As Hurricane Milton batters Florida’s coast, environmentalists are raising alarms about the potential for hazardous waste from the state’s phosphate fertilizer industry to contaminate waterways, with over a billion tons of radioactive waste in the storm's path.
Michael Biesecker and Jason Dearen report for the Associated Press.
In short:
- Florida’s phosphate fertilizer industry has stored over 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum, a radioactive byproduct, in giant waste stacks vulnerable to storm damage.
- Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm, threatens to scatter this waste into the state’s waterways, raising concerns of widespread contamination.
- Past storms, like Hurricane Frances in 2004, caused significant leaks of acidic wastewater from these stacks, leading to marine life die-offs.
Key quote:
“Placing vulnerable sites so close on major waterways that are at risk of damage from storms is a recipe for disaster. These are ticking time bombs.”
— Ragan Whitlock, staff attorney, Center for Biological Diversity
Why this matters:
Florida has seen this nightmare before with acidic water flooding local ecosystems. The result once again, could be toxic pollution washing into rivers, streams, and eventually the Gulf. Read more: In North Carolina, hog waste pollution from Hurricane Florence a familiar result. Will things ever change?
