Love Canal Tragedy Remembered Decades Later As History Repeats Itself In Riverview Florida

Love Canal Toxic Waste Began Surfacing From Underground After Heavy Rainfall

Love Canal became the subject of national and international attention after it was revealed in the press that the site had formerly been used to bury 22,000 tons of toxic waste by Hooker Chemical Company (now Occidental Petroleum Corporation).

The city of Niagara Falls began using the land as a landfill for chemical waste disposal and later the U.S. Army began burying waste from chemical warfare experiments. The Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation acquired the use of the site for private use in 1947 and buried 21,000 tons of toxic waste there over the next five years. After the site was filled, Hooker sold the Love Canal for one dollar to the Niagara Falls School Board in 1953, and the land was approved for residential use.

“Thirty-five years after Love Canal became a symbol of the dangers of toxic waste in residential neighborhoods, the legal and medical issues there are still playing out.” (as will happen with Riverview)…

Did the EPA learn NOTHING from The Love Canal tragedy? Did they “forget”? Or, are they just sellouts of humanity that don’t care as long as it doesn’t affect their families, while being paid off to turn a blind eye until the point where it can no longer be ignored with a subsequent bigger payoff in the form of a monetary “fine”, a mere slap on the wrist to the repeat offender while ignoring their repetitive careless contamination? These are questions that should be PUBLICLY ASKED of the EPA regarding their complicity in allowing land developers, (consisting of attorneys who know how to skirt the law), to have built a residential community on a similar toxic waste site in Riverview, Florida, ignoring the deadly consequences (until it becomes profitable not to).

Source: Environmental Research Foundation

To understand the ongoing battle in Riverview, it is important to fully comprehend the tragedy at the Love Canal. This heartfelt and thorough assessment By Eckardt C. Beck, Administrator of EPA Region 2, 1977-1979, was found on the EPA’s own website. Yet, to this day, the Love Canal has subsequently been swept under the rug again, as history repeats itself in Riverview, Florida.

The Love Canal Tragedy

by Eckardt C. Beck
EPA Journal – January 1979

Quite simply, Love Canal is one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history.

But that’s not the most disturbing fact.

What is worse is that it cannot be regarded as an isolated event. It could happen again–anywhere in this country–unless we move expeditiously to prevent it.

It is a cruel irony that Love Canal was originally meant to be a dream community. That vision belonged to the man for whom the three-block tract of land on the eastern edge of Niagara Falls, New York, was named–William T. Love.

Love felt that by digging a short canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers, power could be generated cheaply to fuel the industry and homes of his would-be model city.

But despite considerable backing, Love’s project was unable to endure the one-two punch of fluctuations in the economy and Nikola Tesla’s discovery of how to economically transmit electricity over great distances by means of an alternating current.

By 1910, the dream was shattered. All that was left to commemorate Love’s hope was a partial ditch where construction of the canal had begun.

In the 1920s the seeds of a genuine nightmare were planted. The canal was turned into a municipal and industrial chemical dump-site.

Landfills can of course be an environmentally acceptable method of hazardous waste disposal, assuming they are properly sited, managed, and regulated. Love Canal will always remain a perfect historical example of how not to run such an operation.

In 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company, then the owners and operators of the property, covered the canal with earth and sold it to the city for one dollar.

It was a bad buy.

In the late ’50s, about 100 homes and a school were built at the site. Perhaps it wasn’t William T. Love’s model city, but it was a solid, working-class community. For a while.

On the first day of August, 1978, the lead paragraph of a front-page story in the New York Times read:

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.–Twenty five years after the Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love Canal here as an industrial dump, 82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, have been percolating upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into the backyards and basements of 100 homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal.

In an article prepared for the February, 1978 EPA Journal, I wrote, regarding chemical dump-sites in general, that “even though some of these landfills have been closed down, they may stand like ticking time bombs.” Just months later, Love Canal exploded.

