FMNN Investigates · Florida Accountability · By Joseph J. Jackson · Oct. 31, 2026
This is an investigative report. Facts are sourced and labeled by evidence level. Sections marked Analysis are FMNN's reading of the record.
Drive south on U.S. 41 past Riverview and you pass a man-made hill nearly 200 feet tall. It is not a landfill. It is phosphogypsum, the radioactive leftover from making fertilizer, and the company that owns it wants to make it bigger.
The Mosaic Company is the largest phosphate producer in the United States, headquartered in Tampa, and holds more than 368,000 acres of Florida. Its mines and chemical plants stretch across Polk, Hillsborough, Hardee, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Over three decades, its stacks and the stacks it inherited have leaked into the Floridan Aquifer, spilled into Hillsborough Bay and triggered the largest hazardous-waste settlement in the history of the federal hazardous-waste law.
FMNN went through federal and state records, court filings, peer-reviewed research and three decades of reporting to answer one question: what has Mosaic actually done to Florida's land and water, and what is it asking to do next?
The short version
- Land: Florida's phosphate mines cover more than 450,000 acres, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The land comes back, but not as it was. University of Florida scientists say clay settling areas make up about 40 percent of reclaimed mine land and are "the largest hurdle" to restoring it. Most reclaimed land becomes cattle pasture, not the wetlands, groves or aquifer recharge it replaced.
- Water: A 2016 sinkhole under Mosaic's New Wales stack in Mulberry drained at least 215 million gallons of acidic, contaminated water into the Floridan Aquifer, the drinking-water source for most of Central Florida. A 2004 hurricane breach at Riverview sent 65 million gallons of acidic water into Archie Creek and Hillsborough Bay. In 2015, Mosaic settled with EPA and the Justice Department over 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste and agreed to fund a trust that grows to $1.8 billion.
- Health: Radiation on reclaimed mine land measures two to three times background, and homes built on it test higher for radon. Whether that has caused cancer in neighbors is not established. The studies are old, few and inconclusive.
- Now: Mosaic is seeking federal permits to expand its Riverview East Stack next to Progress Village, has won a federal appeals ruling allowing a test road made of phosphogypsum, holds state permits to test injecting wastewater 8,000 feet underground, and lobbied for a 2026 state law that makes it harder to sue over radioactive mine land.
What you need to know
How the waste is made. Draglines strip 15 to 50 feet of soil off the "matrix" of phosphate rock, clay and sand. The clay is pumped as slurry into settling ponds behind earthen dams up to 60 feet tall. The rock goes to chemical plants at New Wales, Bartow and Riverview, where it is reacted with sulfuric acid. Every ton of phosphoric acid leaves about five tons of phosphogypsum.
Why it is radioactive. Phosphate rock naturally contains uranium and radium-226. Radium decays into radon gas, which EPA classifies as a cause of lung cancer. Since 1989, EPA has required phosphogypsum to be kept in engineered stacks because spreading it would, in the agency's words, present an unreasonable public health threat. Radium's half-life is about 1,600 years. EPA has also documented trace arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead in the material.
What sits on top. The stacks are topped by ponds of "process water," a dilute mix of phosphoric and sulfuric acids, ammonia and fluoride. Florida has 25 stacks holding more than a billion tons of phosphogypsum. Some are 200 feet tall and 400 acres across. Several sit on karst limestone that forms sinkholes.
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Part One: The land
Documented: By 1998, 294,500 acres of Florida had been mined for phosphate. FDEP's current figure for the industry's footprint is more than 450,000 acres. Inside Climate News reported in August 2026 that Mosaic holds over 368,000 acres in the state. Manatee County alone has more than 23,000 acres approved for mining, all of it Mosaic's.
Documented: Florida has required reclamation of mined land since July 1, 1975. Wetlands must be restored acre-for-acre and type-for-type. Mosaic says it reclaims every acre it mines and that only about 20,000 acres of its land were mined before the mandate.
