No. Mosaic is voluntarily and significantly reducing its daily permitted groundwater usage. In fact, a new, 20-year permit that will result in a 30% reduction in groundwater withdrawals is currently under review by the Southwest Florida Management District (SWFWMD). The permit would reduce annual average consumption over its 20-year life to 55 mgd.(million gallons per day).   In addition, the proposed peak period withdrawal level of 69.7 mgd compares with a current permitted peak amount of 99.92 mgd - a dramatic 30% drop following a similar large reduction made in the mid-1990s. 

The proposed Integrated Water Use Permit (IWUP) will consolidate seven separate water use permits to run both our phosphate mining and fertilizer manufacturing operations in Central Florida. In addition, the company will put in place a range of new environmental initiatives to protect water resources.  Further, the IWUP provides for improved communication and reporting between Mosaic and the District. Watch this two-minute video about Mosaic's water management practices.

As part of the new IWUP, Mosaic has agreed to a variety of new conservation measures and exploration of alternative water supplies.  These include:

• The company will monitor protected wetlands based on an unprecedented four-year time frame for assessing "baseline" conditions,  which is twice the length of past baseline data comparisons.
• More stringent reporting timelines and action items require Mosaic to notify the District and expedite corrective measures should any monitoring data indicate the potential for an unacceptable impact to protected ecosystems. 
• The seven current permits, each with a unique set of conditions and requirements, will now be standardized intoonepermit to provide consistency across Mosaic's operations.
• Mosaic and the District have agreed to study using water from Manatee County's Flatford Swamp, which suffers from abnormally high water levels as a result of neighboring agricultural run-off, as an alternative source to groundwater in company operations. Further, Mosaic has submitted a comprehensive water conservation plan with the IWUP application to identify and investigate additional water conservation opportunities through the term of the permit.

Yes. Stringent water quality regulations require that any water that is released into a river or stream must go through permitted discharge points and must comply with Florida Department of Environmental Protection  standards for water quality. These standards are designed to protect water bodies for recreational uses such as swimming and fishing and to protect public health and welfare.

No. Creeks and rivers (Payne, Alafia) that have had extensive phosphate mining in their watersheds exhibit excellent water quality, similar to that of Horse Creek. Mosaic has mined in the Horse Creek watershed for more than a decade without any negative impact on water quality. In fact, the Horse Creek Stewardship Program establishes the Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority and Mosaic as stewards of Horse Creek. Funded by Mosaic, this long-term program provides a procedure for the collection of information on physical, chemical and biological characteristics of Horse Creek during mining in the watershed. This detailed monitoring and evaluation has confirmed that our mining operations are not adversely impacting Horse Creek.

Mosaic recycles or reuses approximately 95 percent of the water at its phosphate facilities.  Water is used in transporting phosphate rock, sand and clay (in a slurry form) from the mines to processing plants.  Rainfall is also captured in the active mining areas and stored on site for future use.  However, during the dry season in particular, rainfall capture is generally not sufficient to meet process demands, so withdrawals from the groundwater are necessary.  These withdrawals come from permitted wells installed in the Floridan Aquifer, typically 600 feet below the ground's surface.

No. Phosphate mines catch rainfall in active mining areas to prevent turbid water from being released, and to keep their water systems recharged. Water is also used for hydrating and recharging wetland areas near mines.  Excess water is released after clarification, and after meeting state water quality standards. In unmined and released reclaimed areas, storm water flows directly into nearby streams.

Studies by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, as well as others, have concluded that observed periodic declines in the flow of the Peace River at Arcadia are largely due to climatic conditions, principally low rainfall, not phosphate mining. Dr. Marty Kelly (SWFWMD) reported that:

"While there are demonstrated impacts to low flows in the upper Peace River that can be largely attributed to groundwater withdrawals and land use impacts from all user groups in the watershed as documented in the District's MFL report for the upper river and summarized in the draft SWUCA recovery strategy, most of the flow reduction in the middle Peace River is attributable to climate."

To put Mosaic's proposed new water use reduction into a regional perspective, a comparison of engineering models between the current and proposed permitted quantities predicts a recovery of as much as three feet in the Floridan Aquifer within the Southern Water Use Caution Area.  These model-predicted recoveries are consistent with actual water level observations collected at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitoring wells within the Central Florida mining region during the past 35 years.  As illustrated below, since 1975 Upper Floridan Aquifer water levels within the mining region have recovered as much as 45 feet as a result of water conservation efforts.

Some speculate that clay settling areas prevent rainfall see page into the water table near the ground surface, thereby reducing the volume of water that travels through the ground to the river. This "base flow" is what sustains the river flow during periods of low rainfall. Three things, however, contradict these speculations.

1. Clay is not created by phosphate mining. It is merely relocated within the mining area.
   
   
2. Soils from which clay has been removed actually accept and store more rainwater and provide more seepage to adjacent streams than they did before phosphate mining, thereby balancing the lower seepage from the clay areas.
   
   
3. Government flow measurements show that Payne Creek has the highest base flow of the Peace River's four major tributaries. This is significant because more than 70% of the land area of the Payne Creek basin has been mined and much of that has been reclaimed. In fact, Charlie Creek, where no phosphate mining has taken place, has the lowest base flow of the four creeks.

The manufacturing process is heat intensive, and so water is necessary for cooling requirements. Mosaic recycles or reuses approximately 95 percent of the water at its phosphate facilities. For example, recycled water is used to clean the internal components of major pieces of equipment, directly displacing fresh water. The company's New Wales and Bartow facilities currently use reverse osmosis ― a water filtering process ― to purify water for their boilers.  With RO treatment, the source water can be of lower quality and potable water is not required.  The company's Riverview facility will implement this technology in late 2012.