"Placing vulnerable sites so close on major waterways that are at risk of damage from storms is a recipe for disaster," said Ragan Whitlock, a staff attorney at the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity. "These are ticking time bombs."
"There is no easy way to dispose of it, leaving it to pile up and become an ever-growing target for such storms as the monster Milton, which is expected to slam into central Florida late Wednesday as at least a Category 3."
Phosphogypsum, a solid waste byproduct from processing phosphate ore to make chemical fertilizer, contains radium, which decays to form radon gas. Both radium and radon are radioactive and can cause cancer.
A lesser storm, Hurricane Frances, which hit the state's eastern coast as a Category 2 and churned across central Florida in 2004, sent 65 million gallons of acidic wastewater from phosphogypsum stacks into nearby waterways, killing thousands of fish and other marine life.
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