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A Times EditorialThe Hillsborough County Commission will consider a deal this week that would undo the ban on phosphate mining near protected waterways and wells.
Hillsborough County could put at risk the region's drinking water supply with a proposed giveaway to the phosphate industry. A deal before commissioners Tuesday would resolve a lawsuit against the county by making it easier for operators to mine near protected waterways and wells. This is a sellout, not a settlement, for taxpayers throughout the region who have spent tens of millions of dollars in recent years to provide the growing area with safe, clean water.
It boggles the mind that a deal so one-sided got this far. County lawyers proposed the scheme to resolve a suit by the Mosaic Co., the world's leading phosphate producer, which wants to expand its mine in eastern Hillsborough by at least 600 acres south of Plant City. The region's water utility, Tampa Bay Water, objects, because the deal would undo the ban on mining in areas now protected as sources of drinking water for 2.4-million residents throughout the Tampa Bay area.
The agreement calls on the county to "not consider" as mining "the physical extraction" of phosphate, and to not consider that activity to be prohibited, even though the county's land development code expressly forbids new mining or land excavation near wells and surface water used for drinking.
It further declares that even if mining was prohibited, a new side agreement will govern all future waivers sought by the industry, both for mining and "mining-related activities." The county, in other words, would settle with Mosaic by broadening a loophole and extending it to every other potential polluter. Commissioners would no longer be required to make a finding that mining near water served an "overriding public interest" for a waiver to be approved, a hurdle that keeps the industry and elected officials in the public eye. Companies, instead, could merely offer "reasonable assurance" that mining would not harm the water.
Using a settlement in a legal case to do away with a county code is a sleazy way for the county to do business. If commissioners want to roll back protection of the water supply, they should stand up and propose the move openly in a regular board meeting and face the public outcry, not try to force the measure through in a land-use hearing. If this deal is fair and environmentally neutral, why was the county's environmental protection commission staff kept out of the loop? Hillsborough adopted these protections for a reason, and the county commissioners should not abandon them.