Documented: What comes back is different. UF/IFAS extension scientists report that clay settling areas "constitute approximately 40% of reclaimed phosphate mined landscapes," roughly 120,000 acres statewide, that they take decades to firm up and are too unstable to build on. Mosaic itself has said about 95 percent of 30,000 acres it reclaimed over one decade went to cattle pasture. FDEP reported that by the end of 2008, 69 percent of the 184,681 acres mined since 1975 had been reclaimed, meaning nearly a third had not.
Documented: The U.S. Geological Survey found that mining and its reclamation practices "may have contributed to the overall decline in streamflow" in the Peace River, because the natural soil layers and the clay that confines the aquifer are not put back.
Not established: Suncoast Waterkeeper has argued that mining destroyed the "arability of some 500,000 acres of once-productive agricultural land." That is an advocacy estimate, not a measured figure. The land Mosaic mines is mostly improved pasture, rangeland, citrus and native wetlands and uplands, not prime row-crop farmland. FMNN found no government accounting of farmland permanently lost to mining.
The sinkholes
Documented: On June 27, 1994, an erosion sinkhole opened in the 200-foot New Wales stack, then owned by IMC-Agrico, Mosaic's corporate predecessor. FDEP measured it at 185 feet deep and 120 feet wide. Contamination reached the plant's own production wells. Repairs cost about $7 million.
Documented: On Aug. 27, 2016, a 45-foot-wide sinkhole opened under a 120-foot stack at New Wales and drained at least 215 million gallons of acidic process water laced with sulfate and sodium into the Floridan Aquifer. Mosaic did not notify neighbors for about three weeks, until after the news broke. Residents sued. Mosaic pumped water back with recovery wells, offered free well testing and bottled water, and reported no off-site impacts. Reporters have counted at least five sinkholes at New Wales over the years.
The expansion fights
Documented: In 2018 DeSoto County commissioners voted 4–1 to deny Mosaic's request to rezone 18,000 acres near Horse Creek, a Peace River tributary, from agriculture to mining. Charlotte County and Punta Gorda passed resolutions urging continued denial because the Peace River is their drinking water. Mosaic deferred its application; FMNN found no approval as of this report.
Documented: In February 2026, Manatee County commissioners voted 5–2 to extend Mosaic's Four Corners mine through Dec. 31, 2044, with reclamation running to 2055, and to fold in the East Duette tract. Mosaic's director of land use permitting, Shelley Thornton, told commissioners the mine had previously been planned to close by 2030.
Documented: In Hardee County, environmental groups sued over the South Fort Meade extension in 2010. The Army Corps later approved about 7,500 acres of expansion near South Pasture. Mosaic is seeking state permit modifications in the Charlie Creek and Peace River watersheds.
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Part Two: The water
The $1.8 billion settlement
Documented: On Oct. 1, 2015, EPA and the Justice Department settled with Mosaic Fertilizer over alleged violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in how it stored and disposed of acidic wastes. The settlement covered an estimated 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste at six Florida facilities, including Riverview, New Wales, Bartow, Mulberry, Green Bay and South Pierce, and two in Louisiana. EPA called it the largest amount ever covered by a federal or state RCRA settlement. Mosaic agreed to fund a $630 million trust that must grow to $1.8 billion to close and maintain the stacks, post a $50 million letter of credit, and spend $1.2 million cleaning an abandoned site in Mulberry.
Context: These were allegations resolved by settlement, not findings of fact. Mosaic said at the time it was following practices common across the industry.
Riverview: the stack down the road
Documented: On Sept. 5, 2004, Hurricane Frances drove waves that broke a dike around a pond on the roughly 180-foot Riverview stack. NOAA's damage assessment put the release at 65 million gallons of acidic process water into Archie Creek, Hillsborough Bay and nearby wetlands. It harmed nearly 10 acres of seagrass and more than 135 acres of wetlands, including about 80 acres of mangroves, and killed thousands of fish and crabs. The plant was owned by Cargill Crop Nutrition at the time; it became Mosaic's weeks later when Cargill and IMC merged.
Documented: On Oct. 10, 2024, after Hurricane Milton dropped nearly 15 inches of rain, a water collection system at Riverview's closed West Stack was overwhelmed. Mosaic told the state that "impacted stormwater" reached an outfall to Tampa Bay for about 12 hours and that the volume "may have been greater than the 17,500 gallon reporting standard." Mosaic said it expected impacts to be modest. No final volume or water-chemistry results have been made public.
