EPA gives tentative approval to a plan to build test road project using a phosphate waste product

Federal regulators are seeking comment on their plan to approve the test road bed project in Polk County through Nov. 8.

Federal environmental regulators have given preliminary approval to a plan to use a slightly radioactive byproduct of phosphate mining in roadway construction. But there is a lot of opposition to the plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency has indicated it will approve a plan by Mosaic to build a pilot project that uses phosphogypsum as a road bed. The mining company has said it is looking for a way to reduce the amount of the phosphate byproducts that are currently stacked in two dozen gypstacks — mostly in Polk, Hardee and Hillsborough counties.

In 2020, the EPA moved to allow the use of phosphogypsum in roads, but after backlash from environmental groups across the country, the agency rolled back its decision in 2021. Many other countries around the world use it in road beds.

The pilot project would be a small strip of road at Mosaic’s New Wales processing plant near Mulberry in Polk County that would test the material in actual conditions.