Reject more phosphate mining in Manatee County and spare environment, save jobs

Manatee County commissioners should reject Wingate expansion by the phosphate strip-mining giant Mosaic that "seeks to redefine environmental legacy."

Donations to museums and construction of environmental centers won't make up for the damage that mining will do to the Myakka River and its watershed. It's unprecedented that more than 750 acres of pristine wetlands, streams and wildlife habitat will be destroyed.

Wetlands and perennial streams are protected by the Manatee County mining ordinance and the comprehensive plan. These rules must be followed to preserve the health of the Myakka.

"Reclamation" does not mean the land can ever be restored to natural conditions. Subsurface ground-water systems cannot be reclaimed. Biodiversity essential to a healthy web of life can never be replaced.

Over 40 percent of the land is left in clay slime ponds and not usable at all. Aerials show the thousands of acres of destruction: www.youtube.com/watch?v=spzER-HYeKw.

Residents near the Wingate Creek mine have long reported severe health issues because they consume well water and are exposed to dust near the mine. The few jobs that mining brings are dwarfed by the number that will be eliminated when fields are removed from agriculture. Land values go down in mined areas and the economy there is depressed.

Mining puts our water supply in jeopardy. The decision last week to allow Mosaic to augment our water supply system to offset the "reduction in flow in the Manatee River resulting from the operation of the mine" shows the folly of using water from the Floridan Aquifer for mining operations. Phosphate mining is allowed to use 69 million gallons a day in our Water Use Caution area.

Phosphate mining is a malignant cancer destroying Florida's fragile environment. We must not allow it to spread.

Sandra Ripberger, Chair, Manatee County Conservation Committee, Sierra Club Bradenton

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Reject more phosphate mining in Manatee County and spare environment, save jobs ."