Phosphate's mining of water scars region

Recent sinkholes have generated concerns about the costly repairs and dangerous conditions that are popping all over the place, with suspicions narrowing to the excessive use of water by strawberry farmers. They claim their business would go down the drain if water restrictions were imposed on their tap to the aquifer, which has diminished by more than 50 feet, to coat berries for protection against a damaging hard freeze.

Farmers oppose any suggestion that solely places the blame on them but do understand the need to protect Central Florida's water supply. They feel it's just a few very cold nights a year that such concerns are forced to take second seat to securing their crop.

It's not just the farming industry that depends on an occasional helping hand to get through an unavoidable anomaly threatening their bottom line. It's the bottom line in the deals corporations construct with regulatory commissions and oversight agencies that allow them to pass along much of their operational cost to the public. This is done by design. It's called "externalizing."

Externalizing is double-dipping - operating in violation of environmental regulations because fines for doing so equate to a fraction of the cost saved when not staying within those guidelines. This is externalizing a portion of the operational cost to the public.

In defense of strawberry farmers, almost all crops grown in the Tampa Bay region are farmed in the same manner - with lots of water. But there is another industry with a larger impact than that of farming on Central Florida's struggling environment - one that uses as much water, is destructive and externalizes huge expenses. This is phosphate mining.

Phosphate mining is seen by many as Florida's cancer. It would only take one fly-over of Central Florida to see what they mean: 100,000 acres of barren, scorched earth.

This type of mining uses an equal amount of water as strawberries. The water, after use, is held in gigantic gypsum stacks 40 feet deep. The tens of billions of gallons are held back by a 20-foot levee filled to the brim. The water stored in these 50-acre ponds is so toxic it would kill all fish and vegetation in its path, as evidenced by past levee breaches. And each time it happened, the fines were a fraction of the public's cost.

The phosphate mining industry has enjoyed externalizing the cost of the hazards that have plagued their industry for many years. But it's the externalizing of their operational costs that has kept their hand deep in the public's pocket.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District has been the facilitator, permitting Mosaic Mining 99 million gallons a day of Central Florida aquifer water. This surpasses what the city of Tampa is permitted to pump from the same wellfield.

The citizens in the surrounding counties were persuaded to spend $600 million on a water desalinization plant that only a few weeks ago began producing the 25 million gallons a day for which it was designed. The sole purpose of investing in this water plant was to relieve the overpumped aquifer.

Mosaic pumps for free. Stuck in its stacks, the contaminated water becomes a very hazardous accident waiting to happen.

Strawberry farmers shouldn't bear all the blame. Most should be directed to the phosphate miners, county commissioners and the water management district.