Deny strip mine request over ecosystem devastation

Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC has requested that the Manatee County Commission expand a phosphate strip mine in eastern Manatee County, known as the Wingate East Mine. The county commission may decide the fate of Wingate on Feb. 15.

This land is home to wildlife like the wood stork, Eastern indigo snake, crested caracara, Florida scrub-jay, bald eagle, gopher tortoise, Florida sandhill crane, gopher frog, Sherman’s fox squirrel, Florida burrowing owl, Southeastern American kestrel, Florida mouse, snowy egret, little blue heron, tricolor heron, white ibis, and American alligator. The strip mine will ruin this habitat forever.

The existing Wingate phosphate strip mine should not have been permitted in the first place. It was a historical mistake because Wingate is located in the headwaters of the Peace and Myakka rivers. To expand upon an existing mistake is irresponsible.

If the holding ponds located at Wingate mine fail, the toxic waters running offsite would annihilate almost everything downstream, with significant impacts to the fish and wildlife at Myakka River State Park and drinking water supplies for thousands.

There is also concern that future phosphate mine discharges will degrade downstream water quality, generate low dissolved oxygen levels and significantly increase pollutant levels.

ManaSota-88 strongly disagrees with the provisions allowing for the destruction of high-quality wetlands at the mine site. As proposed, Manatee County will be trading wetland impacts at Wingate for cash. Some things, such as the protection of existing wetlands, should not be negotiable.

The Manatee Phosphate Mining Ordinance is outdated because the Florida Legislature eliminated the requirements for a Development of Regional Impact study for phosphate mines. As a result, Manatee County has additional responsibilities to review new phosphate mines for their regional impacts. No review or communication was received from Sarasota or Charlotte counties, which are located downstream of the strip mine site.

The phosphate industry’s legacy in Florida is appalling and shameful. Approximately 40 percent of the mined-out lands have been left in toxic waste, clay settling areas. Since the onset of phosphate mining in 1888, 126,000 acres of toxic slime ponds (clay settling areas) have been constructed throughout Florida. Slime ponds pose a significant threat to water quality and marine life. Nearly 81,000 acres of these slime ponds remain unclaimed.

Florida has the largest contiguous mined out area in the United States, hundreds of thousands of acres of land have been disturbed. Damage from the phosphate industry is not limited to Florida and other states mining and processing phosphate. Fertilizers and phosphates are a major culprit in water pollution nationwide.

The phosphate industry should not be permitted to externalize the costs of their operation in the form of adverse health effects, loss of valuable habitat, restricted future land use options, reduced water supplies or actual destruction of our drinking water supply.

Unless the public demands action, our land and water resources will continue to be seriously damaged or destroyed, our health and that of future generations will continue to be placed in jeopardy.

Mosaic wants to risk the well-being of our drinking water supplies and the health of our environment so that it may profit from its destructive practices. The Manatee County Commission should deny such a request.

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Deny strip mine request over ecosystem devastation."