Ask governor to veto HB 1191
In a session where a number of environmentally damaging bills were passed, one of the most egregious was HB 1191 — Use of Phosphogypsum.
The bill promotes the use of a radioactive waste by-product from phosphate mining to be used in road construction and includes a study and demonstration projects. The study in the bill focuses on the usefulness of phosphogypsum as aggregate material for road construction, and will not fully address the health risks posed by distributing cancer-causing radioactive material throughout the state.
The waste created by phosphate fertilizer production is called phosphogypsum and is stored in large piles, hundreds of feet high, referred to as “gyp stacks. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, most of the naturally-occurring uranium, thorium and radium found in phosphate rock ends up in this waste. Uranium and thorium decay to radium which, in turn, decays to the radioactive gas, radon. Because the wastes are concentrated, phosphogypsum is more radioactive than the original phosphate rock.
Supporters of the use of phosphogypsum in our roads claim that the radioactive elements of the aggregate would be contained under asphalt in the road construction process. The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and other water quality advocates are concerned that toxic leachate may occur once the confining layer of asphalt cracks or erodes from weatherization, wear or a large storm event with the direct potential to contaminate our groundwater and nearby waterways.
Southwest Florida has already seen the devastating harm our weather can have on our infrastructure, including complete wash-outs of our roads during Hurricane Ian. The impact to our bays and estuaries from radioactive phosphogypsum contained in our road beds would be catastrophic and not worth the risk.
Supporters of the bill claimed during legislative committee debate that it would be up to the EPA to regulate the health and safety of the product on both the construction workers applying the material and on the long-term exposure to our environment. The EPA has studied this issue and has concluded that the use of phosphogypsum in road construction remains prohibited. For more information on the EPA’s findings, visit https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/07/07/2021-14377/withdrawal-of-approval-for-use-of-phosphogypsum-in-road-construction.
In addition to the immediate health risks to ourselves and to our waterways, the SCCF believes the production costs associated with the highly profitable phosphate industry should not be shifted to the citizens of Florida. We have seen this occur before, most recently with the Piney Point disaster that resulted in the contamination of Tampa Bay, a devastating nutrient-fed red tide, and the taxpayers of Florida shouldering the cleanup burden of $100 million.
HB 1191 does not address the existing accumulation of phosphogypsum around the state — it only seeks to use the by-product of future phosphate production, increasing profits within the phosphate mining industry. The responsibility to address the dangerous radioactive waste should remain with the multi-billion dollar industry that created the waste, not be passed on to tax-paying Floridians.
The SCCF and 33 other clean water advocates have sent a strong HB 1191 veto request to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Please visit https://p2a.co/ZGyq0Lx to urge the governor to veto HB 1191 to protect our waterways and to hold the phosphate industry accountable for their own costs of production.
Another avenue to send the governor this veto message would be to call his office directly at 850-717-9337 or email him by visiting https://www.flgov.com/email-the-governor/. This is a way that those of you who do not have qualifying Florida zip codes can still make sure your voices are heard.
Thank you for joining our campaign to roll back harmful restrictions on citizens’ rights!
Founded in 1967, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s mission is to protect and care for Southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems. For more information, visit www.sccf.org.
To reach SANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION, please email