The explosion was triggered by a record amount of rainfall. Shortly thereafter, the leaching began.

I visited the canal area at that time. Corroding waste-disposal drums could be seen breaking up through the grounds of backyards. Trees and gardens were turning black and dying. One entire swimming pool had been had been popped up from its foundation, afloat now on a small sea of chemicals. Puddles of noxious substances were pointed out to me by the residents. Some of these puddles were in their yards, some were in their basements, others yet were on the school grounds. Everywhere the air had a faint, choking smell. Children returned from play with burns on their hands and faces…

And then there were the birth defects. The New York State Health Department is continuing an investigation into a disturbingly high rate of miscarriages, along with five birth-defect cases detected thus far in the area.

I recall talking with the father of one the children with birth defects. “I heard someone from the press saying that there were only five cases of birth defects here,” he told me. “When you go back to your people at EPA, please don’t use the phrase ‘only five cases.’ People must realize that this is a tiny community. Five birth defect cases here is terrifying.”

A large percentage of people in Love Canal are also being closely observed because of detected high white-blood-cell counts, a possible precursor of leukemia. […]

“We knew they put chemicals into the canal and filled it over,” said one woman, a long-time resident of the Canal area., “but we had no idea the chemicals would invade our homes. We’re worried sick about the grandchildren and their children.”

Two of this woman’s four grandchildren have birth defects. The children were born and raised in the Love Canal community. A granddaughter was born deaf with a cleft palate, an extra row of teeth, and slight retardation. A grandson was born with an eye defect.

Of the chemicals which comprise the brew seeping through the ground and into homes at Love Canal, one of the most prevalent is benzene — a known human carcinogen, and one detected in high concentrations. But the residents characterize things more simply.

“I’ve got this slop everywhere,” said another man who lives at Love Canal. His daughter also suffers from a congenital defect. […]

We suspect that there are hundreds of such chemical dump-sites across this Nation.

…without a doubt, many of these old dump-sites are time bombs with burning fuses — their contents slowly leaching out. And the next victim cold be a water supply, or a sensitive wetland.

The presence of various types of toxic substances in our environment has become increasingly widespread — a fact that President Carter has called “one of the grimmest discoveries of the modern era.”

Chemical sales in the United States now exceed a mind-boggling $112 billion per year, with as many as 70,000 chemical substances in commerce.

Love Canal can now be added to a growing list of environmental disasters involving toxics, ranging from industrial workers stricken by nervous disorders and cancers to the discovery of toxic materials in the milk of nursing mothers.

It is within our power to exercise intelligent and effective controls designed to significantly cut such environmental risks. A tragedy, unfortunately, has now called upon us to decide on the overall level of commitment we desire for defusing future Love Canals. And it is not forgotten that no one has paid more dearly already than the residents of Love Canal.

Source: http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/love-canal-tragedy

Contact EPA Here to ask a question, provide feedback, or report a problem.

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RIVERVIEW, FLORIDA – PRESENT DAY

Photo Credit: Davey Crockett “Article Elf“

Suffering illness and engaged in a fierce two year battle, long time resident of Riverview, Florida, Gina LaBruno, known affectionately by the children in her close knit community as “the water lady” has been fighting to raise awareness about the toxic water tragedy happening in Florida as the EPA turns a blind eye.

Below is LaBruno’s heartfelt response regarding some of those official’s outrage at being called on their apathy and dismissal of this life threatening issue:

I was told about some officials that were VERY upset that their names were displayed. My response:

“Well if you do not like what you see, then you obviously know there is something wrong in how this situation is being and has been handled. If you do not want your name tied into the wrong doers then you maybe should of not turned a blind eye. It is real simple If you are a government official then you have a job to “UPHOLD” the law and keep citizens “SAFE”. After all isn’t that what and why we pay/paid taxes for in this country? How has it that our government has put the environment to the back burner!! HOW??? All of a sudden one of the things we prided the “MOST” The beauty and cleanliness of our country is now being pushed aside as if it was never as important as “IT REALLY IS” at least in my mind it is one of the main issues that I can say I think of first when I think of the United States of America. I think clean drinking water and safe environment!!

