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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhosphate mining in Florida. By Jaclyn Lopez (used with permission).<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhosphate mining in Florida. By Jaclyn Lopez (used with permission).<\/p>\n
by Craig Pittman, Florida Phoenix<\/a> There was a time, a dozen years ago, when you couldn\u2019t turn on a TV in Florida without seeing an ad for the Mosaic Co<\/a>. You\u2019d see scenes of golden waves of grain and farmers tilling their crops, and you\u2019d hear a woman talking in glowing terms about the world\u2019s largest phosphate miner.<\/p>\n \u201cOur promise is to always take our commitment to the environment seriously,\u201d the ads would say.<\/p>\n Speaking of glowing, one word you never heard in those TV ads was \u201cradioactive.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The process of mining phosphate unearths a certain amount of radiation. That\u2019s what led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to decree that the waste from phosphate mining and processing would have to be stacked up in gigantic mounds, to protect everybody who\u2019s not in the phosphate business.<\/p>\n The land where the mining once occurred tends to remain radioactive, which means builders do their best to avoid building on top of it. Ha ha, just kidding! Builders in Florida have never cared much about what happens to their buyers.<\/p>\n An estimated 50,000 Floridians now live atop what used to be mining pits. Conditions are still the pits.<\/p>\n Glenn Compton of ManaSota-88 via Glenn Compton<\/p>\n \u201cThe owners think the property is safe, but it\u2019s not \u2014 it\u2019s hazardous,\u201d said Glenn Compton<\/a> of the environmental group ManaSota-88. \u201cIt poses a serious health risk for people.\u201d<\/p>\n Now some of those people are suing Mosaic for leaving behind so much poison.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ground and soil that support and form the very foundation upon which [the plaintiffs\u2019] homes sit is contaminated with uranium and radium-226 caused by Mosaic\u2019s phosphate mining operations,\u201d one lawsuit says.<\/p>\n Poor, pitiful (but highly profitable) Mosaic is s-s-scared the company is going to lose \u2014 so scared, in fact, that the Fortune 500 company has turned to the Legislature for help.<\/p>\n The Florida House is leaping to shield the big polluter from having to pay for what it\u2019s done. It\u2019s on today\u2019s Special Order Calendar in the House floor, meaning the floor debate will begin.<\/p>\n An X-ray a week\t<\/p>\n If you ever get sick of the flatness of the Florida peninsula, take a drive through the soaring 200-foot gypsum stacks<\/a> in the region known as \u201cBone Valley.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Bone Valley got that name because it\u2019s the location of an ancient fossil bed full of such extinct animals as giant sloths and saber-toothed tigers. Thanks to the pressure of the 20 to 40 feet of earth above them, those prehistoric creatures\u2019 bones have turned into phosphate rock.<\/p>\n Ever since 1899, when ex-Confederate soldier Albertus Vogt<\/a> discovered the original phosphate deposit while digging a well near Dunnellon, people have been digging the stuff up and converting it into fertilizer. Phosphate mining now extends through 450,000 acres of Central Florida.<\/a> Most of the mines are owned by Mosaic, based in Tampa.<\/p>\n When the miners are done, the law requires them to undertake what\u2019s known as \u201creclamation.<\/a>\u201d In other words, they put back all the soil, sand, and other \u201coverburden\u201d that they excavated. But there are no rules that say to get rid of the radiation, so the radioactive material that they exposed tends to stay at or near the surface.<\/p>\n Erik Crown via IMDB<\/p>\n A filmmaker and cancer survivor named Erik Crown<\/a> discovered the results when he traveled through Bone Valley with a Geiger counter while shooting a documentary called \u201cPhosfate.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe checked the radiation levels in every place we stopped,\u201d Crown told me. In every place they checked \u2014 parks, playgrounds, housing developments \u2014 the radiation levels were far above what\u2019s considered safe.<\/p>\n The reclaimed areas all looked nice, Crown told me \u2014 \u201cas long as you don\u2019t think about the fact that radiation is everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2017, residents of Lakeland\u2019s Oakbridge and Grasslands communities sued the developer<\/a> who built their homes on top of old mining sites.<\/p>\n They reached a confidential settlement in 2024, but, in announcing the deal<\/a>, their law firm pointed out that \u201ctesting before development of the subdivisions showed radiation levels 11 to 21 times higher than the acceptable risk limit.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet the company never warned homebuyers of the danger.