The Environmental Protection Agency has given Mosaic Fertilizer the green light to explore a highly controversial solution to Florida’s toxic-waste problem. As part of a pilot program, the company received permission to build a small stretch of road with a radioactive substance.
The road will be located on a Mosaic Fertilizer-owned property in New Wales, Florida, and it will be built using a fertilizer byproduct known as phosphogypsum. That might sound like a big, fancy word if, like me, you didn’t pay a great deal of attention in high-school chemistry, so we’ll let the EPA tell us what it is. “Phosphogypsum is a solid waste byproduct,” according to the agency’s site. So far, so good, but it’s about to get tricky.
Phosphogypsum contains radium gas, which decays to form radon gas, and “both radium and radon are radioactive and can cause cancer.” This explains why regulations require that “phosphogypsum be managed in engineered stacks to limit public exposure from emissions of radon.” In 2023, Florida had approximately a billion tons of radioactive phosphogypsum stored across 25 stacks, with 30 million tons added every year.
As always, the fine print is crucial. The EPA points out that it can “approve a request for a specific use of phosphogypsum if it is determined that the proposed other use is at least as protective of public health as placement in a stack.” The project, which the agency approved in December 2024, details a two-lane test road that consists of four inches of asphalt pavement above 10 inches of road base containing phosphogypsum. Below that is what’s labeled as “existing soil and subgrade,” followed by the water table with monitoring wells located on either side of the road.
Is phosphogypsum more dangerous in a road than in a stack? Apparently not, according to the EPA, but not everyone agrees.
Citing environmental concerns, critics argue the project should not have been approved. “That dramatically increases the potential for harm to our road crews and water quality,” said Ragan Whitlock, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, in a written statement. “The EPA has bowed to political pressure from the phosphate industry and paved the way for this dangerous waste to be used in roads all over the country.”
As of this writing, there’s no word on how long it will take to pave the road, and Mosaic Fertilizer hasn’t announced additional paving projects.
Got tips? Send ’em to tips@thedrive.com