{"id":4733,"date":"2019-11-16T23:45:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T04:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=4733"},"modified":"2019-11-16T23:46:03","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T04:46:03","slug":"mosaic-submits-critical-condition-report-to-fdep-epa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/11\/16\/mosaic-submits-critical-condition-report-to-fdep-epa\/","title":{"rendered":"Mosaic submits ‘Critical Condition Report’ to FDEP, EPA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An FDEP spokesperson said the latest incident does not\nappear critical and is contained on-site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By CHARLES A. BAKER II<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In less than one year\u2019s time, there have been three\nincidents at Mosaic’s Bartow facility that were serious enough to mandate staff\nto alert government regulators, including one incident that occurred as\nrecently as last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on Florida Department of Environmental Protection\n(FDEP) public records, cracks were discovered on the south and east walls of\nthe active Mosaic Bartow facility gypstack, located south of State Road 60 and\nwest of Bartow, on the day after Christmas last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gypstack, generally speaking, is a man-made mountain of\nslightly radioactive phosphate mining waste that, on the mountain peak,\ncontains a body of slightly acidic mining wastewater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Polk County, gypstacks are located in Bartow, Mulberry\nand Fort Meade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All active gypstacks and their associated containment ponds\nare required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be\nlined with a synthetic liner to prevent pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosaic staff did not report the Christmas 2018 incident to\nthe Florida Phosphate Management Program Division of Water Resource Management\nuntil March 8, 2019. By then, a second set of cracks had been discovered, close\nto where the initial cracks had already been repaired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 11, Phosphate Management Program Environmental\nSpecialist Gordon D’Abreu sent Mosaic a list of questions. Two weeks later,\nMosaic staff responded, mostly relying on a report dated April 23 and written\nby Ardaman & Associates Senior Project Manager Rafeek Nashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe February 2019 crack, which is considered as an\nextension of the repaired section of the crack, is approximately 2 to 3-inches\nwide and 4 to 6 feet deep,\u201d Nashed wrote. \u201cThe February 2019 crack remains dry\nwithin the observed depth of the crack, mostly because of the installed horizontal\ndrain located within the southeastern corner at approximate elevation 370 ft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third incident at the Mosaic Bartow facility within the\npast year took place last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to FDEP documents dated Oct. 23, a Mosaic field\ninspector discovered liquid seeping near the southwest base of the Bartow\nfacility gypstack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Mosaic staff mobilized heavy equipment and\npersonnel to contain and recover the seepage, and they began staging pumps to\nintercept the seepage water and convey it back into a lined containment pond\narea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An earth dam was installed to prevent any further wastewater\nfrom reaching nearby, low-lying marshland. Pumps were set up in the event that\nthe dams broke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liquid is still seeping, according to Mosaic Phosphates\nPublic and Government Affairs Director Callie Neslund and Mosaic Director of\nEHS Services for Phosphates Pat Kane, who gave the Board of Polk County\nCommissioners an update on the situation Nov. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on continuing seepage, initially discovered, reported\nand inspected by (FDEP) on October 23rd in the vicinity of the southwest corner\nof the South Phosphogypsum stack at Bartow, and the investigation data\ncollected to date, there now is reason to suspect that liner damage may exist,\u201d\nFarrell wrote Nov. 8 in a \u201cCritical Condition Report\u201d to the EPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FDEP Communications Director Dee Ann Miller said the latest\nincident does not appear critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Department\u2019s initial inspections confirmed that the\nseepage itself was not a critical condition, but that the source of the seepage\nrequired investigation and repairs once the source was identified,\u201d Miller\nsaid. \u201cSubsequent investigation provided water quality and hydrologic\ninformation that suggested that liner damage may be the source of seepage, so\non Nov. 8, Mosaic submitted a critical condition report to FDEP and EPA as\nrequired by rule and their existing Consent Decree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller further said, \u201cInspections and data submitted\nindicate that the seepage is contained onsite and has not impacted water\nresources. There are NO signs of any failure of the geology underlying the\ngypstack system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After EPA lawyers sued Mosaic over pollution related\nconcerns several years ago, lawyers representing the federal government and\nMosaic lawyers settled their case concerns Sept. 29, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of that final consent degree included a requirement\nthat Mosaic staff alert the EPA of any subsequent concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, it is unclear whether the Christmas 2018 incident\nand the February 2019 incident have been reported to EPA staff. These incidents\nwere not part of presentations to county commissioners or the Polk County\nIndustry Community Advisory Panel, a group of around 35 people who address\npublic concerns regarding the impact of Mosaic’s operations on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those incidents have been reported to the Florida Phosphate\nManagement Program Division of Water Resource Management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosaic’s Bartow facility is involved in the production of\nphosphate fertilizers, electrical power and fluoridation ingredients, according\nto the corporate website. Finished products include Diammonium Phosphate (DAP),\nMonoammonium Phosphate (MAP), MicroEssentials and Fluorosilicic Acid (FSA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosaic has a Southwest Florida Water Management District\nwater-use permit allowing them to remove around 70 million gallons of water out\nof the Upper Floridan Aquifer every day. Recently, Mosaic staff submitted an\napplication for a water-use permit reauthorizing them to discharge 2.689\nmillion gallons of mining water into the Peace River Basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosaic is consistently a top taxpayer in the county,\nannually paying around $11 million in county taxes, and the corporation employs\naround 1,300 area residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, Mosaic reported a net loss of $44 million for the\nthird quarter of 2019, and adjusted net earnings of $29 million, after notable\nitems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twice since 1994, sinkholes have opened up under gypstacks\nin Mulberry, dumping millions of gallons of mining wastewater into the upper Florida\naquifer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An FDEP spokesperson said the latest incident does not appear critical and is contained on-site. By CHARLES A. BAKER II In less than one year\u2019s time, there have been three… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4734,"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":"12","_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":"","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":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}