DeSantis signs bill allowing new roads to be built with mining waste linked to cancer

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill on Thursday that will allow new roads in the state to be built with “radioactive” mining waste that has been linked to cancer.

HB 1191 adds phosphogypsum to a list of “recyclable materials” that can be used for the construction of roads. The list also includes ground rubber from car tires, ash residue from coal combustion byproducts, recycled mixed-plastic, glass and construction steel.

Phosphogypsum, a waste product from manufacturing fertilizer, emits radon — a radioactive gas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The material also contains radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium and radium.

Radon is second to smoking as a leading cause of lung cancer. The gas has been linked to 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year in the U.S, according to the EPA. 

The agency previously confirmed to CBS News that the mining waste — leftover material from phosphate rock — is potentially cancer-causing. The material is stored in gypstack systems in an effort to prevent it from coming in contact with people and the environment.  

The bill also noted that the state’s Department of Transportation will have to conduct a study to “evaluate the suitability” of its use, adding that it “may consider any prior or ongoing studies of phosphogypsum’s road suitability in the fulfillment of this duty,” according to CBS News. 

The department’s study must be completed by April 1, 2024.

Phosphate mining has been an ongoing problem in the state in recent decades. In 2021, a breach at Piney Point, a former phosphate mining facility in Manatee County, resulted in 215 million gallons of water with environmentally toxic levels of nutrients ending up in the Tampa Bay area with a 10-day span. 

In a statement, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity Elise Bennett said the bill is “reckless handout to the fertilizer industry.”

“Gov. DeSantis is paving the way to a toxic legacy generations of Floridians will have to grapple with,” Bennett told CBS News.  “This opens the door for dangerous radioactive waste to be dumped in roadways across the state, under the guise of a so-called feasibility study that won’t address serious health and safety concerns.”