Documented: WTSP found at least four reported liner repairs at Riverview in a single recent year.
Piney Point: the disaster that was not Mosaic's
Documented: The 2021 Piney Point release in Manatee County, about 215 million gallons of nutrient-laden water into lower Tampa Bay from March 30 to April 9, is often blamed on Mosaic. It was never a Mosaic or IMC plant. Borden Chemical built it in 1966; it passed through AMAX, FCS Energy, Royster and Mulberry Phosphates, which abandoned it in 2001. HRK Holdings bought it from the state in 2006, let Port Manatee dump dredge spoil in the stacks, spilled about 170 million gallons in 2011 and went bankrupt. A 2024 court ruling found HRK liable in the Center for Biological Diversity's lawsuit.
Documented: A peer-reviewed study in Marine Pollution Bulletin (Beck et al., 2022) found the 2021 release delivered about 180 metric tons of nitrogen in 10 days, more than lower Tampa Bay normally receives from outside sources in a year, and found "multiple lines of evidence for an adverse environmental response," including diatom blooms, cyanobacteria mats and elevated red tide. The authors stopped short of saying Piney Point caused the red tide, which starts offshore.
Documented: Florida taxpayers are paying more than $180 million to close Piney Point. A court-appointed receiver has been pumping treated water into a 3,300-foot injection well since April 2023. Closure is targeted for the end of 2026.
Analysis: Piney Point matters to the Mosaic story for one reason. It is what happens when a stack owner fails. It is why neighbors do not take stack-closure promises on faith, and why Mosaic's own deep-well plans draw fire.
The aquifer and the rivers
Documented: USGS found that pumping for phosphate mining and agriculture lowered the Upper Floridan aquifer's pressure in the Peace River basin by as much as 60 feet. Kissengen Spring near Bartow, which once flowed about 19 million gallons a day, went dry in February 1950, the first major Florida spring lost to pumping. Parts of the Peace River now drain into sinkholes in its own bed. USGS credits industry water conservation with partial recovery.
Documented: A 1995 state investigation reported groundwater contamination above Florida standards at all 11 fertilizer plants and beneath 12 of 20 gypsum stacks then operating. That predates Mosaic and covers the whole industry.
Not established: Opponents say Mosaic's permits allow up to 27 million gallons a day of blended wastewater into five waterways from Tampa Bay to Punta Gorda. That is an advocate's description of permitted discharges, not a measured spill. FMNN found no documented major spill into the Myakka River, where Mosaic's Four Corners and Wingate mines sit at the headwaters.
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Part Three: The health question
Documented: A 2003 EPA report found median gamma radiation on reclaimed phosphate land was two to three times background, and estimated about 40,000 homes with roughly 120,000 people had been built on former mine land in Polk County. A 1998 federal ATSDR study found indoor radon above EPA's action level in 8 of 27 homes on reclaimed land, compared with 1 of 69 homes on nearby unmined land.
Documented: Officials knew early. A 1980 Polk County Health Department letter warned that many homes on the Drummond-developed land in Lakeland "will probably have indoor radiation levels greater than the recommended federal guidelines." WFLA reported that the state health department stopped producing its required radiation reports on reclaimed land, and that its drive-by readings were acknowledged under oath to be irrelevant to yard and indoor levels because the pavement shielded the detector.
Not established: A 1988 University of South Florida study found a twofold lung-cancer risk among male nonsmokers in the phosphate region, but none in women or smokers, and could not rule out workplace exposure. A 2004 Florida Department of Health study near the Coronet plant in Plant City found no statistically significant increase in cancer, using a weak design that compared census areas rather than people. A 2016 NIOSH study of 3,199 Florida fertilizer workers found 32 percent more lung-cancer deaths and 74 percent more leukemia deaths than expected, but no dose-response pattern. No peer-reviewed cancer study of Progress Village or Riverview residents exists.
