Mosaic, Florida's largest phosphate mining company, wants to inject wastewater from fertilizer production 8,000 feet deep underground in Plant City.
But questions remain about what exactly this will entail.
At a public hearing, several people peppered state environmental regulators, who say this is only a permit for an exploratory well.
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One of those was Steve Connors, who lives in south Plant City. He said regulators could not tell him what would eventually be pumped underground.
"I'm not saying that this is not something that might work out and be good, but why aren't you being more open to let us know what it is you want to put down there and what was your other option before this," Connors questioned. "If you couldn't do this well, what was the option — because at the current Mosaic plant, they have a way that they heat the water, it evaporates, and then they have whatever solids are left they can get rid of. Why aren't we doing that? Is it too expensive, not profitable? These are the questions that need to be answered."
State environmental officials say they would determine what could be pumped underground after this exploratory well is approved.
Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Alexandra Kuchta said this would strictly be to authorize an exploratory well to determine the makeup of the underground geology and clay confining layers. It would not authorize any pumping of wastewater — that would be determined at a future public hearing.
"How these wells are constructed is not only to be protective of the environment, but also your underground sources of drinking water," Kuchta said. "But the first step is you have to understand what the subsurface geology is and so that is you start with the exploratory well."
David Brown, a professional geologist who is a consultant for Mosaic, said the company's ultimate goal is to drain the gypstacks at Mosaic's Plant City processing plant, which has sat idle since 2017.
Gypstacks contain process water from the production of fertilizer and are highly acidic and slightly radioactive.
Brown said if this exploratory well is approved, the company would have to file for another permit to inject treated wastewater underground.
"You have to prove up the viability at that location. So every well that you put in — specifically at this depth — has unique geologic characteristics and so you have to basically prove up the mineralogy and the properties of the rocks and the inherent water quality at that depth to see if it's even viable," Brown said.
By "viable," Brown said that means that any waste injected at that depth would not be able to percolate upward and contaminate the drinking water aquifer.
"The water at that depth that we're going to is so much saltier than the Gulf of Mexico and saltier than the Dead Sea," Brown said. "If there was the ability for that water to exchange, it would be doing it right now, and it's not. Those aquifers are separated by those confining units."
That didn't sit well with Connors, who's worried about possible contamination of the area's water supply.
"I want to know what's currently in the ponds now," Connorssaid during the public hearing. "Their response was, oh, they don't really know what they're going to put down there. That makes no sense from a business standpoint. If you're a corporation, they obviously want to do this to save money to increase their profit, which is fine, but let us know what it is you're going to put down there."
The day before the public hearing, a consortium of environmental groups sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency in a move that could throw a monkey wrench into these plans.
The lawsuit aims to close a loophole in federal law enacted in 1991 that exempts phosphoric acid production wastes from federal hazardous waste regulations.
Rachael Curran, an attorney with the Public Interest Law Clinic at Stetson Law School, said it would force the EPA to make mining companies further treat their wastewater.
"So the only reason that (deep wastewater injection) is even being considered as an option is because of this exemption and the fact that we're able to call it nonhazardous industrial waste," she said.
Curran said that reclassifying phosphate wastewater as hazardous waste would also affect Mosaic's request to inject wastewater deep underground.
Mosaic is also applying for permits to send waste underground at its fertilizer processing plants in Riverview, Mulberry and Bartow, in Polk County.
The state is accepting public comments on the exploratory well until the end of Friday. Comments can be sent by email to app@dep.state.fl.us.
More information on the draft permit may be obtained by contacting Richard Lobinske, DEP Drinking Water and Aquifer Protection Program, by U.S. mail at 2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 3530, Tallahassee, FL, 32399-2400, by phone at 850-245-8655.