How can you be a country that speaks of “GOD”(if at all one is religious) and then turn your back on all of the Natural Resources of this Earth! Just “PLEASE” I want to hear the answer to this from any of the officials in charge of our natural resources. Huh, I promise you I would not let any one of them give me a spin as to how they can fix this or how they think this is not a big deal what they are doing to the land and water!! This “IS” A VERY VERY SERIOUS ISSUE, that I feel VERY STRONGLY about. And it is a simple reality there is nothing “OK” about the damage they are causing. NOTHING! Money will not return the earth to it’s former condition. And without these resources “WE AS HUMAN BEINGS WILL NOT SURVIVE”!!!” –

Gina LaBruno

Click photo for link to, “Mosaic Toxic Waste Settlement In Works”. Excerpt: “The EPA accused Mosaic In 2005 and 2006 of mishandling contaminated process water at six of its operations, including Riverview.” – Yet, local officials in Florida continue to DENY that there is a problem with the water in Riverview, claiming it’s “safe” despite Mosaic’s legacy of “mishandling” toxic waste? What gives? Big money and slick corporate attorneys, no doubt.

Below is an article outlining serious health issues caused by decades of industrial pollution in Florida and the outright carelessness on the part of the local EPA that recognized the risks, yet ultimately took no action and allowed a residential neighborhood to be built on toxic land. Despite the EPA’s previous admission that “120,000 people living on 40,000 residential parcels could be exposed to unsafe radiation levels”, they turned a blind eye and allowed the development.

EPA Abandons  Major Radiation Cleanup in Florida, Despite Cancer Concerns

By Douglas P. Guarino

The agency’s approach to the Florida case lends further credence to the concern that it is backing away from its long-held radiological cleanup rules generally, Hirsch said.”The agency is lowering the EPA flag outside the building and raising the white flag of surrender,” he quipped.

Three Decades of Concern

Although government officials have said little about the Florida situation publicly, federal involvement at the sites surrounding Lakeland began in 1979. That’s when EPA scientists first warned their superiors that the area could pose a health threat.

The scientists noted that past phosphate mining had created elevated concentrations of radium-226 in the area’s soil. Radium produces gamma rays that can penetrate the body and increase the risk for a variety of cancers. Inhaling or ingesting the uranium byproduct can increase the risk of leukemia, lymphoma and bone cancer, specifically.

In addition, the decay of radium creates radon, an odorless, radioactive gas that can increase the risk of lung cancer by seeping into homes and polluting indoor air.

Given these risks, the EPA scientists advised that no new homes should be built on the sites until further studies were completed, but the agency took no action and residential development continued.

The Environmental Protection Agency paid little attention to the Lakeland area sites until the new millennium, agency documents show. By that time, agency officials estimated that as many as 120,000 people living on 40,000 residential parcels could be exposed to unsafe radiation levels.

In 2003, EPA officials deemed the potential problem at one Lakeland subdivision — an upscale development of about 500 homes called “Oakbridge” — to be so bad that they considered it a candidate for emergency cleanup action. Low-income and minority communities might also be affected, internal documents show — creating so-called “environmental justice” concerns for the agency.

Regional politics intervened, however, and the agency did little more in the way of studying the issue over the subsequent decade. Residents were not warned of the EPA concerns and no remedial actions were taken.

Phosphate mining industry officials, who represent the second largest revenue-producing enterprise in the Sunshine State, made it known in private meetings that they strongly opposed the agency declaring the parcels Superfund sites. Such a move could make mining companies liable for as much as $11 billion in cleanup costs, according to estimates of the potential scope of the contamination that the EPA inspector general included in a 2004 report.

