JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A bill that would allow radioactive material to be used in road construction projects is now waiting for the Florida governor's signature.
However, dozens of environmental organizations are asking Ron DeSantis to veto it.
Last week, Florida lawmakers approved a bill that would enable the use of the phosphogypsum in road projects. It's also known as PG.
It’s the byproduct of phosphate. So when phosphate fertilizer is made, so is PG. It's stored in mounds that are hundreds of feet tall and hundreds of acres wide, mostly in southwest and central Florida.
The federal government says PG is too toxic to do anything with it. The Environmental Protection Agency states: All uses of phosphogypsum waste have been banned unless the waste has very little radioactivity.
However, Florida lawmakers voted last week to use it as a road construction material, giving the Department of Transportation until the end of the year to study it.
"The DOT’s suitability study absolutely contemplates worker safety, exposure limits, and environmental impacts," said Bill Sponser Lawrence McClure on the House floor.
However, more than 30 environmental groups from across the southeastern United States doubt that, and have sent a veto request to DeSantis urging him to veto these bills.
Ragan Whitlock with the Center for Biological Diversity told First Coast News the use of PG could be toxic for the ecosystem next to any roads built with it, let alone to construction workers who handle it.
McClure admitted PG is radioactive but said there are "regulations at the federal and state level to ensure all Floridians, including construction workers that could be working with this material, are safe."
Some representatives asked for more agencies to study the material before it’s used, but that amendment failed.
Whitlock said, "Florida will need to send an application to the Environmental Protection Agency, asking to be able to use this stuff in roadway construction."
Some people in the phosphate industry say something has to be done with the material in the large mounds. While others say that putting it on roads across the state is not the answer.