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County planners recommend sulfur plant
By JOSH ZIMMER, Times Staff Writer APOLLO BEACH -- County planners are recommending approval of a controversial $40-million solid sulfur plant off Tampa Bay near TECO's Big Bend coal burning plant. The recommendation was not unexpected. Case reviewer John Healey said the Department of Planning and Growth Management was trying to bring its opinion about the project in line with a recent Circuit Court ruling. Hillsborough County commissioners last year approved a modification to an existing proposal for the industrially zoned property. But four months ago a three-judge Circuit Court panel ruled the company proposing the plant -- Big Bend Transfer Co. -- should have had to file for a rezoning. The proposed rezoning is scheduled to be discussed Monday before a zoning hearing master. The project is attracting opposition from many residents living near the coal plant. They claim the solid sulfur technology is not as safe and efficient as the company says. Constructing the facility next to Big Bend will compound existing health and environmental problems posed by the coal plant, which is one of Florida's worst polluters, according to its opponents. TECO is under a federal consent order to sharply reduce emissions there. Big Bend is a conglomeration of three phosphate-producing giants -- IMC Global, Cargill and CF Industries -- who say they want to reduce their reliance on the more traditional liquid sulfur industry in the Tampa Bay area. Sulfur is used to break down phosphates to produce fertilizer. More phosphate and sulfur is handled in the Tampa Bay area than any other part of the world.
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From the Times Ernest Hooper |
