MANATEE COUNTY — A top Department of Environmental Protection official said Tuesday that the defunct Piney Point phosphate plant is the state’s biggest threat to the environment. “This site constitutes one of the largest risks to the environment in Florida’s history,” DEP Deputy Secretary Allan Bedwell said. “It’s our most significant environmental challenge.” In a […]
News Archive
Welcome to the Fluoride Action Network News Archive. The FAN News Archive serves as an historical repository for fluoride news stories, positive or negative. Since FAN catalogs all news stories on fluoride, our news section remains a reliable database of all published fluoride news.
Our news database is categorized by country, state/province, and industry. This collection of articles is constantly being updated with the most recent global news on fluoride-related issues and events.
Fluoride debate on tap in Palm Beach
Fluoride. It’s in toothpaste, in dental washes for elementary school kids, in special drops and tablets. In minuscule amounts, it occurs naturally in food and even in nonfluoridated water. This summer, after a 12-year respite, Palm Beach County commissioners will take up the decades-old debate again. Fluoride: magic bullet or poison. “Fluoridating water is the […]
Pinellas County Targeted with Fluoride Proposal
Two-thirds of Pinellas County residents don’t have fluoridated water, but that could soon change. Pinellas County commissioners appear likely to vote in favor of adding fluoride, possibly in the next month. “I don’t know why we don’t do it already,” said Commissioner Calvin Harris. “I think it’s one of those old holdovers that’s never been […]
Palm Beach to consider adding fluoride to water system
Citing overwhelming public-health benefits, most Palm Beach County commissioners are leaning toward adding fluoride to the county water system. Before the 350,000 people served by the Water Utilities Department get fluoridated water, the County Commission must weigh the science, emotion and politics. Adding fluoride to the water is an obvious step to Robert H. Dumbaugh, […]
Waste Water Heading To Gulf With Federal OK
PALMETTO – The federal government on Wednesday gave the state permission to dump more than half a billion gallons of waste water from the abandoned Piney Point phosphate plant into the Gulf of Mexico. But an improved way to treat the water could cut the amount dumped in the Gulf – possibly by 1 million […]
Piney Point: 500-million gallons of acidic waste heading to gulf
TAMPA — In an unprecedented move, federal regulators announced Thursday they will allow Florida to dispose 500-million gallons of acidic wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico. The waste from the abandoned Piney Point phosphate mine in Manatee County could be loaded onto barges and sprayed into the gulf starting in two weeks, said Allan Bedwell, […]
Piney Point: Phosphate Nightmare
Given the unfortunate options before them, Florida regulators probably have no choice but to use the Gulf of Mexico as a sewer for phosphate waste. But let no one in state government mark this off as unavoidable environmental fate. What is happening with this massive heap of phosphogypsum waste near Port Manatee was foreseeable and […]
Gypsum Stacks Cleanup Costly
TALLAHASSEE – State environmental regulators say they need to spend $45 million in the coming year to pump 750 million gallons of contaminated water from a former phosphate fertilizer plant in Manatee County. Nearly 800 million gallons of acid- laden water is stored atop radioactive phosphogypsum stacks at the Piney Point plant near Port Manatee. […]
Dumping Acidic Water In Gulf Is Best Of Dismal Alternatives
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection proposes an unusual way to deal with a grave pollution threat to Tampa Bay. It wants to discharge nutrient-laced water into the Gulf of Mexico. The agency is seeking emergency approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of its plan to get rid of the 600 million gallons of […]
DEP Aims To Up Dump In Bay
PALMETTO – State environmental officials Thursday proposed to more than double the amount of treated waste water dumped daily into Tampa Bay from a toxic cleanup. The Department of Environmental Protection has asked for an emergency order to allow 2 million gallons of treated waste water from Piney Point, a former phosphate fertilizer plant, to […]