{"id":76448,"date":"2026-08-14T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=76448"},"modified":"2026-08-14T02:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:25:23","slug":"appeals-court-approves-florida-plan-for-radioactive-roads-made-from-toxic-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/08\/14\/appeals-court-approves-florida-plan-for-radioactive-roads-made-from-toxic-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court approves Florida plan for radioactive roads made from toxic waste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a decision issued by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals<\/strong>, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval for a test road project made with phosphogypsum<\/strong>\u2014a radioactive byproduct of phosphate fertilizer production.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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A phosphogypsum stack located near Riverview, close to Tampa Bay. Credit:\u00a0Photo by Mike Knepper\/Center for Biological Diversity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The ruling allows fertilizer giant Mosaic<\/strong> to move forward with constructing a 1-mile pilot road on its private property at the New Wales facility in Polk County, Florida.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Core Issues Behind the Ruling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. What is Phosphogypsum?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Phosphogypsum is the toxic waste generated during wet-process phosphoric acid production for agricultural fertilizer.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Radioactivity:<\/strong> It contains trace amounts of naturally occurring radium, which decays into radon gas<\/strong>, a carcinogenic air pollutant.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Current Disposal:<\/strong> Because of environmental and public health risks, the EPA historically mandated that phosphogypsum be stored in massive, open-air “gypsum stacks”. Florida currently houses over a billion tons of this material.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    2. The Court\u2019s Rationale<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The suit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity<\/strong> and other environmental groups, who argued that integrating toxic waste into roadway construction poses an unacceptable public health risk and violated agency regulations.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus wrote for the unanimous panel that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • The EPA’s Risk Assessment Was Sound:<\/strong> The court determined that the EPA provided a coherent, science-backed methodology evaluating exposure pathways.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Low Radiation Risk:<\/strong> EPA estimates found the cancer risk for nearby residents and facility workers was less than 1 in 1 million, and for truck drivers hauling the material, roughly 2.7 in 10 million\u2014far below safety threshold limits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Controlled Environment:<\/strong> Because the test road is located on an existing industrial site that already stores phosphogypsum, building a private road on-site does not present a significantly higher risk than leaving the waste in open-air stacks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      What Happens Next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Strict Conditions:<\/strong> While Mosaic can proceed, the EPA ruling imposes strict oversight. Mosaic must conduct pre-construction radiological sampling, annual repeat testing, and at least 18 months of groundwater monitoring<\/strong> following construction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Not a Blanket Approval:<\/strong> The 11th Circuit noted that this decision does not grant open authorization<\/strong> to use phosphogypsum on public highways or other commercial projects. Any future application outside this single pilot project will require a separate, full EPA risk assessment and approval process.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Environmental Opposition:<\/strong> Conservation groups continue to express concern that test projects like this establish a dangerous precedent, opening the door for the fertilizer industry to offload toxic waste into civil infrastructure across Florida and the nation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        In a decision issued by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval for a test road project made with… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76449,"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":"","_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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDhcL1JpdmVydmlld19GTF9waG9zcGhvZ3lwc3VtX3N0YWNrX01pa2VfS25lcHBlcl9GUFdDLTE1MzZ4ODIzLTEud2VicD9maXQ9NzgwJTJDNDE4JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiQXBwZWFscyBjb3VydCBhcHByb3ZlcyBGbG9yaWRhIHBsYW4gZm9yIHJhZGlvYWN0aXZlIHJvYWRzIG1hZGUgZnJvbSB0b3hpYyB3YXN0ZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.yFZIymt70Ac0xhPApHiw_wLNNUL5FctaE9LPpdg-aBgMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA4XC9SaXZlcnZpZXdfRkxfcGhvc3Bob2d5cHN1bV9zdGFja19NaWtlX0tuZXBwZXJfRlBXQy0xNTM2eDgyMy0xLndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJBcHBlYWxzIGNvdXJ0IGFwcHJvdmVzIEZsb3JpZGEgcGxhbiBmb3IgcmFkaW9hY3RpdmUgcm9hZHMgbWFkZSBmcm9tIHRveGljIHdhc3RlIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.1mCwhnzmYdw9V47go4v1OqGLViYx5ZOzt_5loKl1gywMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[16099,16100],"class_list":["post-76448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-radioactive-roads","tag-toxic-waste"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76448","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=76448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76450,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76448\/revisions\/76450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}