Mosaic sinkhole is ‘all messed up,’ Gov. Rick Scott says

Gov. Rick Scott visited Mosaic Company’s New Wales phosphate fertilizer manufacturing facility for the first time Tuesday to take a helicopter ride over the sinkhole that released 215 million gallons of acidic water into the Floridan Aquifer, nearly two weeks after the sinkhole was made public and a month after it was first discovered.

The New Wales facility, smack dab in the middle of long stretches of farm land, was where Scott also met with Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Mosaic officials about the next steps.

“When we see something that’s messed up, we ought to fix it,” Scott said after the meeting

On Aug. 28, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was notified of a sinkhole under a byproduct storage pond. Mosaic, which is the world’s largest fertilizer manufacturer, mines for phosphate and holds millions of gallons of acidic water byproduct in ponds formed by gypsum stacks, which is sandy phosphate waste buried under the ground and lined with plastic. When Mosaic learned about the sinkhole, the company said it began to transfer water into other byproduct cells at 8,000 gallons per minute.

The public wasn’t notified about the sinkhole until three weeks later, and the FDEP said Mosaic wasn’t legally obligated to because there was no evidence of threat to groundwater or off-site movement. But Scott said the law was “outdated” and that “this is the right thing to do.”

“They sort of explained where they believe the problem is and how they’re going to fix it,” Scott said about his visit as he read from note cards.

Officials explained the flow of water to Scott and what additional wells they plan to drill to capture the “liquid” going down.

“If you’ve ever been to the beach where you see water just draining down into the sand, that’s what it looks like,” Scott said of the sinkhole. “It’s all messed up.”

The water byproduct, which Mosaic’s senior director of phosphate environmental projects Dave Jellerson said contains phosphoric acid, was continuously cycled in the plant as part of the fertilizer-making process and has a pH level of 1.2, which is between the acidity of battery acid and stomach acid. When it is mixed with water in the aquifer, its pH level was 6.8.

Scott noted that the nearest residential property was 2.5 miles away from the impact site, and he assured the public that the drinking water is safe.

Mosaic has 80 monitoring wells that keep track of the three on-site aquifers: Surficial Aquifer, Intermediate Aquifer and the Floridan Aquifer. The FDEP approved the drilling for five more monitoring wells, and Jellerson said one of those wells could serve as an additional recovery well to take up water, but that is unlikely.

Deeper than thought, years to recover

The 45-foot-wide sinkhole might be deeper than the 300 feet originally stated, Jellerson said. The recovery well, which he said will retrieve all of the acidic water that was lost, reaches 750 feet. But the recovery process won’t be swift.

“It will operate until it’s no longer needed to recover,” Jellerson said. “It’ll be years.”

On Monday, Scott released a statement saying he would direct the secretary of the FDEP to initiate a 90-day emergency rule that would require pollution notification to the public, government and FDEP within 24 hours of discovery.

He added during Tuesday’s news conference that as the investigation is ongoing, he said penalties need to be “severely strengthened.”

“If anybody has done anything wrong, we’re going to hold them accountable. If there’s any fines that are appropriate, we’ll impact — we’ll do fines,” Scott said.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam called for an immediate fix for the sinkhole during a visit to Lakewood Ranch Tuesday.

But the sinkhole can’t be sealed until a survey of the inside of the sinkhole is complete.

Following Scott’s statement Monday, Mosaic released its own statement.

“We look forward to working with his office, DEP and the Florida Legislature,” it read. “We will work with other stakeholders on an improved and transparent approach.”

Mosaic public affairs manager Jackie Barron said she doesn’t expect the sinkhole incident to affect future expansion of their Wingate East mine in Manatee County. After the sinkhole had been announced to the public, Mosaic rescheduled its Manatee County Commission meeting for January but cited that it was due to scheduling.

“We’re a part of the Manatee community,” Barron said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Mosaic sinkhole is ‘all messed up,’ Gov. Rick Scott says."