Florida House billl about former phosphate mines advances in subcommittee

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A bill filed in the Florida Legislature could help shield owners of former phosphate mines from pollution liability, and critics say the bill’s text does not address important issues.

House Bill 585 advanced through the House Natural Resources and Disasters Subcommittee on March 4 with a vote of 16 to 2.

The bill would require the Department of Health to conduct surveys of former phosphate lands upon petition to measure the amount of radiation on a property.

These survey results could then be used in civil lawsuits against phosphate mining companies.

However, critics on the subcommittee were concerned that the bill does not specify the cost of these property surveys. It also does not define an unacceptable amount of radiation in a property.

St. Petersburg Democratic Representative Lindsay Cross said the bill, as it’s currently written, does not address what should happen to the land after the surveys. 

“For example, is there an acceptable or a safe level of gamma radiation, or is there a certain threshold above which maybe a playground or a school or a neighborhood should not be built?” Cross said.

Polk County Republican Representative Jon Albert drafted and presented the bill to the subcommittee. He said the survey findings would be available to the public, but the bill’s text does not address how the information will be accessible.

“The information would be available,” Albert said. “As far as a level of the radiation that’s not acceptable, there’s not. You can kind of look anywhere and see there’s not. This just gives a base for what’s actually in the land.”