More Mosaic Injection Wells Proposed; Public Meetings Planned For September In Bartow

Following up on an announcement last March accompanying plans for an injection well at Mosaic’s Plant City facility , Mosaic is proceeding with plans to seek permits for injection wells at its New Wales and Bartow plants, according to recently published legal notices.
The fertilizer corporation recently received a permit to conduct exploratory work for the projects.
The wells are intended as disposal sites for acidic wastewater from the fertilizer plants’ phosphogypsum stacks.
Two public meetings are planned. Both will occur from 4 to 7 p.m. at the W.H. Stuart Center, 1702 US 17 South, Bartow. The Bartow well will be the subject of the meeting on Sept. 9. The New Wales project will be the subject of the Sept.10 meeting.
The New Wales plant south of Mulberry has experienced a handful of sinkholes that sent acidic waste into the aquifer. Mosaic officials said after the incidents they were able to pump the contaminated water into treatment areas onsite. They said at the time that avoided offsite impacts that could have affected area residents’ private drinking water wells if the spills had not been mitigated.
There have been no reported sinkholes at Mosaic’s Bartow plant, though there have been a handful of incidents since 2019 that have involved spills of contaminated material that Mosaic reported was contained on its property.
Mosaic does have a permit to discharge some treated waste water into a tributary of the Peace River. which has resulted in criticism from some environmental groups representing downstream interests.