Alleged: The 2020 Cruz class action against Mosaic, over the Paradise Lakes and Angler's Green mobile home parks in Mulberry, alleges radium contamination and seeks medical monitoring. The 2017 Drummond radiation case in Lakeland settled confidentially in 2024. These are allegations and a private settlement, not findings.
Analysis: The honest reading is this. Living on unremediated mine land, especially in a slab home, raises your radiation dose. That is measured. Whether the stacks themselves give neighbors cancer has never been properly studied. "No proven harm" is not "proven safe."
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The ledger: Mosaic
| Row | Entry | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| SAID | Mosaic says it reclaims every acre mined since 1975, that stacks are engineered, inspected daily and regulated by FDEP and EPA, and that deep-well injection is "proven technology." | Tier 1: company statements, Mosaic Florida Phosphate FAQ |
| DID | Operated or inherited stacks that produced the 1994 and 2016 New Wales sinkholes, the 2004 Riverview breach and the 2024 Milton overflow; settled federal hazardous-waste allegations covering 60 billion pounds of waste. | Tier 1: EPA/DOJ consent decree, FDEP records, NOAA assessment |
| RESULT | At least 215 million gallons of contaminated water in the Floridan Aquifer (2016); 65 million gallons into Hillsborough Bay with 135+ acres of wetlands damaged (2004); a $1.8 billion closure trust imposed (2015). | Tier 1 |
| GAP | Waited about three weeks to tell neighbors about the 2016 sinkhole. Final volume of the 2024 Riverview release never made public. | Tier 1: Tampa Bay Times, Mosaic pollution notice |
| KNEW | New Wales had a 185-foot sinkhole in 1994 and at least five over its history before the 2016 collapse. Industry has known since the 1970s that reclaimed land raises indoor radon. | Tier 1: FDEP, 1978 state study, 1980 health department letter |
| SAID AFTER | Sought to expand Riverview's East Stack; lobbied for HB 167, which shifts the burden of proof onto homeowners who sue over radioactive mine land; said the law "brings much-needed clarity and predictability." | Tier 1: FAST-41 dashboard, Florida House staff analysis, Inside Climate News |
Part Four: What Mosaic is asking for now
| Project | What it is | Status as of Oct. 31, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Riverview East Stack Extension | Expand the active 370-acre East Stack next to Progress Village onto part of a 307-acre tract to the west, toward U.S. 41 and Tampa Bay. About 178.5 acres disturbed, including wetlands and streams. Mosaic says it would provide "approximately 16 years" of storage; the current stack fills around 2029. | On the federal FAST-41 fast track since July 2025. Army Corps Clean Water Act permit requested Feb. 2026. Federal review target: March 2, 2027. Construction would begin 2028. |
| Phosphogypsum test road | A 3,200-foot private road at New Wales built with about 1,200 tons of phosphogypsum, under Florida's 2023 law (HB 1191) and a Dec. 23, 2024 EPA approval requiring 18 months of groundwater monitoring. | Won. Road finished fall 2025. On Aug. 12, 2026, a unanimous 11th Circuit panel rejected the Center for Biological Diversity's challenge. Ruling covers only this pilot; any public road would need new EPA approval. |
| Deep-well injection | FDEP permits to drill 8,000-foot exploratory wells at Plant City, Bartow and New Wales to test injecting wastewater below the drinking-water aquifer. | Testing only. A Class I disposal permit would require a new public-notice period. Would make Mosaic the first active Florida fertilizer plant to inject its wastewater underground. |
| HB 167 liability shield | Lets owners of former mine land get free state gamma surveys recorded in county records as a defense against strict liability; plaintiffs must now prove negligence and pay for their own certified testing. | Won. Took effect July 1, 2026. State estimated surveys cost taxpayers $3 million a year. |
| Four Corners extension | 14 more years of mining in Manatee County, through 2044, reclamation through 2055. | Won. Approved 5–2 in Feb. 2026. |
| DeSoto County mine | 18,000 acres near Horse Creek, a Peace River tributary. | Denied 4–1 in 2018. Application deferred. No approval found. |
Reality of the Situation
Mosaic says the stacks are engineered and inspected daily. They are. Two of them still collapsed into the aquifer, in 1994 and 2016, and one still breached into Hillsborough Bay in 2004. Daily inspection did not stop a 45-foot hole from opening under 215 million gallons of acid water. Engineering lowers risk; it has not eliminated it on karst limestone.
