Excellent piece to raise awareness on this. Piney Point was neglected by DeSantis and put the community and DEP employees in harm’s way because he is not an environmentally proactive Governor. It led to having to siphon the phosphogypsum waste into Tampa Bay because as of now “dilution is the solution.” But this is nutrient dense waste, so it causes algal blooms, red tide, fish kills, and health problems in humans and animals.
Bone Valley in Florida is a phosphate goldmine. But the gypsum stacks that house the byproduct can erode and crack and breakdown over time. Seeping into the soil and ground water, and the aquifers that supply drinking water.
There are two major areas where drinking water was contaminated that I’m aware of. One in Lee County and one in Escambia.
In the early 2000’s, the Escambia County news broke about the water utilities company being contaminated (also with PFAS). One can follow an interesting trail of the government attempting to cover this up, propaganda, and a nonprofit environment group exposing the truth, until finally a 2023 $1.1b class action lawsuit settlement. There was an original phosphate mining co there from the late 1800’s that dumped its byproduct into 3 ponds and the Bayou Texar prior to EPA’s existence and environmental regulations. The company was Agrico Chemical Co. The 3 ponds they dumped into sat on top of the aquifer. There are cancer clusters coming out of there, a lot of thyroid disease and cancer, a close loved one being one of them.
In Feb 2024 we saw EPA sued to better handle oversight and management of phosphogypsum.
It’s important to note that Mosaic Peace River Park was once an open pit phosphate mine until the 1980’s, but it wasn’t until the 90’s that a lot of environmental regulations started to take hold. This Mosaic Peace River Park flows to the Peace River, that flows down to Charlotte Harbor, one of two critical habitats for the endangered smalltooth sawfish, which is a spawning habitat. In April 2024, news broke out about the STS behaving erratically, spinning in circles, and dying. https://newrepublic.com/post/180419/florida-smalltooth-sawfish-behaving-erratically-dying
My spouse worked for FDEP for 14 years in their DEAR program, and got his master’s in Water Sustainability from USF. For his thesis, he completed a Peace River study of the Charlotte Harbor and STS critical habitats. This study was requested by NMFS within NOAA, to the EPA, who then requested FDEP perform the study. My spouse worked in the SW ROC, Central ROC, and S ROC of FDEP over the years.
He never got to move forward with officially publishing his study because, well, when the Piney Point critical response happened, he was the Team Lead of the DEAR water quality monitoring, while simultaneously being diagnosed with thyroid cancer within days of this incident. While Piney Point didn’t cause his cancer (it was already wide spread), it did give me a clue when doctors kept asking if he’d been exposed to radioactive substances, and the whole issue around Piney Point phosphogypsum was that it was radioactive. Then I realized a former partner of his also had thyroid cancer, and others he grew up with in Pensacola had thyroid disease. That’s when I learned more about Agrico Chemical Co., Mosaic, Lee County, Bone Valley, etc.
This doesn’t even touch the surface of the PFAS issues in Florida. The EPA has recently reset the regulation from 12 parts per trillion to .004 parts per trillion, but parts of Space Coast are registering at 5,000,000 parts per trillion. I’m not one to cry, but this brought me to tears and made me question if I was hallucinating 0’s. Space X is obviously there, Musk’s company. The flame retardants are high in PFAS, contaminating the area. Stel Bailey founded Fight For Zero, 501c3, and is doing absolutely incredible work around this, and her story is chilling. Exposed to PFAS by the DOD (funds SpaceX) since the 1970’s, her uncle, brother, family dog, and her friend ere all diagnosed with cancer in the same year, 2013. Fight4zero.org
Further, Megan Mullen has created a documentary for her film thesis called Secrets of Satellite Beach to expose the cancer clusters coming out of these areas. Very young people. I’m a therapist and lived in Orlando for 10 years. I contracted with Orlando Health’s employee insurance, and clients worked in the medical care of these very young people all getting the same type of aggressive cancer coming from the East coast and Space Coast area. Their trauma and stress at seeing the systemic connection of government, industrialization, corporate greed, capitalism, environmental contaminant exposure, all taxing Floridian’s health and the Florida hospitals.
This is all in line with Erin Brockovich’s story as well. She is still active, raising awareness about clean water, and has a recently released book called, “Superman’s Not Coming.”
Wow, Jason! Thank you for your devotion. Yes to creating a different kind of future. Diligent authors such as you make it possible to do it armed by solid information. To your mighty "pen!"
Great reporting - keep it up! Even if it feels like to much sometimes.
Let's talk about how we got here with housing - yet again. We can’t afford housing because Obama left the crooked bankers in place and blamed homeowners. A BIG LIE.
so, now everyone wants to pretend they have “value” in their home. Nothing has value until you sell it.
Excellent piece to raise awareness on this. Piney Point was neglected by DeSantis and put the community and DEP employees in harm’s way because he is not an environmentally proactive Governor. It led to having to siphon the phosphogypsum waste into Tampa Bay because as of now “dilution is the solution.” But this is nutrient dense waste, so it causes algal blooms, red tide, fish kills, and health problems in humans and animals.
Bone Valley in Florida is a phosphate goldmine. But the gypsum stacks that house the byproduct can erode and crack and breakdown over time. Seeping into the soil and ground water, and the aquifers that supply drinking water.
There are two major areas where drinking water was contaminated that I’m aware of. One in Lee County and one in Escambia.
