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Erin Moffet
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(850) 766-7358
Erin.Moffet@FDACS.gov
Caroline Stonecipher
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(850) 661-7153
Caroline.Stonecipher@FDACS.gov
Sabina Covo
Hispanic Media Director
Sabina.Covo@FDACS.gov
Tallahassee, Fla. – Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services submitted formal public comment to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in opposition to an application for substantial revision by Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC. The revision would allow an expansion of Mosaic’s New Wales Concentration Plant Phosphogypsum stack.
The public comment reads:
I stand in opposition against the proposed 200-acre expansion of Mosaic’s New Wales Concentrate Plant Phosphogypsum stack.
It is unconscionable that Mosaic is moving forward with this application while Tampa Bay is still reeling from and seeking solutions to the environmentally disastrous Piney Point leak. There have been at least four sink holes or anomalies at this site since 1994. The most recent sinkhole, in 2016, went unreported to the public for weeks, during which time over 200 million gallons of radioactive wastewater and a still unknown amount of Phosphogypsum made it into the Floridan aquifer. Mosaic is acutely aware that the New Wales site is prone to sink holes and ultimately, unsafe for long term management of gypsum stacks.
I ask that you deny this expansion or any new Phosphogypsum stack until our state can find a way to safely store Phosphogypsum without risking the health and safety of our citizens and Florida’s precious environment.
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