{"id":36823,"date":"2023-10-05T18:39:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T22:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=36823"},"modified":"2023-10-05T18:39:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T22:39:15","slug":"local-concerns-rise-as-mosaic-plans-to-use-more-radioactive-waste-in-road-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/10\/05\/local-concerns-rise-as-mosaic-plans-to-use-more-radioactive-waste-in-road-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Concerns Rise as Mosaic Plans to Use More Radioactive Waste in Road Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mosaic, a major fertilizer company, has been advised by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to expand its proposal of using radioactive phosphate waste in road construction. The company&#8217;s plan includes using phosphogypsum, a byproduct of fertilizer production, in a test roadway at its New Wales facility in Mulberry, Florida. Initially, Mosaic intended to use less than 500 tons of phosphogypsum. However, following FDOT&#8217;s suggestion, the company now plans to use 1,200 tons and extend the test road by 2,000 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"386\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-36824\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-3.jpg 580w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-3-300x200.jpg 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The phosphate industry has faced challenges in disposing of phosphogypsum, a slightly radioactive byproduct. It is currently stored in large piles or gypstacks. Mosaic&#8217;s plan to use this material in roadbeds has led to concerns about potential radioactive contamination over time. Critics worry about potential negative impacts on human and environmental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Environmental activists have expressed strong opposition to the company&#8217;s proposal. Garrett Stuart, leader of the nonprofit Eco Preservation Project, has been particularly outspoken. Stuart has organized awareness events in South Florida and expressed concerns about potential contamination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the opposition, Mosaic has received considerable support from the state government. The company has contributed to the Republican Party of Florida and was a sponsor of Governor Ron DeSantis&#8217; inauguration ceremony. Mosaic&#8217;s recent request to expand its proposal followed recommendations from the FDOT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The proposed expansion of Mosaic&#8217;s plan is pending approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A spokesperson for the state agency has not yet commented on the matter. Stakeholders are keenly awaiting the federal agency&#8217;s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oursantaferiver.org\/mosaic-buys-desantis\/\">Visit here for more details<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mosaic, a major fertilizer company, has been advised by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to expand its proposal of using radioactive phosphate waste in road construction. The company&#8217;s plan&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[6222],"class_list":["post-36823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-concerns-rise-as-mosaic-plans-to-use-more-radioactive-waste-in-road-construction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}