Phosfate

Don’t Tread On Me – Divine Providence

Phosphate. Explosive New Documentary on Florida’s Darkest Environmental Secret: ‘Phosfate’.

Watch Phosfate on Tubi: https://link.tubi.tv/GAi0GdUsRqb

One of the most toxic places in America is Florida. One of Florida’s biggest industries and best kept secrets is phosphate mining. The state accounts for around 70 percent of all phosphate mining done in the country.

For every one ton of usable phosphate, there’s five tons of radioactive rock left behind. Florida is so radioactive that the Fountain of Youth is closed due to radioactivity. According to the World Health Organization, long-term exposure to radiation even at low levels can dramatically increase the risk of dying from cancer. In 2011, cancer became the leading cause of death in Florida.

In the explosive new documentary, ‘Phosfate,’ cancer survivor and filmmaker Erik E. Crown joins local water activists to investigate accelerated cancer rates and other illnesses in central Florida communities, tracing the source to phosphate mining and the pollution of the state’s waterways by multinational corporation, The Mosaic Company. Even though the company was fined by the EPA in 2015 for 2 billion dollars in damages for the mishandling of 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste, it continues its practices and is seeking to expand operations to DeSoto County. ‘Phosfate’ will be released amongst the ongoing efforts of the people of DeSoto County who are currently fighting to keep Mosaic from opening the brand new mine in their county.

Cinema Libre has now released the film on DVD and Video on Demand (Vimeo) with additional platforms to follow. The DVD has the following bonus features: Trailer, Closed captions and two extended interviews.

In 2016, one of the deepest sinkholes ever recorded in Florida opened beneath Mosaic’s New Wales Plant in Polk County, damaging stacks of phosphogypsum, or “gypstacks,” a mountain-like hazardous waste, radioactive byproduct that occurs when phosphate ore is processed into fertilizer.

The sinkhole led to an estimated 215 million gallons of contaminated, radioactive water draining into a local aquifer. It took the company two years to seal the leak. In March of 2021, a rupture at the former Piney Point phosphate plant sent hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic water into Tampa Bay. Piney Point is just one of 25 gypsum stacks that exist in Florida.