Mosaic says it reclaims every acre. It does, as the law requires. Reclaimed does not mean restored. Forty percent of it is clay ponds too soft to build on, most of the rest is pasture, and the aquifer-confining layers do not come back. The state's own 2008 count found nearly a third of land mined since 1975 still unreclaimed.
Mosaic says the industry supports 3,000 Florida jobs and $3 billion in economic impact. Both figures are the company's own, and they are not small. They also sit beside a 199-worker layoff at South Fort Meade effective Dec. 8, which Mosaic blames on a global sulfur shortage tied to the Iran war's disruption of the Strait of Hormuz. The jobs argument is real; it is also not a reason the water is clean.
Mosaic says the test road "poses no greater radiological risk" than leaving the material in a stack. That is EPA's finding, and a federal court upheld it as reasonable. The comparison is against a stack, not against a normal road. The Center for Biological Diversity's claim that EPA tripled the permitted cancer risk is their reading of the model; the court did not adopt it.
Mosaic says it was blamed for Piney Point unfairly. Correct. Piney Point was never Mosaic's. Critics who say otherwise hand the company an easy rebuttal.
Florida: where it lands
For Hillsborough County, the question is not abstract. The Riverview East Stack sits next to Progress Village, a historically Black community of about 11,000 people, and the expansion would push it toward U.S. 41 and the bay. Mosaic has bought more than 30 acres of nearby property since December 2024 for at least $7.7 million, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The federal review is due by March 2027 and the Army Corps permit (SAJ-1999-02004) is still open for comment. The questions worth asking are storm-surge and sea-level resilience, liner integrity, and who pays for closure if Mosaic ever walks away.
For anyone in eastern Hillsborough or Polk living on or near former mine land, especially in a slab-on-grade home, a radon test kit costs less than a tank of gas and the fix is routine. Under HB 167, any radiation survey of a property may now be recorded only in county records, so check with the property appraiser and FDEP's mandatory-reclamation maps before you buy or rent.
Reading the Pattern
Analysis: The record shows a company that follows the rules it helped write, fixes what breaks after it breaks, and keeps the full picture close. The 2016 sinkhole was disclosed three weeks late. The 2024 Riverview volume was never disclosed at all. The 2026 liability law moved the cost of proving harm from the company to the homeowner. None of that is illegal. All of it is why trust is thin.
Voices of Resistance
- Progress Village residents told WUSF in August 2026 that the growing stack deepens fears about air, water and property values in a community that was never consulted when the first stack went up.
- Center for Biological Diversity (Ragan Whitlock, Florida attorney) brought the test-road challenge and won the HRK liability ruling over Piney Point.
- ManaSota-88 and People for Protecting Peace River have fought mine expansions in Hardee, DeSoto and Manatee for more than a decade.
- Charlotte County and Punta Gorda passed resolutions against the DeSoto mine because the Peace River is their drinking water.
- Tampa Bay Waterkeeper and Suncoast Waterkeeper monitor discharges and have formally challenged Mosaic's permits.
Who Carried the Story
- Tampa Bay Times (owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute) broke the 2016 sinkhole volume and the Riverview expansion land purchases.
- WUSF (University of South Florida public media) has covered Progress Village and the Piney Point timeline.
- Inside Climate News (nonprofit) reported the 368,000-acre figure and HB 167.
- WFLA (Nexstar) uncovered the state's halted radiation reports and the 1980 health department letter.
- WTSP (Tegna) reported the Riverview liner repairs and the deep-well permits.
- Florida Phoenix and Courthouse News covered the 11th Circuit ruling.
Viral claims that don't hold up
- "Mosaic caused Piney Point." No. HRK Holdings owned it; Mosaic never did.
- "Florida is paving public roads with radioactive waste." Not yet. One private 3,200-foot test road exists. Any public use needs a separate EPA approval.
- "Mining destroyed 500,000 acres of farmland." An advocacy estimate. The state's footprint figure is 450,000 acres mined, mostly pasture, groves and natural land, much of it reclaimed to pasture.