State health and environment officials operating under Republican governorships sided with industry, taking the position that no cleanup action was necessary if residents were being exposed to less than 500 millirems of radiation per year. State officials said this approach was permissible under guidelines suggested by the privately run National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

However, at the 500-millirem-per-year level, the cancer risk for humans is roughly 1 in 40, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry noted in a 2006 internal report it prepared regarding the Florida dispute.

EPA cleanup policy dictates that, in a worst-case scenario, no more than one in 10,000 people should be put at risk for developing cancer from manmade contamination.

Following 2010 news reports about the standoff, EPA officials began making preparations for an aerial radiation survey that was to enable them to get a better handle on the scope and severity of the problem. The plans stalled, however, after a group of Republican lawmakers from Florida — siding with state and mining-industry officials — pressured the agency not to conduct the survey. […]

This article was published in Global Security Newswire, which is produced independently by National Journal Group under contract with the Nuclear Threat Initiative. NTI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group working to reduce global threats from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. – (End)

Source: http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/epa-abandons-major-radiation-cleanup-florida-despite-cancer-concerns/

Below is an NY Times article excerpt from 1983 that will shed more light on the history of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer industry (radioactive gypsum dump), and Gina LaBruno’s present day fight:

PLAN FOR BIG DUMP STIRS TAMPA FIGHT – 1983 – Source: NY Times

By REGINALD STUART

Published: December 12, 1983

TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 9— A company’s proposal to build a HUGE radioactive gypsum dump near a residential area with a school has brought on a campaign that pits Florida’s powerful phosphate and fertilizer industry against its growing health and environmental safety lobby.

Southwest Florida, which has vast deposits of phosphates, an ingredient in fertilizer, produces 80 percent of the nation’s fertilizer. Phosphogypsum, a waste product of the fertilizer process, has many impurities, including radium, and this waste is what would go into the dump that the company, Gardinier Big River Inc., proposes to build. For every ton of phosphate rock processed to make fertilizer, the industry reports, a ton and half of this byproduct gypsum, which is not the material used in wallboards, is created. […]

”We can store our gypsum or shut down,” said Harry Gray Gordon, vice president for industrial relations for Gardinier. ”If it shuts down,” he said, the decision would affect ”the rest of the industry with respect to the gypsum piles.” ‘Left the Factual Area’ […]

The 20-year-old lower middle income Progress Village and the school would be within a few thousand feet of the site, which is planned to cover 389 acres and to grow by 12,000 tons of gypsum every 24 hours until it reaches a height of 200 feet in 40 years.

The opponents to the dump have won the support of the Manasota 88, a well- financed environmental protection group from neighboring Manatee and Sarasota Counties. ‘No One Really Knows Hazards’. […]

Gardinier’s consultants have maintained that the radiation emitted into the air will be far short of any harmful levels. The company also says that health problems in its work force at an existing gypsum dump have not been out of the ordinary. “Leakage of tainted water would be minimal or nonexistent”, the company asserts, because of a plan to line the proposed site with a thick clay wall. Also the dump would be covered by grass to at least seven feet from the top.

The commission members have not taken sides publicly on the proposal, although they voice concern.

Janice Platt, 47 years old, the senior member of the county commission, said: ”I understand that Gardinier and the industry are concerned about economic impact, but environment and human impact have a price tag also. The old way of doing things is no longer acceptable.” – (End)

Photo Credit (click for link): Phosphate and Fluoride Industrial Waste In Florida

Further down, see the Wall Street Journal excerpt detailing the waste site Riverview land is on. There is extreme toxicity from the fertilizer plant(s) that, decades upon decades, continues poisoning underground aquafers with uranium and a host of other carcinogenic chemicals & toxic heavy metals. Like layers of an onion, this situation keeps getting more complex as we unravel this corruption to its core and get a much clearer picture of what Gina LaBruno has been up against.

