Help FAN to draw attention to EPA’s double standard on Mosaic’s fluoride waste

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Fluoride Action Network | November 9, 2015

On November 6, FAN submitted comments to the Department of Justice’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division and the Environmental Protection Agency on the recent proposed “settlement” over Mosaic Fertilizer LLC’s reckless contamination of the environment at its fertilizer production facilities in Florida and Louisiana. The proposed settlement comes under the federal Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). This Act gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from the “cradle-to-grave” and includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.

According to the proposed Consent Decrees:

“the Complaint includes allegations that Mosaic failed to characterize and illegally treated, stored and disposed of hazardous wastes from various processes at its Facilities, including: the production of sulfuric acid, diammonium phosphate (DAP) and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) fertilizer, and fluorosilicic acid (FSA)” and more.

Mosaic, a giant part of the phosphate fertilizer industry, produces fluorosilicic acid, a hazardous waste that is transformed into a product when it is sold. It is this transformation that allows it to be dumped as a fluoridation chemical in public drinking water across the U.S.

According to the proposed Consent Decrees, Mosaic will not sustain any criminal liabilities for its gross violations of RCRA:

“… by agreeing to entry of this Consent Decree, Mosaic makes no admission of law or fact with respect to the allegations in the Complaint, and continues to deny any non-compliance or violation of any law or regulation identified therein or in this Consent Decree. For the purpose of avoiding litigation among the Parties, however, Mosaic and where applicable The Mosaic Company [parent company], agree to the requirements of this Consent Decree;”

This settlement may appear large (EPA reports state “close to $2 billion”) but there are a lot of smoke and mirrors here. Most of the money is allocated to Mosaic’s remediation of the hazardous waste at its many sites and investments in cleaner production. More importantly, the proposed Consent Decrees circumvents due process because The Ecology Party of Florida and FAN members submitted formal complaints to the US Army Corps of Engineers and EPA describing the myriad deficiencies of the Areawide Environmental Impact Statement (AEIS) prepared under those agencies for the proposed expansion of phosphate mining (primarily by Mosaic) in southern Florida. One of the most glaring omissions in that AEIS was the failure of those federal agencies to consider all of the adverse impacts throughout the U.S. related to production and use of all aspects of fertilizers made from mining phosphate. Instead of initiated a Supplemental AEIS to correct those deficiencies, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), with public hearings and published drafts of the Supplemental AEIS correcting those deficiencies to determine if the expansion of phosphate mining and all of its cumulative adverse impacts violated federal laws, the proposed Consent Decrees were negotiated behind closed doors, without meeting the NEPA requirements of the AEIS. The Ecology Party of Florida also submitted comments advising the US Department of Justice that the proposed Consent Decrees are unlawful because those decrees circumvent the AEIS process.

From FAN’s point of view the proposed Consent Decrees also represent a double standard. As we say in our submission:

“FAN is dismayed at the Environmental Protection Agency’s glaring double standard. While it has taken some steps to address the DIRECT impacts of Mosaic’s hazardous waste on the local environment it continues to turn a blind eye on the INDIRECT impact of the use of this hazardous waste when it is deliberately added to the public water supply in water fluoridation programs.”

In addition to several measures designed to give greater protection to workers in this industry, FAN is asking that:

“MOSAIC be expressly forbidden to sell Fluorosilicic Acid, or any other chemical manufactured at their site(s), for any purpose connected with the fluoridation of drinking water.”

Here is a link to our full submission

Please support FAN by sending an email this week to express your support for FAN’s submission to the Department of Justice at pubcomment-ees.enrd@usdoj.gov – you might want to add that you don’t want to drink Mosaic’s hazardous waste in every glass of water, coffee, tea, and soda that you drink.

Sincerely,

The Team at Fluoride Action Network

See all FAN bulletins online

Relevant Documents:

Sept 30. United States of America and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Plaintiffs) v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC (Defendant). Consent Decree. Filed September 30, 2015. 82 pages.

Sept 30. United States of America and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Plaintiffs) v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC (Defendant). Civil Complaint. Filed September 30, 2015. 99 pages.

Oct 1. United States of America and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Plaintiffs) v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC (Defendant). Appendices. Filed October 1, 2015. 574 pages.

Sept 30. United States of America and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (Plaintiffs) v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC (Defendant). Consent Decree. Filed September 30, 2015. 85 pages.

Sept 30. United States of America and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (Plaintiffs) v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC (Defendant). Civil Complaint. Filed September 30, 2015. 53 pages.

Oct 1. United States of America and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (Plaintiffs) v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC (Defendant). Attachments. Filed October 1, 2015. 416 pages.

Oct 7. Notice of Lodging of Two Proposed Consent Decrees Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Federal Register.

Oct 1. Press release on the Consent Decrees against Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC, operations in Florida and Louisiana.

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