- "The 2016 sinkhole poisoned Tampa's drinking water." Not shown. Mosaic reported no off-site well contamination, and no public agency has contradicted that. The aquifer was contaminated; whether it reached a tap has not been demonstrated.
Closing
Mosaic did not invent the phosphate industry's problems. It bought them, in 2004, along with the land. What it has done since is the record above: real reclamation, real settlements, real spills, real delays in telling the public. The next decisions, a bigger stack in Riverview, acid water pumped a mile and a half underground, and gypsum in roads, will be made by a federal dashboard, a state agency and a company that has shown it will say what the law requires and not much more.
FMNN has requested comment from Mosaic. Any response will be added as a dated update. This report will be updated as the Riverview permit, the deep-well tests and the Cruz litigation move forward.
Corrections: TheFloridaManNewsNetwork@gmail.com.
Sources
- EPA, "Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC Settlement," Oct. 1, 2015: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/mosaic-fertilizer-llc-settlement
- EPA, "Phosphogypsum" (radiation protection page): https://www.epa.gov/radiation/phosphogypsum
- NOAA Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program, "Mosaic (Riverview, FL)": https://darrp.noaa.gov/hazardous-waste/mosaic
- USGS, Lewelling et al., "Hydrogeology and the Relation Between Ground-Water Flow and Streamflow in the Peace River Basin," WRI 97-4211, 1998: https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/wri974211
- UF/IFAS EDIS, "Reclamation of Phosphatic Clay Settling Areas": https://journals.flvc.org/edis/article/download/120311/118635
- Tampa Bay Times, "Mosaic plant sinkhole dumps 215 million gallons of reprocessed water into Floridan Aquifer," Sept. 2016: https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/mosaic-plant-sinkhole-dumps-215-million-gallons-of-reprocessed-water-into/2293845/
- Tampa Bay Times, "Mining giant Mosaic wants to expand its phosphate waste stack in Hillsborough," Nov. 5, 2025: https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2025/11/05/mosaic-riverview-gypstack-expansion-hillsborough-phosphate-fertilizer/
- Tampa Bay Times, "Polluted water from Mosaic phosphate plant likely spilled into Tampa Bay during Milton," Oct. 14, 2024: https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2024/10/14/polluted-water-mosaic-phosphate-plant-likely-spilled-tampa-bay-during-milton/
- Mosaic, "Hurricane Milton Updates": https://mosaicco.com/Article/Hurricane-Milton-Updates
- WUSF, "Growing radioactive waste stack deepens worries among Progress Village residents," Aug. 3, 2026: https://wusf.org/text/environment/2026-08-03/growing-radioactive-waste-stack-deepens-worries-among-progress-village-residents
- Permitting Council FAST-41 dashboard, "Riverview East Stack Extension": https://www.permits.performance.gov/permitting-project/riverview-east-stack-extension/agency-postings?pid=119311
- Inside Climate News, "Florida radioactive waste stack looms over Black residents near Tampa," Aug. 1, 2026: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01082026/florida-radioactive-waste-stack-looms-over-black-residents-near-tampa/
- Inside Climate News, "Florida law makes it harder to sue phosphate mines for radioactive soil," Aug. 14, 2026: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14082026/florida-law-makes-it-harder-to-sue-phosphate-mines-for-radioactive-so/
- Florida House of Representatives, HB 167 (2026) staff analysis: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/167/Analyses/2026h00167.rc.PDF
- Florida Phoenix, "U.S. appeals court approves test of radioactive waste as road paving material," Aug. 12, 2026: https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/08/12/u-s-appeals-court-approves-test-of-radioactive-waste-as-road-paving-material/
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, Center for Biological Diversity v. EPA, No. 25-10515, Aug. 12, 2026: https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20260812050
- Courthouse News, "11th Circuit refuses to scrap radioactive road in Florida," Aug. 12, 2026: https://courthousenews.com/11th-circuit-refuses-to-scrap-radioactive-road-in-florida/
