Florida faces ’imminent’ pollution catastrophe from phosphate mine pond | Florida | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/04/florida-imminent-pollution-catastrophe-phosphate-retention-pond-bradent
Work crews were pumping millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater into an ecologically sensitive Florida bay on Sunday, as they tried to prevent the “imminent” collapse of a storage reservoir at an old phosphate mine.
Officials in Manatee county extended an evacuation zone overnight and warned Sunday that up to 340m gallons could engulf the area in “a 20ft wall of water” if they could not repair the breach at the Piney Point reservoir in the Tampa Bay area, north of Bradenton.[...]
The pond at the abandoned phosphate mine sits in a stack of phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste product from fertiliser manufacturing. The pond contains small amounts of naturally occurring radium and uranium. The stacks can also release large concentrations of radon gas.