and last updated 2021-04-07 18:24:13-04
POLK COUNTY, Fla. â The leak at the Piney Point phosphogypsum stack in Manatee County has a lot of people asking if it could happen again elsewhere. There are 25 gypsum stacks that exist in Florida.
âThese massive piles of hazardous waste that sit in perpetuity on our landscape. They can be hundreds of acres wide, hundreds of feet tall. And they are made out of phosphogypsum, which is the radioactive waste that is created in making phosphoric acid, which is principally used in fertilizer,â explained Jaclyn Lopez, Florida Director of the Center for Biological Diversity.