Fact: “the half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.5 billion years, uranium-235 about 700 million years, and uranium-234 about 25 thousand years. Uranium atoms decay into other atoms, or radionuclides, that are also radioactive and commonly called decay products”, yet NIOSH deems the land “safe”? It’s easy to lose track of time, but, has it been 4.5 billion years already?…

One of the prominent toxins LaBruno’s lab results reveals is excessive amounts of BARIUM, (in addition to lead, mercury, fluoride, and a host of other toxins and pathogens). While barium can “naturally occur” in water, the excessive amounts revealed in LaBruno’s lab tests, indicate something more.

The land is a uranium waste site, but how would barium be in the water?  According to the World Nuclear Organization, nuclear fission results in uranium becoming BARIUM, “the fission reaction in U-235 produces fission products such as Ba, Kr, Sr, Cs, I and Xe with atomic masses distributed around 95 and 135”. Source:  Physics of Uranium and Nuclear Energy –  Uranium becomes Krypton and Barium. That explains the unnaturally elevated levels of barium that correspond with the deteriorating health of the residents of Riverview.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

U.S. Edition

Sunday, January 25, 2015 As of 8:02 PM

Waste Lands

America’s forgotten nuclear legacy.

Gardinier, Inc.

Last updated: October 29, 2013

Riverview, Florida

This site handled (or was contaminated by) uranium, according to government records. The Department of Energy initially considered cleaning up this site under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, but determined that it didn’t have the authority to do so. See below for more details.

Other names: U.S. Phosphoric Plant, Uranium Recovery Unit • Cargill Fertilizer, Inc. • U.S. Phosphoric Products ● Note: The summary above has been automatically generated from details below.

Government Assessments

“U. S. Phosphoric Products constructed and operated a small scale pilot plant for uranium recovery; and Gardinier investigated a process for the recovery of by-product uranium from wet process phosphoric acid.”

Source: Department of Energy

“Under contract to the AEC, Gardinier (under the name U.S. Phosphoric Products) operated a pilot plant from 1951 to 1954 which recovered uranium from phosphoric acid. From 1956 to 1961, it produced uranium by recovery of U3O8 from phosphoric acid. Maximum production was 60 tons of uranium concentrate per year. The uranium was ultimately used in weapons production.”

Source: Department of Energy via NIOSH

Radioactive Materials / Other Materials of Interest

• uranium

Source: Department of Energy “Considered Sites” database and/or other government records. Note: May not be an exhaustive list; Department of Energy records focus on “primary” materials handled while under contract with its predecessor agencies. FUSRAP* Status: Considered but eliminated

“Eliminated – No Authority” *Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program. Source: Department of Energy

NIOSH* 2011 Evaluation: Potential exists for significant residual radiation (in 1955 and from 1962 to time of study)

“Following a site visit in April 1977, ORNL personnel performed a complete radiological survey of the site from December 14-19, 1977. The final report stated that the contamination at this site has been identified as uranium and radium in concentrations exceeding NRC guidelines for the release of property for unrestricted use at some points inside the process building and in the outdoor area near the process building and pilot operations building. Radioactive material other than that used for weapons production was processed during or after the time of DOE contracts and exposure to workers in that facility cannot be clearly attributed to either DOE or non-DOE sources.”

“Documentation reviewed confirms the presence of residual contamination outside of the period in which weapons-related production occurred, which is indistinguishable from non-related residual contamination. The facility, affected areas and conditions appear to still remain. USDOE documentation indicates that the state of Florida was notified of the conditions, actions taken are unknown.”

*National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Source: Report on Residual Radioactive and Beryllium Contamination at Atomic Weapons Employer Facilities and Beryllium Vendor Facilities (Aug. 2011), Appendix A-2. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, as part of a federal program to compensate individuals for health damage from work in the atomics-weapons industry, analyzes information about scores of sites around the country. It looks for evidence that a site engaged in activities that might have exposed workers to harmful amounts of weapons-related radiation. […] (End).

