Phosphate

Scientists expect to release the forecast for the size of this year’s oxygen-depleted zone this week.

How vulnerable are the southeast’s phosphate plants, mines and mountains of waste to stronger rains and hurricanes?

Along one section of the Mississippi River, three massive fertilizer plants contribute to industrial pollution in Louisiana communities.

One of the most common elements in the universe, nitrogen is also a crucial ingredient in fertilizer. All living things need it to survive. But it can kill, too.

Abundant phosphate reserves made the Sunshine State a key player in the global fertilizer industry — leading to both riches and sacrifices.

Phosphogypsum, a byproduct in the fertilizer industry, contains uranium and radium — and as the EPA notes, it also forms radon, "a cancer-causing, radioactive gas."

Opponents said the byproduct could harm people working on roads and affect water in aquifers.

Here are the key developments at the troubled Piney Point phosphate plant, including a spill that prompted officials to pump more than 200 million gallons of the reservoir’s polluted water into Tampa Bay.

The perfect storm of events led to the creation of a never-before-seen, naturally-occurring mineral.

They warn that the contamination of Florida’s air, water and soil could increase the risk of cancer if the wins approval.

After decades of pollution suffocated Tampa Bay and killed half its seagrass and much of its marine life, unprecedented political cooperation and hundreds of science-guided projects brought the estuary back to life. Tampa Bay became a symbol for the success of the Clean Water Act of 1972, but seagrasses and fish have begun to die again.

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