Roads in Florida could soon include phosphogypsum — a radioactive waste material from the fertilizer industry — under a bill lawmakers have sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Conservation groups are urging DeSantis to veto the bill, saying phosphogypsum would hurt water quality and put road construction crews at a higher risk of cancer.
The Environmental Protection Agency also has a say in the matter: The agency regulates phosphogypsum, and any plan to use it in roads would require a review, the EPA told NPR.
Is it dangerous?
"Phosphogypsum contains appreciable quantities of uranium and its decay products, such as radium-226," according to the EPA. And because the fertilizer production process concentrates waste material, "phosphogypsum is more radioactive than the original phosphate rock," the agency notes.
"The radium is of particular concern because it decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas," the EPA adds.
Phosphogypsum, a byproduct in the fertilizer industry, contains uranium and radium — and as the EPA notes, it also forms radon, "a cancer-causing, radioactive gas."
A new nickname for DeSantis: Radiation Ronnie.
DeSantis’s rubber stamp legislature just sent him a bill authorizing the use of radioactive waste to pave Florida roads. Perhaps they want to give Mickey Mouse radiation poisoning at Disney World.
Roads in Florida could soon include phosphogypsum — a radioactive waste material from the fertilizer industry — under a bill lawmakers have sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Conservation groups are urging DeSantis to veto the bill, saying phosphogypsum would hurt water quality and put road construction crews at a higher risk of cancer.
Why would DeSantis veto a bill from his own trained seals in the legislature? If he did, Trump might accuse him of caving to the “woke” environmentalists.
HB 1191 would compel the Florida Transportation Department to study using phosphogypsum in paving projects, calling for "demonstration projects using phosphogypsum in road construction aggregate material to determine its feasibility as a paving material."
[ ... ]
The bill sets a deadline of April 1, 2024, giving the transportation agency less than a year to complete its work and make a recommendation. The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature approved the measure by a wide margin.
This whole thing sounds poorly thought out and stupid. That makes it typical of Florida Republicans.
In fertilizer, phosphorus is important for plants to grow strong roots and for crops to be productive. Florida has been an important source since the 1800s; today, the EPA notes, "Florida alone accounts for approximately 80 percent of the current capacity, making it the world's largest phosphate producing area."
When phosphate rock is dissolved in sulfuric acid to make phosphoric acid for fertilizer and a few other uses, phosphogypsum is what's left over.
The commonly used production process, which dates to the 1840s, is not very efficient. For every ton of phosphoric acid produced, more than 5 tons of phosphogypsum waste is generated.
There is a problem in the state with the amount of phosphogypsum being produced. They just don’t know where to put it any more.
Florida's prominent role means the state also has massive waste sites called phosphogypsum stacks, or "gypstacks." Such stacks can be very large — spanning up to 800 acres and about 200 feet in height. They've been linked to serious problems over the years, due to sinkholes and other breaches.
So rather than rethink this whole process, Republicans want to get rid of it by paving the state with it.
"Phosphogypsum contains appreciable quantities of uranium and its decay products, such as radium-226," according to the EPA. And because the fertilizer production process concentrates waste material, "phosphogypsum is more radioactive than the original phosphate rock," the agency notes.
"The radium is of particular concern because it decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas," the EPA adds.
DeSantis can sign the bill, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.
DeSantis could sign the phosphogypsum road-test measure into law at any time; it he takes no action, the bill will be enacted automatically.
That last option gives him a way of claiming that he had nothing to do with the bill. But that would be disingenuous and would fool few people.
Having everybody know that Florida has radioactive roads probably wouldn’t do much for tourism.
The Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a 2020 rule that would allow a radioactive substance in some road construction.
Excerpt from this story from The Hill:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has withdrawn a 2020 rule that would allow a radioactive substance in some road construction.
The October 2020 rule allowed the use of phosphogypsum, a substance generated by phosphate fertilizer production. The waste product is kept in 13 predominantly southeastern states, where the majority of the construction would have occurred.
Between 1989 and the Trump-era rule, the EPA required that all phosphogypsum be stored in “stacks” that experts and activists said would release dangerous amounts of radon gas if dispersed. In Florida alone, 1 billion tons of the substance are stored in 25 stacks, one of which recently leaked millions of gallons into a wastewater reservoir near Tampa Bay.
In a memo dated June 30, EPA Administrator Michael Regan specifically addresses the Oct. 14, 2020, letter from the agency approving a request from the Fertilizer Institute to use the stacks for road construction.
Regan wrote that the agency “does not believe it can be reasonably contended” that the request for approval of phosphogypsum complied with federal regulations.
“The request generally described the type of road construction that might be undertaken but identified no actual road construction project and gave little specific, particularized information about the proposed use,” he wrote, adding that the request further did not provide sufficient information about how any of the substance that was not used would be disposed of.
As a result, Regan wrote, the EPA rescinded the approval of the “broad, generalized request” to use the substance in road construction.
Florida Lawmakers Want to Pave Roads , With Radioactive Material. Lawmakers in Florida want Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign a bill allowing roads
Florida Lawmakers Want to Pave Roads , With Radioactive Material. Lawmakers in Florida want Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign a bill allowing roads in the state to include phosphogypsum. .
Phosphogypsum is a radioactive waste material produced by the fertilizer industry. HB 1191 would direct the Florida Transportation Department to conduct , "demonstration projects using phosphogypsum in road construction aggregate material to determine its feasibility as a paving material.".
If approved, the waste material would become a pavement aggregate, just as stone, gravel and sand are used. The EPA reports that "phosphogypsum contains appreciable quantities of uranium and its decay products, such as radium-226.".
It "is more radioactive than the original phosphate rock" that is used to produce phosphoric acid for fertilizer, according to the agency. Florida alone accounts for approximately 80 percent of the current capacity, making it the world's largest phosphate producing area, Via EPA.gov. Critics, who say phosphogypsum would contaminate the water and increase road crews' cancer risks, are urging DeSantis to veto HB 1191.
Critics, who say phosphogypsum would contaminate the water and increase road crews' cancer risks, are urging DeSantis to veto HB 1191. Using radioactive phosphogypsum in roads is not a solution to the fertilizer industry's toxic waste problem.
, The Center for Biological Diversity and more than 30 other groups, via a letter to Ron DeSantis . Florida should not be a test subject in the industry's reckless experiment, The Center for Biological Diversity and more than 30 other groups, via a letter to Ron DeSantis
I can't but I can fathom this. This is legit like 1990's Captain Planet Villainy.
Phosphogypsum Market is driven by rise in demand for construction materials, increased number of roads and other infrastructure construction activities, and investment in infrastructure construction
Rare Earth Elements Resources and Different Recovery Techniques from Egyptian Ores
Rare Earth Elements Resources and Different Recovery Techniques from Egyptian Ores by Hesham M Kamal in Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR)https://biomedres.us/fulltexts/BJSTR.MS.ID.000550.php
For more articles on BJSTR please click here: https://biomedres.us/index.php
