EPA v. Mosaic
Hello:
Thanks for taking part in the campaign to push EPA farther in its settlement with Mosaic. The people of west-central Florida, many of whom are poor or racial minorities, have been victims of corporate colonialism and its toxic legacies for far too long. By sending the US Department of Justice an email, you can be part of helping end an era of rapacious greed that has ravaged the environment, destroyed the region's economy, and sickened thousands.
The most visible manifestations of phosphate's toxic legacy are the flat-topped phosphogypsum "stacks" that loom over the region's communities and threaten its precious waterways. These mountains are never going to go away, and taken together, they comprise the largest hazardous and toxic waste repository in the United States, and possibly the world. Here, in west-central Florida, in communities like Fort Meade, Ona, Mulberry, Bartow, Riverview, and many others.
There are three things we must insist upon having from this settlement, without which the Consent Decree is INADEQUATE. [Use this word. It is critical to the language and effectiveness of public comment.]
1. The settlement is a "smoking gun," and leaves no doubt as to Mosaic's criminal manufacturing practices. But it does not identify a victim. We have heard, and every day we hear more, of what we must, in the absence of epidemiological studies, call "anecdotal" reports -- reports of people with leukemia, lung cancer, COPD, blood disorders, skin lesions, breaking teeth and hair loss, tumors and many more illnesses. These are all perfectly consistent with chronic exposure to radioactivity, acids and fluorines ingested via water and air, but we can't prove it without studies. Without a thorough, comprehensive set of epidemiological studies throughout the area, the consent decree is inadequate and incomplete.
2. The flow of new toxic and hazardous materials into the phosphogypsum stacks must halt immediately, and no further permits should be awarded to Mosaic until it has remediated the stacks.
3. The 20-30 year time horizon of the trust account approach will expose another entire human generation to known disease-causing contaminants. This is completely unacceptable, and a grave oversight on the part of EPA and DOJ, and a violation of the federal government's own policies on environmental justice. The phosphogypsum "stacks" must be remediated now, before any more people have been put at risk.
The letter can be emailed to the following address:
Or mailed to:
Assistant Attorney General
US Environment and Natural Resources Division
DOJ-ENRD
P.O. Box 7611
Washington, DC 20044-7611
