Wastewater Leak at Florida Plant Fuels Federal Oversight Debate

摘要

The EPA-not states-should regulate fertilizer waste storage sites, environmental groups say, pointing to problems like those in Florida where a leak in a reservoir wall nearly unleashed millions of gallons of wastewater. The vast pools of acidic, radioactive wastewater are "environmental disasters waiting to happen," said Jaclyn Lopez, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity's Florida office. Such pools sit atop huge piles of wastes generated by fertilizer production at about 70 sites across the country, including the Piney Point facility in Manatee County, Fla., near Tampa Bay. The center and 16 other environmental groups in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and other states petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency in February to regulate the wastes as hazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The petition was filed under the Toxic Substances Control Act. It also asked the agency to use the chemical law's authorities to evaluate health and environmental risks of phosphogypsum and process wastewater, which are generated by fertilizer production; to require companies to carry out new tests; and to prevent the waste from being reused. "EPA is reviewing the petition and will respond as appropriate," the agency said in an email. TSCA's deadlines give the agency until early May to make a decision.