Phosphate Mining

The Piney Point plant has had several spills, with the latest coming in 2021, when 215 million gallons were released into Tampa Bay to relieve pressure from a leak.

The mining industry has been searching for ways to reduce the size of gypstacks, such as the one at Piney Point that leaked into Tampa Bay in 2021.

Plans to rezone thousands of acres in Central Florida for a new phosphate mine have been put off for at least two years.

In 2016, one of the deepest sinkholes ever recorded in Florida opened beneath Mosaic's New Wales site.

The plan calls for the former phosphate plant to be permanently shut down by December 2024.

The plan would permanently close four gypsum stacks formerly used to store toxic wastewater from the production of fertilizer.

Defendants asked U.S. District Judge William Jung to dismiss the lawsuit, but several environmental agencies say the state and other defendants should be held liable.

He will hear arguments over whether a lawsuit should be tossed that alleges “malfeasance” after about 215 million gallons of wastewater were discharged from the site into Tampa Bay last year.

Charlotte County has voted to ban phosphate mining or any activities related to mining. This comes after plans were unveiled to dig a new mine in a neighboring county.

The go-ahead has been given to injecting polluted water from the troubled Piney Point phosphate plant in Manatee County deep under the drinking water aquifer.

Attorneys for DeSantis and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection say the lawsuit is moot since the state is already working to resolve the problems at the former phosphate plant.

The permit will allow up to 4 million gallons a day of wastewater from the Piney Point facility to be injected nearly 2,000 feet below the surface.