Meet Phosphogypsum: The Toxic Waste Florida Wants to Mix Into Roads

The word of the day is phosphogypsum: a waste product of the fertilizer industry full of sketchy substances that decay into sketchier substances best avoided by living creatures who enjoy being alive and healthy. Florida will soon be home to the first road in the country made with phosphogypsum in its base, and while the EPA likes to keep this stuff away from humans, their thumbs-up to build a test road built on a phosphogypsum bed has sparked a fierce debate. Sure, if you’re driving along in your F-150, you’re unlikely to notice any negative effects, but there’s more to it than indirect human contact.

Why This Stuff Is Dangerous

Phosphogypsum can harm human health, which is why the EPA has a complex history of controlling it with caution and evolving regulations slowly. Phosphogypsum contains naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), primarily radium-226, which decays into radon gas, a known human carcinogen. It also recognizes the potential for other contaminants to be present.

Due to these risks, the EPA has generally prohibited using phosphogypsum in the United States, requiring it to be stored in stacks (sometimes called ‘gypstacks’) which are engineered structures designed to contain the waste and limit public exposure to radon gas.

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Florida’s phosphogypsum test road will consist of 8 individual sections: four Test Road sections and four Control sections. Each section is between 300 and 500 feet long. The four Test Road sections are built on a base of up to 50% phosphogypsum blended with conventional road base materials like limerock or recycled concrete. The four Control sections are built with no phosphogypsum in their base. Test Road and Control sections join together, alternating along the length of the road, which is 0.6 of a mile long in total. It’s constructed with a 4-inch layer of asphalt on top of a 10-inch base (which contains phosphogypsum in the Test Sections), all sitting on the existing soil and subgrade with the water table flowing below. The EPA says 24 groundwater monitoring wells are used to sample water for ‘changes in water quality’.

Some Question Whether The EPA Is Doing Enough

When it comes to this project, the EPA says that it has determined the proposed use of phosphogypsum in this pilot project is “as protective of human health as placement in a stack” referring to those gypstacks mentioned earlier. Also, the phosphogypsum test road is small, and located on private property where it can’t be accessed by the general public. That private property is owned by Moasic Fertilizer, who notes that the project is safe, emphasizing liners and collection systems used to prevent contamination – along with potential cost savings and reduced reliance on traditional road materials.

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That’s little reassurance to Floridians who live near areas affected by earlier breaches of gypstacks that have already contaminated millions of gallons of Florida’s drinking water, rivers, and streams when their structures are damaged or fail, possibly during heavy rainfall events. With millions of Florida residents familiar with the sight of roadways being washed away from weather events, it’s no wonder the idea of storing waste material beneath them isn’t proving too popular.

Environmental groups argue that the EPA’s risk assessment is inadequate and that long-term impacts are unknown, while other critics fear this project could open the door to wider use of phosphogypsum in construction, despite the risks. Many critics of the project note that the EPA themselves note the dangers of radon gas, which is emitted from phosphogypsum as it decays – whether in gypstacks or beneath roadways.

“This would be an outrageous handout to the phosphate industry at the expense of the health and safety of Floridians and our environment,” said Ragan Whitlock, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If this bill becomes law, Florida roads would become ticking time bombs, waiting for the next storm event to expose our communities and waterways to this radioactive waste.”

Sources:
Center for Billogical Divesity
,
EPA