A Florida sinkhole is leaking radioactive water

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection says that Mosaic acted immediately to contain radioactive water swallowed by a giant sinkhole.

The disaster happened when a massive 45ft sinkhole opened up beneath a pile of waste material called a “gypsum stack” at Mosaic, the world’s largest supplier of phosphate.

Mosaic said its monitoring system at its New Wales facility at Mulberry, Florida showed a decline in water levels on August 27 from the retention pond of a phosphogypsum stack. The company said it was able to stop it from getting into the public water supply, but residents are still anxious.

That recovery well is pulling contaminated water out of the aquifer and back into the plant, a process officials say could take months to complete.

The water contained phosphogypsum, a slightly radioactive by-product from the production of fertiliser.

“When (the radioactive water) goes down, it mixes with the aquifer water”, Senior Environmental Director David Jellerson said. The aquifer also supplies water to thousands of domestic, industrial and irrigation wells throughout the state.

Media captionAerial view of the sinkhole which opened up under a phosphate fertiliser firm. But it did not otherwise report it publicly until posting information on its website on Thursday, he said.

Dee Ann Miller, spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, said the company was updating state and federal agencies on the situation.

The plant assistant general manager, Chris Hagemo, said Mosaic will continue to monitor the stack to insure there is no safety concerns. Mosaic had made contact with 41 neighbors by Saturday evening, 27 of whom requested sampling of their wells, she said. And they were pumping water from the aquifer to the surface to reuse it for the processing of phosphate.

Both Cole and Broadbent want the company to prove to the public that the water is safe.