In the early 2000’s, the Escambia County news broke about the water utilities company being contaminated (also with PFAS). One can follow an interesting trail of the government attempting to cover this up, propaganda, and a nonprofit environment group exposing the truth, until finally a 2023 $1.1b class action lawsuit settlement. There was an original phosphate mining co there from the late 1800’s that dumped its byproduct into 3 ponds and the Bayou Texar prior to EPA’s existence and environmental regulations. The company was Agrico Chemical Co. The 3 ponds they dumped into sat on top of the aquifer. There are cancer clusters coming out of there, a lot of thyroid disease and cancer, a close loved one being one of them.
In Feb 2024 we saw EPA sued to better handle oversight and management of phosphogypsum.
Here is a 2016 suit against Mosaic for a giant sinkhole that leaked radioactive byproduct and Lee County, where Fort Meyers is, sued. https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2016/09/18/slightly-radioactive-water-seeping-into-aquifer-sinkhole/90617996/#
It’s important to note that Mosaic Peace River Park was once an open pit phosphate mine until the 1980’s, but it wasn’t until the 90’s that a lot of environmental regulations started to take hold. This Mosaic Peace River Park flows to the Peace River, that flows down to Charlotte Harbor, one of two critical habitats for the endangered smalltooth sawfish, which is a spawning habitat. In April 2024, news broke out about the STS behaving erratically, spinning in circles, and dying. https://newrepublic.com/post/180419/florida-smalltooth-sawfish-behaving-erratically-dying
My spouse worked for FDEP for 14 years in their DEAR program, and got his master’s in Water Sustainability from USF. For his thesis, he completed a Peace River study of the Charlotte Harbor and STS critical habitats. This study was requested by NMFS within NOAA, to the EPA, who then requested FDEP perform the study. My spouse worked in the SW ROC, Central ROC, and S ROC of FDEP over the years.
He never got to move forward with officially publishing his study because, well, when the Piney Point critical response happened, he was the Team Lead of the DEAR water quality monitoring, while simultaneously being diagnosed with thyroid cancer within days of this incident. While Piney Point didn’t cause his cancer (it was already wide spread), it did give me a clue when doctors kept asking if he’d been exposed to radioactive substances, and the whole issue around Piney Point phosphogypsum was that it was radioactive. Then I realized a former partner of his also had thyroid cancer, and others he grew up with in Pensacola had thyroid disease. That’s when I learned more about Agrico Chemical Co., Mosaic, Lee County, Bone Valley, etc.
This doesn’t even touch the surface of the PFAS issues in Florida. The EPA has recently reset the regulation from 12 parts per trillion to .004 parts per trillion, but parts of Space Coast are registering at 5,000,000 parts per trillion. I’m not one to cry, but this brought me to tears and made me question if I was hallucinating 0’s. Space X is obviously there, Musk’s company. The flame retardants are high in PFAS, contaminating the area. Stel Bailey founded Fight For Zero, 501c3, and is doing absolutely incredible work around this, and her story is chilling. Exposed to PFAS by the DOD (funds SpaceX) since the 1970’s, her uncle, brother, family dog, and her friend ere all diagnosed with cancer in the same year, 2013. Fight4zero.org
Further, Megan Mullen has created a documentary for her film thesis called Secrets of Satellite Beach to expose the cancer clusters coming out of these areas. Very young people. I’m a therapist and lived in Orlando for 10 years. I contracted with Orlando Health’s employee insurance, and clients worked in the medical care of these very young people all getting the same type of aggressive cancer coming from the East coast and Space Coast area. Their trauma and stress at seeing the systemic connection of government, industrialization, corporate greed, capitalism, environmental contaminant exposure, all taxing Floridian’s health and the Florida hospitals.
https://youtu.be/xj2GnrgSJ_w
This is all in line with Erin Brockovich’s story as well. She is still active, raising awareness about clean water, and has a recently released book called, “Superman’s Not Coming.”
Here is a consolidated report on the Escambia County events. Agrico was the name of one company, but then Conoco took over. https://niemanreports.org/finding-necessary-evidence-to-back-up-a-tip/#:~:text=Between%201996%20and%202000%2C%20thousands,them%20to%20clean%20the%20groundwater.
Court docs: https://www.escambiaclerk.com/DocumentCenter/View/219/2004---Report-of-the-Grand-Jury-on-Ground-Water-Contamination-PDF#:~:text=For%20several%20years%2C%20the%20ECUA,to%20dangerous%20levels%20of%20radium.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) 2009 study findings of contaminants in the water: http://www.northescambia.com/2009/12/study-finds-pensacola-has-the-nations-worst-water
EWG 2021 update still found 24 total contaminants with 8 exceeding health guidelines: https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/system.php?pws=FL1170814
Bill Johnson, ECUA’s Director of Engineering, published this propaganda piece in Pensacola News Journal in 2014 (we know it’s propaganda because in 2018 ECUA sued manufacturers for polluting the water, and in 2023 the Levin law firm won the case, leaving 3M DuPont and others financially responsible): https://www.pnj.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/11/22/viewpoint-pensacolas-drinking-water-safe-good/19399697/#
EWG’s update on ECUA’s 2009 response to the publication on Escambia County’s drinking water being the worst in the nation, also calling the water safe: http://www.northescambia.com/2009/12/ecua-releases-statement-after-water-supply-called-worst-in-the-us
Wow, Jason! Thank you for your devotion. Yes to creating a different kind of future. Diligent authors such as you make it possible to do it armed by solid information. To your mighty "pen!"
Great reporting, Jason. Thank you.
Great reporting - keep it up! Even if it feels like to much sometimes.
Let's talk about how we got here with housing - yet again. We can’t afford housing because Obama left the crooked bankers in place and blamed homeowners. A BIG LIE.
so, now everyone wants to pretend they have “value” in their home. Nothing has value until you sell it.