One of the largest industrial corporations in the world, the Mosaic Co. rips roughly 10 million metric tons of phosphate rock from the earth every year at open-air mines in central Florida. The company then grinds the rock and reacts it with acid at nearby chemical factories, ultimately turning the material into fertilizer for food crops and animal feed.

One problem, for both Mosaic and the rest of us, is that this process produces a toxic byproduct called phosphogypsum, which is mildly radioactive and must be permanently stored in giant piles that can rise as high as a 50-story building. These are known as “gypstacks,” and there are 25 of them scattered around Florida — all but three of them clustered in west-central Florida between Tampa and Bartow and two-thirds of them owned by Mosaic.

These manmade mountains — which are also topped by ponds of polluted water leftover from the the manufacturing process — are enormous environmental hazards, vulnerable to hurricanes and sink holes and system failures.

They are also, potentially, enormously lucrative. There is an estimated $31 billion worth of raw materials locked inside Florida’s gypstacks right now — including $20 billion worth of rare earth minerals needed for everything from iPhones to electric vehicles; $10 billion worth of gypsum that could be turned into construction aggregates or soil amendments; and $1 billion worth of radium that could be used in cancer radiotherapy drugs.

LEGISLATORS NEED TO ACT NOW!