Citizens from five different Florida counties were out in number at Monday night’s so-called “Open House” meeting held at the Mulberry Civic Center, an effort put on by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Agency and Mosaic to help put at ease the fears of those who object to Mosaic’s most recent NPDES permit.
It was advertised as a hearing but was turned into a big “dog and pony show”.
The Mosaic permit, which is renewed every few years, establishes guidelines for discharges to surface waters under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program, a federal program established by the Clean Water Act to control discharges from sources.
Approximately 2.689 million gallons a day of industrial waste water will be released into the Peace River from the Bartow South Chemical Plant, according to the permit.
“This looks like a science fair,” said Hunter Sullivan, who added that he felt like everyone should have been invited for a “formal” public hearing, with chairs in a room before a board of commissioners so everyone could present their point of view.
Others felt the same, noting “where are we going to sit,” and asked organizers why a public hearing was not being held for the matter.
Instead, what citizens found were several stations set up with easels and boards, a few tables with displays and each station manned by Mosaic’s team or the FDEP.
The idea, organizers said, was that everyone could peruse the room.
FDEP Press Secretary Dee Ann Miller said there seemed to be a misunderstanding among many who attended, thinking the meeting was a “public hearing.”
She said the meeting was put on as an “open house,” and a chance for those who came to get their questions answered and voices heard.
Pointing to a nearby comment table, she noted that everyone could sign their comments and they would be read and considered.
Three Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies were on duty for the event, and the doors to the Civic Center were locked until precisely 4 p.m.
NO protest signs were allowed inside the building, Period.
Some among those waiting outside the center knocked loudly on the glass windows, one gentleman protesting loudly that it was wrong for the organizers to lock the doors before the open house.
Norma Killebrew, the local rancher who spearheaded a petition objecting issuance of the permit that has grown to some 440 signers thus far, was outside collecting more signatures.
“Our residents — most of our residents are impacted by mining, phosphate mining,” she said. Many from Polk, Punta Gorda and Charlotte County were in attendance, she noted.
Killebrew said about four or five years ago, her ranch lost all its water. “We had to sell half our cattle. Mining tells you that it is a temporary thing, but you know I don’t live that long,” she said.
Her husband died of leukemia, and she said she felt the water had something to do with it. “A bunch of us are the walking wounded. We have had families impacted by the effluent that they are letting out of these NDPES outlets,” she said. Both of her wells tested high for radiation, she said.
Sea captain Paul DeGaeta said he came to the meeting because he lives on Peace River and remembers the phosphate spills in the 60s and 70s, noting “It was a 90% fish kill on the 106-mile Peace River.”
According to literature distributed at the gathering by the FDEP, the FDEP will review all public comment before it takes its final action to either approve or deny the permit. If the permit is approved to be renewed, then Mosaic will be required to issue a public notice, and the public would have a 14-day period of time where the public may challenge the Department’s proposed action.
In addition to the usual NDPES program permit guidelines of effluent limits, the construction, operation, inspection, maintenance, closure and long term care of phosphogypsum stacks systems, groundwater quality protections and monitoring, among other guidelines, the drafter permit is more strict than the existing one, according to the FDEP.
Phosphogypsum is a by-product generated during the manufacture of phosphoric acid.
The FDEP says that under the National Emission Standards for Hazard Air Pollutants, under 40 CFE Part 61 Subpart R, phosphogypsum must be placed in stacks.
Two additional internal surface water monitoring sites are included, Mosaic is required to establish a new background instream monitoring station, as well as evaluations for downstream instream biological criteria, new total ammonia nitrogen criteria, two new groundwater quality monitoring wells, and a revised Fate and Transport Analysis.
The FDEP says Mosaic is currently in “compliance” with two consent orders associated with the site, and have implemented “specific monitoring requirements” to track the progress of the corrective actions indicated in the permit.
Callie Neslund, director of public and government affairs at Mosaic, said “The standards for how gypsum stacks and clay settling areas have changed, and they are now built to strict engineering standards.”
“There were clay settling area breaches, but that is not part of this permit, and that is not part of these operations.”
“It is required by all industrial facilities, that is landfills, that is municipal waste, water treatment facilities, any industrial. It is a federal permit that is required by the State of Florida that sets the standards by which any water is leaving your site has to meet. So Mosaic has process water at our facilities that we recycle and reutilize in our operations. But also we have stormwater that we receive onsite and have to discharge. And all of that is monitored, both groundwater and surface water.”
Neslund said Mosaic has had operations consistently at this site, and the permit is renewed every five years.
Mosaic is not asking for any additional capacity or changes, she said.