<\/p>\n In 2020, residents of two more Mulberry communities, Angler\u2019s Green and Paradise Lakes, filed suit against Mosaic<\/a>, hoping to hold the company liable for any health damage to the homeowners.<\/p>\n \u201cExposure to levels of radiation similar to those identified in the Angler\u2019s Green and Paradise Lakes communities,\u201d the suit contends, \u201ctranslates to residents receiving over one chest X-ray per week \u2014 with obviously no diagnostic or health purpose whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n Piney Point and other disasters\t<\/p>\n Phosphate mining has had a huge economic impact on Florida. It also has had a disastrous impact on its ecosystems, contrary to what those TV ads claimed.<\/p>\n For instance, in 1997 a dam full of acidic water atop a gypsum stack at a Mulberry Phosphates fertilizer plant broke during heavy rains. It spilled 56 million gallons of acidic wastewater into the Alafia River,<\/a> killing every living thing in the 42 miles between Mulberry and Tampa Bay. The company declared bankruptcy.<\/p>\n Or look at the horrific Piney Point disaster<\/a> five years ago, which resulted from state regulators repeatedly bending the rules<\/a> to accommodate the mining industry.<\/p>\n Mosaic has played a major role in quite a few of these environmental disasters.<\/p>\n In 2004, to pick just one example, Tropical Storm Frances broke the dam atop a gypsum stack at Mosaic\u2019s Riverview plant. Some 65 million gallons of waste<\/a> flowed into a creek flowing into Tampa Bay, killing fish, mangroves, and seagrass.<\/p>\n The company generates a lot of pollution to dump, so in 2012 it got a state permit to suck 70 million gallons of water out of the aquifer every day.<\/a> Mosaic uses the water to dilute its waste before spewing it into various waterways. The permit allowed Mosaic to tap more than 250 wells in Hillsborough, Manatee, Polk, Hardee, and DeSoto counties, an area that since 1992 had been under tight water-use restrictions.<\/p>\n In 2015, the company reached a $2 billion settlement<\/a> with the EPA over its handling of hazardous waste in both Florida and Louisiana. A government spokesman called it \u201cthe most significant enforcement action in the mining and mineral processing arena\u201d in the U.S.<\/p>\n Bruce Bodine via Linkedin<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think the penalty made much of a dent in the company\u2019s finances, though. Its CEO, Bruce Bodine, makes $9.9 million every year.<\/a><\/p>\n Anyway, our legislators don\u2019t care about all that environmental damage stuff. To them, drinkable, swimmable, fishable water doesn\u2019t mean much. Piney Point and those other disasters did not lead them to impose any new rules or regulations on this dirty industry.<\/p>\n What they do care about is how generous Mosaic has been to their campaign coffers.<\/p>\n Not just an ATM\t<\/p>\n For this part of the story, I tip my hat to independent journalist Jason Garcia\u2019s \u201cSeeking Rents\u201d Substack.<\/p>\n \u201cMosaic is one of the largest campaign contributors in Florida politics,\u201d Garcia reported recently<\/a>. \u201cRecords show the company has donated more than $500,000 to state candidates and committees through the first nine months [of 2025] \u2014 including more than $100,000 to a fundraising committee led by GOP leaders in the Florida Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n If you do the company a favor, Mosaic shows that it\u2019s not just an ATM.<\/p>\n Rep. Lawrence McClure via Florida House<\/p>\n Three years ago, Dover Rep. Lawrence McClure,<\/a> a Republican who\u2019s a partner in an environmental consulting firm<\/a>, successfully pushed through a bill Mosaic wanted. The bill would let the mining giant test its phosphogypsum waste as road-building material<\/a> instead of continuing to stack it up in giant mounds. After the bill passed, Mosaic paid $100,000 to sponsor a fundraiser for McClure\u2019s political action committee, Conservative Florida.<\/p>\n When the Tampa Bay Times<\/a> broke the story on this, McClure contended the fundraiser was not a payback for doing Mosaic\u2019s bidding. He insisted it was nothing more than standard practice, which should tell you a lot about how politics works in Florida.<\/p>\n Still, McClure was so grateful to Mosaic that he\u2019s one of two sponsors on this bill to protect the company from being sued. I picture McClure walking the halls in Tallahassee like that kid with the Pepsi can walking around school in \u201cFerris Bueller\u2019s Day Off,<\/a>\u201d except instead of saying \u201cSave Ferris,\u201d he\u2019s urging everyone, \u201cSave Mosaic!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur Legislature shouldn\u2019t be looking out for them,\u201d said Ragan Whitlock of the Center for Biological Diversity<\/a>. \u201cThey should be looking out for Floridians.