Florida Toxic Waste Crisis Could Be Key to China Rare Earths Fight
Cleaning up radioactive tailings from old phosphate mines could be an opportunity for the U.S. to counter Beijing’s hold on strategic resources.
The old Piney Point phosphate mine in Florida. The pond sits in a stack of phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste product from manufacturing fertilizer.
Photographer: Tiffany Tompkins/The Bradenton HeraldLeaks of wastewater at a former phosphate mine prompted evacuation orders and a state of emergency near Tampa Sunday, amid fears that a pile of radioactive mine tailings could collapse. Believe it or not, President Joe Biden should be seeing an opportunity wrapped in this crisis.
That’s because cleaning up the vast and neglected phosphogypsum stacks that dot Florida and other parts of the southeastern U.S. could help solve U.S. dependence on imported critical materials, all while removing the looming threat of environmental disaster from local residents.