Mosaic New Wales Plant, Florida

Mosaic’s New Wales Plant, near the town of Lithia, is the larger of two fertilizer production plants currently operating in the Bone Valley, producing nearly 3 million tons of processed phosphates, and 1.4 million tons of phosphoric acid per year. When phosphate rich ore is mixed with sulfuric acid to make phosphoric acid, it produces phosphogypsum as a byproduct, which is piled high at these plants in a waste mound known as a gypstack. The material arrives as a slurry, and a liquid pond is usually present at the top of active gypstacks. In 2016, a sinkhole formed under one of the two cells in the active gypstack at the New Wales Plant, causing process water to drain into the sinkhole. Close to $100 million has been spent to fix the problem.