Environmental Activist addresses Mosaic sinkhole, expansion of phosphate mining in Manatee County

Share
Mosaic New Wales sinkhole location from Google Earth
Location of the Mosaic New Wales phosphogypsum stack (the roughly oval shape bounded in white near the bottom of the picture). The sinkhole (not pictured) occurred on the left segment of that stack. From Google Earth.

By Rob Lorei

On Radioactivity Wednesday we talked about the effects phosphate mining in West central Florida. Billions of tons of phosphogypsum- located in Hillsborough, Polk, Manatee, and Desoto counties-is strip mined and eventually used to make commercial.

Last month, a giant sinkhole, opened up under a gypsum stact at a Polk County processing plant owned by phosphate mining giant Mosaic. The sinkhole, which might be as deep as 700 feet, might have  dumped millions of gallons of contaminated water into the Floridian Aquifer in the three weeks before incident was publicly announced.

Still, The Manatee County Board of County Commissioners will vote on whether to okay phosphate mining on 4,000 acres of land, located near the headwaters of the Manatee River, Peace River and Horse Creek, as well as the Myakka River. Joining us to talk about the Mosaic sinkhole and prospective mining in Manatee County was Environmental activist Andy Mele.

One Response to “Environmental Activist addresses Mosaic sinkhole, expansion of phosphate mining in Manatee County”

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Richard Wolff Economic Update
Player position: