Freedom to Cause Cancer

Two bills moving through this legislative session would shield owners of former phosphate mines from pollution liability, which will likely encourage development of that land and expose people and the environment to increased radiation risks.

Senate Bill 832 and House Bill 585 guts important environmental and public health protections by adopting new exceptions to the “Water Quality Assurance Act”, which holds companies responsible for any damage caused by certain types of pollution.

Phosphate mining and development interests already have vast influence on Florida’s legislative process, there is no reason to weaken existing protections for the benefit of a few.

It has been known for decades that land mined for phosphate exhibits higher radioactivity at the surface than it did before mining. The elevated levels of radiation pose a considerable threat to human health and the environment. Elevated concentrations of radium-226 and other radionuclides are known to occur in phosphate ores and mining wastes.

Phosphate industry representatives frequently try to downplay the radiation risk associated with phosphate mining by comparing it with the risk of natural terrestrial and cosmic radiation. Terrestrial and cosmic radiation is unavoidable and extremely harmful. Such unavoidable natural radiation can never justify avoidable man-induced radiation exposure. The mining of phosphate creates an avoidable radiation risk from which the exposed public receives no benefit.

There can be no doubt that radioactive soil in mined-out lands is a serious problem.  It appears obvious that living on reclaimed lands is not a healthy undertaking.

Unfortunately, no projection has ever been developed for the expected incidence of leukemia, bone cancer, liver cancer, and chronic health effects from lifetime exposure to levels of alpha-emitting radioisotopes for living on mined-out lands. There is no safe level of radiation exposure. Each exposure increases risk. In any case, no threshold or safe exposure to a carcinogen has been identified.

As the substantial cancer risks and other life shortening effects involved in living on these so-called reclaimed lands are better understood, it can be expected that phosphate mining and reclamation, as it is presently done, may constitute a permanent use of the land - as well as continuing to contaminate ground and surface water downstream of production sites. 

Instead of encouraging development on former phosphate mine sites, radiation standards for post-reclamation mined lands need to be strengthened.

Post reclamation lands must not be permitted to exceed pre-mining, unenhanced natural background soil radium and gamma levels. Radiation risks are not evenly distributed. Proximity to the mine site, wind direction, and other factors are associated with significantly higher risks.

Since it is both economically and technically feasible, legislation should require that radiation levels after mining not exceed those that existed before mining. Additional regulations are needed to address those instances when post-reclamation lands exceed pre-mining radioactive concentrations. State regulations pertaining to phosphate mining need to be written to include a non-degradation clause that will require lands be returned to essentially the same radiation levels that existed before mining.

The well-being of people located in areas containing phosphate mines or processing plants must no longer be relegated to last behind the interests of business and political interests.  House Bill 585 and Senate Bill 832 are contrary to the protection of the public’s health; these bills should not be signed into law. 

Glenn Compton is the Chairman of ManaSota 88, a non-profit organization that has spent over 30 years fighting to protect the environment of Manatee and Sarasota counties.