#phosphate mining

According to a report by the Bradenton Herald, a power failure at Piney Point’s pretreatment facility in Manatee County caused 6,000 gallons of untreated waste to spill into the surrounding area on the morning of Mar. 21. The facility is one of many phosphate mining plants in Florida under heavy scrutiny for the pollution they produce from both standard operations and accidents such as the one at…

The history of Mulberry dates back to the invention of the railroad and the industrial revolution way before trucking was available and practiced in the phosphate mining industry. Long before this time, it was widely known that phosphorus was essential to the production of fertilizer. Around the time of the industrial revolution, it was discovered that phosphorite, or phosphate rock, was an even richer source of phosphorus.

Mulberry, Florida

Popularly used as a chemical agent in fertilizers, phosphate is a high-demand mineral. It’s the natural source of phosphorus, an element that provides a quarter of all nutrients that plants need for their growth and development.

In this blog below, Mulberry phosphate trucking experts will be tackling phosphate’s origin, how it’s used, and the Mulberry Phosphate industry!

Mulberry, Florida

Excerpt:

Four area environmental groups announced Tuesday that they plan to sue two federal agencies over approvals of more than 50,000 acres for phosphate mining across central Florida.

The groups contend the operations "irretrievably damage habitat for imperiled species, threaten water quality and forever change Florida's landscape" in and around critical watersheds that are a major source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Southwest Florida residents, including Manatee and Sarasota counties.

The joint lawsuit will be filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, ManaSota-88, People for Protecting Peace River and Suncoast Waterkeeper against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to the notice of intent to sue issued Tuesday morning.

The notice claims a series of violations to the Endangered Species Act in both agencies' environmental reviews of mining impacts over the past three years within the Central Florida Phosphate District - an area with tens of thousands of acres of active and proposed mines spanning 1.2 million acres and six counties from Sarasota to Polk.

As those of you who follow me already know, I’m not a really blogger, as I post things very sporadically. However, I have found myself with little time to focus on my faith and craft. I live in a very small town in Florida, and the four wealthiest families have banded together to open a phosphate mining operation. For the past two months, I have done little else but research and fighting against this. I have attended at least a dozen public meetings in regards to this mining operation, and spoke loudly and vehemently against it. I have voiced my concerns several times over from the standpoint of a resident directly impacted by this, and as a parent of an asthmatic child. So far we have them hung up on the county level, with a possible moratorium (will be voted on next month) preventing any permits to be either applied for or accepted. What I have not said, are views on this from a spiritual point of view. Like most places in the southern US, my community is heavily Christian, I do not wish to be “witnessed” to in a public forum, so I have been mute in this aspect. Unlike one of the land owners who stated God put phosphate on his property so he could dig it up. I have protested outside of the company’s private meeting, oy to be belittled because I smoke cigarettes. What does my personal choice have to with a controversial business venture? I have solicited signatures for a petition to keep the mine out completely, only to be asked what the point was fighting against so many rich people. But, I have not spoken my opinion as a pagan. This I do now. Christians attend worship services in a building. They are protected from the elements. My worship usually takes place outdoors, in the wind and rain. With a mine Across the street from me, I would be forced to worship in a cloud of radioactive dust. They will poison my water supply, and pollute the rivers where I draw water for my spells and rituals. They will tear down thousands of acres of trees and forest and Meadows where I find things along the fence line to wildcraft with. All for money. This is where the Christians and I greatly agree, money is the evil there is. There would be no amount of money that would tempt me to dishonor the place where these Christian landowners worship. I would not enjoy making a profit of tearing down and defiling their churches. I have enough respect for others to not wish harm on those buildings. God didn’t put phosphate in the ground for you to dig up. It was put there to nourish the plants growing in that ground. And if they destroy all that land, they are destroying my “church”.