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A 40,000-gallon wakeup call

About a year after a huge hazardous spill, the Mosaic Fertilizer plant on Tampa Bay had another, albeit much smaller, leak. All sides agree: It never should have happened.

By LETITIA STEIN
Published January 27, 2006

RIVERVIEW - The alarm sounded at the fertilizer plant at 8:05 p.m.

The warning likely signaled trouble: Hazardous material had spilled from the plant into Archie Creek, which leads to Hillsborough Bay.

Using flashlights, Mosaic Fertilizer employees searched in the dark for signs of a spill. About 1 a.m., they woke up state environmental regulators with the news. About 40,000 gallons of a contaminated waste product had leaked from a pipe at the plant.

"This is the first time we've had this type of occurrence," Mosaic spokesman David Townsend said in an interview later. "There just had been no prior experience."

Officials at Mosaic, the world's largest producer of phosphate fertilizers, say they took reasonable steps to prevent the spill. They point to monitoring systems that allowed employees to quickly detect and contain the damage.

But the company's monitoring systems did not pick up the spill until it reached Archie Creek. Mosaic's backup protections did not work as planned either, interviews with company officials and environmental regulators show.

The spill killed hundreds of small fish, including sand perch, juvenile mullet and killifish and some blue crab. It drew little notice.

But to environmentalists, it served as a reminder of how easily something can go wrong at the massive fertilizer plant that sits along the eastern side of Tampa Bay.

This is what happened that Wednesday night in December.

All sides agree: The pipeline never should have leaked.

The pipe that runs under U.S. 41 connects the west side of the plant, where Mosaic produces fertilizer, to the east side, where Mosaic stores hazardous fertilizer byproducts in enormous stacks.

In 1997, plant operators replaced the old pipes with a new pipeline designed to increase safety in case of a leak. They put a pipe around the inner pipe. The second pipe was supposed to trap any leaks.

It turned out not to be enough.

Mosaic officials now say the inner pipe leaked at the weakest point in the system - a joint just east of U.S. 41.

First, an opening the size of a pinhole formed in the inner pipeline. It grew into a 4-inch-long slit.

From the slit, the hazardous slurry began spilling into the outer pipe.

Engineers thought this could happen, so they coated an outer steel casing with a substance to prevent corrosion.

Over the years, the outer steel casing corroded anyway.

Even so, Mosaic had installed yet another safety feature to prevent any leak from reaching the creek.

That failed, too.

In the event of a leak, the hazardous slurry between the pipes should have flowed into company cooling ponds.

But a contractor accidentally blocked the outlet to the cooling ponds with dirt.

No one noticed until the spill.

On that night, 40,000 gallons of tainted material spilled out of the pipe.

The next day, inspectors found slough a few feet thick in a 2,500-square-foot area east of U.S. 41. They found another slough mound in a smaller footprint nearby.

"Despite the sound of 40,000 gallons, not a whole lot of stuff was released here through that hole," said Townsend, the spokesman.

That's still enough to fill more than four fuel tankers, the silver kind used to transport gasoline.

And any spill comes with consequences. The recent leak into Archie Creek killed hundreds of small fish.

"You can die the death of a thousand cuts very easily," said Adam Cummings, a county commissioner in Charlotte County, which has spent $11-million in recent years challenging the phosphate industry.

Smaller spills demand attention, he said. "Those are the ones that little by little, day by day can have an even greater impact than the single, rare catastrophic event."

Was the spill preventable?

About a week before the recent spill, state officials had stamped a five-year renewal on the permit to operate the plant, which used to be run by Cargill.

They did not have concerns about the pipeline, which inspectors try to eyeball during regular inspections each year. They ask questions and check for signs of pipeline trouble.

"Obviously, you can't see what's underground," said Sam Zamani, administrator of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection phosphate office in Tampa.

Company officials and state regulators stressed how rapidly Mosaic responded to the spill.

"It didn't go unnoticed for any length of time," said John Coates, administrator of the DEP phosphate services program in Tallahassee.

Phosphate industry watchdogs say that's not enough. Company officials did not detect the spill until it reached the water.

"There's no level of spill that's acceptable," said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota-88, a nonprofit group that has challenged the industry in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

The incident is a blip compared with what happened at the same plant in 2004 during Hurricane Frances.

A breach in a dike allowed 65-million gallons of phosphate waste to flow into Archie Creek. The state fined Mosaic $270,000. After the hurricane, it said it spent $30-million to improve safety.

This time around, Mosaic is beefing up safety measures again.

Mosaic plans to add a sensor between the inner and outer pipelines to detect leaks before they reach Archie Creek, which is something state regulators want them to do.

The company also plans to line the outer steel casing with rubber for stronger protection against corrosion. It will use a thicker plastic material for the inner pipeline. It also will inspect the pipeline twice daily.

Next week, the company plans to submit to the state a detailed report on what happened, the environmental impact and improvements the company has planned. Mosaic is installing a new pipeline, which should be finished by month's end.

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Letitia Stein can be reached at 661-2443 at lstein@sptimes.com

Dec. 14, 2005: A pipeline leaks at Mosaic's Riverview plant, spilling 40,000 gallons of hazardous material. Hundreds of small fish die in Archie Creek.

Sept. 9, 2004: About 65-million gallons of contaminated wastewater spill into Archie Creek after a dam breaks during Hurricane Frances at Cargill's Riverview plant. Cargill Crop Nutrition and IMC Global Inc. merged in October 2004 and now operate as Mosaic.

Dec. 7, 1997: Fifty-million gallons of acidic wastewater containing phosphoric acid, from Mulberry Phosphates, kill thousands of fish and marine life in the Alafia River.

July 23, 1992: The Florida Department of Environmental Regulation finds Mobil Mining & Mineral Co., a subsidiary of Mobil Oil Corp., responsible for draining more than 2-million gallons of tainted water contaminating the Alafia River.

- Compiled by Times researcher Caryn Baird

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 09:02:05]