and phosphogypsum waste disposal.

The 2013 Phosphate Environmental Impact Statement is deficient in addressing the public health and environmental impacts of phosphate mining, fertilizer production, and phosphogypsum waste disposal. An updated regional phosphate environmental impact statement is urgently needed before any additional phosphate mining permits are considered.

In support of conducting an updated EIS, there are substantial concerns regarding cumulative impacts and downstream effects on the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary. Additionally, the Peace River supplies potable water directly to the region, and any water quality deterioration due to mining activities will compromise public drinking water supplies and adversely impact public health.

Please Write to:

Col. Brandon Bowman, District Commander, Army Corps of Engineers, 
Jacksonville District
, PO Box 4970, Jacksonville, FL 32232

email: brandon.l.bowman@usace.army.mil

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.

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