- NPR, "Florida may soon allow roads to be paved with radioactive phosphogypsum," May 9, 2023: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/09/1174789570/florida-roads-radioactive-paving-phosphogypsum
- WTSP, "Riverview fertilizer plant phosphogypsum stacks": https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/community-connection/riverview-fertilizer-plant-phosphogypsum-stacks/67-eb01acdd-412d-46f1-b945-4b52868cc715
- WTSP, "Mosaic to test injecting wastewater underground at Tampa Bay area plants": https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/polkcounty/test-injecting-wastewater-underground-tampa-bay-area-plants/67-4a0d5be0-e4ed-42e5-ad86-2b337efea55a
- WUSF, "Timeline: Key developments at Piney Point," Apr. 19, 2023: https://www.wusf.org/environment/2023-04-19/timeline-key-developments-piney-point-phosphate-plant
- Beck et al., "Initial estuarine response to inorganic nutrient inputs from a legacy mining facility adjacent to Tampa Bay," Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2022: https://www.altierilab.org/uploads/.../beck_etal_2022_marinepollutionbulletin.pdf
- Center for Biological Diversity, "Former Piney Point owner liable for Tampa Bay pollution," Sept. 19, 2024: https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/former-piney-point-owner-liable-for-tampa-bay-pollution-tied-to-massive-2021-fish-kill-2024-09-19/
- WFLA, "State, feds knew of high radiation levels before thousands of Polk homes went up": https://www.wfla.com/news/target-8-state-feds-knew-of-high-radiation-levels-before-thousands-of-polk-homes-went-up/
- WFLA, "Mandated Dept. of Health reports on cancer-causing radiation levels stop": https://www.wfla.com/news/polk-county/mandated-dept-of-health-reports-on-cancer-causing-radiation-levels-stop/
- ATSDR/PubMed, indoor radon in homes on reclaimed phosphate land, 1998: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9577751/
- Florida Department of Health, Coronet area cancer review, 2004: https://www.floridahealth.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/coronetcancer0304.pdf
- NIOSH cohort study of Florida phosphate fertilizer workers, PubMed, 2016: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26523937/
- Business Wire, "Florida homeowner reaches settlement in phosphate mining radiation case," Mar. 27, 2024: https://businesswire.com/news/home/20240327877268/en/Florida-Homeowner-Reaches-Settlement-in-Phosphate-Mining-Radiation-Case
- The Bradenton Times, "Commissioners approve 14-year extension for Mosaic at Four Corners," Feb. 2026: https://thebradentontimes.com/stories/commissioners-approve-14-year-extension-to-mosaics-mining-operations-at-four-corners-mine,186503
- WUSF, "Plans to dig DeSoto County's first phosphate mine on hold," July 28, 2022: https://www.wusf.org/environment/2022-07-28/plans-dig-desoto-county-first-phosphate-mine-on-hold
- Sierra Club Florida, "Sierra Club and allies reach agreement with Mosaic to protect wetlands," Oct. 2010: https://www.sierraclub.org/florida/blog/2010/10/sierra-club-and-allies-reach-agreement-mosaic-protect-wetlands
- Suncoast Waterkeeper, comments on EPA v. Mosaic: https://www.suncoastwaterkeeper.org/scwk_comments_on_epa_v_mosaic
- WLRN, "History of phosphate mining in Florida fraught with peril," June 16, 2021: https://www.wlrn.org/local-news/2021-06-16/history-of-phosphate-mining-in-florida-fraught-with-peril
- WUFT, "Beneath the Surface" (Price of Plenty project): https://projects.wuft.org/priceofplenty/water-and-land/beneath-the-surface/
- WFLA, "Mosaic to lay off nearly 200 workers at Polk County facility as Iran war throttles supply chain," Oct. 2026: https://www.wfla.com/news/polk-county/mosaic-to-lay-off-nearly-200-workers-at-polk-county-facility-as-iran-war-throttles-supply-chain/
- Mosaic Florida Phosphate, "What is the impact of phosphate mining to the local economies/communities?": https://mosaicfloridaphosphate.com/faq-items/what-is-the-impact-of-phosphate-mining-to-the-local-economies-communities/
- The Mosaic Company, Form 10-K for 2020 (SEC): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1285785/000161803421000003/mos-20201231.htm