\u201d<\/p>\n Once upon a time\t<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what Mosaic needs to be saved from: a very good law called the Water Quality Assurance Act.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFirst enacted nearly 40 years ago, the law imposes something known as \u2018strict liability\u2019 on companies that release pollution into the ground or water,\u201d Garcia reported.<\/p>\n That means \u201cthey can be forced to compensate people impacted by that pollution regardless of whether the release was accidental or the result of corporate carelessness. The idea is to ensure companies handling materials that can sicken or kill people and wildlife have maximum financial incentive to be as careful as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Richard Gentry via Florida House<\/p>\n The bill that Mosaic wrote, and that McClure is co-sponsoring with Rep. Richard Gentry,<\/a> R-Astor, would undercut that standard. Instead, notes Garcia, \u201cit would no longer be enough to just prove that Mosaic is responsible for the elevated radiation levels. A plaintiff would also have to prove that Mosaic was somehow negligent, too. That\u2019s a much higher bar to have to clear in court.\u201d<\/p>\n In order to avoid lawsuits, the bill says, the phosphate company would have to record a legal notice that the land is a former mine. Then it would have to call in the state Department of Health to conduct a radiation survey. You, as a buyer, might not know about either of these.<\/p>\n McClure told WUSF-FM<\/a> that the existing law is totes unfair to poor widdle Mosaic. He said it\u2019s wrong to hold the company liable for endangering everyone\u2019s health just because \u201conce upon a time, a machine unearthed some rock.\u201d<\/p>\n By passing this bill, he said, \u201cwe\u2019re going to have more data as a function of this than we currently do today.\u201d<\/p>\n Whitlock scoffed at that argument for letting Mosaic off the hook.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is still very much a handout to the phosphate companies to reduce their liability,\u201d Whitlock told me. \u201cThe breadcrumbs they have provided in return change nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Making mines into subdivisions\t<\/p>\n Mosaic execs have been trying since at least 2024 to get the Legislature to protect them from these pesky suits. Each time, though, the effort fell short because that\u2019s how dysfunctional our Legislature is these days.<\/p>\n Why have they been so intent on passing this? Because, Garcia wrote of the 2025 effort, \u201cMosaic framed the legislation as the key to unlocking real-estate development in one of the most rural parts of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Phosphate is a finite resource. Mines don\u2019t last forever. The company is looking ahead to its future.<\/p>\n It learned the lesson of the St. Joe Co., a Panhandle pulp and paper giant that eventually realized it needed a new product. St. Joe closed its paper mill and switched to developing and selling its extensive real estate holdings (with help from the taxpayers).<\/a><\/p>\n Mosaic itself, in a handout to legislators last year, told them that \u201cmany lands that once supported phosphate mining have untapped potential due to legal uncertainty that limits reuse. By providing liability protections for the sale of previously mined phosphate lands, this legislation removes barriers to repurposing them for new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Now they\u2019re back to try it one more time. The Florida House is so eager to please this major campaign contributor that it\u2019s already held two committee meetings on HB 167. Both of the hearings occurred last year, before the session began this week.<\/p>\n I watched a video of the Judiciary Committee meeting<\/a> from last November. This bill was the only item on the agenda. The discussion took less than 10 minutes, and then every member of the committee voted yes.<\/p>\n Holding the two committee votes before the start of session means the bill is teed up for fast passage this week. Then it will head to the Senate, where Senate President Ben Albritton is already on board.<\/p>\n Since the skids are so obviously greased for this bill, I say everyone should jump on board \u2013 but only if Mosaic agrees to one teeny amendment.<\/p>\n I think the only way the company should avoid being socked with a major monetary penalty is if it agrees to give every person who buys some of its reclaimed land a full hazmat suit to wear while occupying the property.<\/p>\n Then they should run a series of glowing TV ads about it.<\/p>\n Independent Journalism for All <\/p>\n As a nonprofit newsroom, our articles are free for everyone to access. Readers like you make that possible. Can you help sustain our watchdog reporting today?<\/p>\n SUPPORT <\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phosphate mining in Florida. 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January 15, 2026<\/p>\n