Mosaic Fertilizer Mine Near Riverview Florida – Photo Source: Protect Peace River

Current occupant/owner: Mosaic Co.

Current occupant/owner comment:A spokesman for Mosaic Co., the current operator at the site, said “there was a uranium extraction facility within the Riverview fertilizer manufacturing complex that operated during the 1950’s under a supply contract with the U.S. government. The facility was subsequently demolished and disposed of in keeping with prevailing regulatory requirements. In the approximately half century since it ceased production, there has been no evidence of any residual contamination associated with the site or operations of the facility.” Notes:Map marker indicates approximate center of former (demolished) uranium recovery plant, based on site diagrams from a 1981 Department of Energy report.

Documents

• FL.05-1 – Memorandum; Picario to Brown; Data Re Restoration, Abandonment or Selling Building and Certain Accessories on Property of U. S. Phosphoric Products; East Tampa, Florida — Contract AT(49-1)-534; July 6, 1955  (PDF), DOE Office of Legacy Management*
• FL.05-2 – ORNL Survey (DOE/EV-0005/21); Radiological Survey of the Former Uranium Recovery Pilot and Process Sites; Gardinier, Incorporated; Tampa, Florida; March 1981 (PDF), DOE Office of Legacy Management*
• FL.05-3 – Letter; Whitman to Wallo; No Authority Determination; December 5, 1984 (PDF), DOE Office of Legacy Management*
• FL.05-6 – Memorandum; Faulkner to Ludiecke; Negotiation of Termination of Uranium Production Contract with Tennessee Corporation; February 12, 1960 (PDF), DOE Office of Legacy Management*
• FL.05-7 – Radioactive Material License No. 396-2, Amendment No. 4; Gardinier, Inc.; August 22, 1975 (PDF), DOE Office of Legacy Management*
• FL.05-8 – DOE Letter; Wagoner to Freedman; No Authority Determination; November 8, 1994  (PDF), DOE Office of Legacy Management*

Document title and URL extracted from Department of Energy “Considered Sites” database.

Source: http://projects.wsj.com/waste-lands/site/172-gardinier-inc/

Mosaic Phosphate Mine near Riverview Florida – Source: Tampa Bay Times

Despite decades upon decades of mishandling toxic waste and blatant disregard for health of people, wildlife, and nature, Mosaic, like Monsanto, has the audacity to claim to be “helping feed the world”. This video put out by Mosaic’s public relations spin team is a propaganda piece designed to deceive the public, all the while poisoning Florida. Sickening.

Mosaic has a long history of mishandling toxic waste, yet somehow, despite all, they continue to evade responsibility for the toxic drinking water contaminated by their chemicals leaching into Riverview wells making residents ill.

Letters sent to LaBruno by City Officials and the EPA (scroll further down to view), claim the water is “safe”. Despite these “bureaucratic assurances”, the decreased land value in the Villages of Bloomingdale (VOB), specifically Riverview, Florida, suggests otherwise; refer to the history of the Love Canal at the top. Additionally, LaBruno found in her research that it was an ATTORNEY who approved the land for development, failing to have a proper Environmental Impact Report done prior to approval, which begs the question, “was that an intentional oversight”?

Furthermore, “why was it an attorney, not a biologist, who surveyed the land”?…

Source: http://bloomingdale.tampa4u.com/

The low land value of Riverview in comparison with the surrounding areas, is a dead giveaway, reminiscent of the Love Canal. Developers swoop in looking to make a quick profit, and build land on a toxic waste site, skirt legal and moral responsibility, then sell the plots for cheap, disregarding of the fact that families, men, women, and children, are falling ill and dying. What’s worse? The EPA has been turning a blind eye, (until, of course, it may suit their needs not to).

According to NIOSH, there is “no residual contamination”…(remember, the same was said at the beginning of the Love Canal tragedy too). WHY would property value be so much cheaper in Riverview? More importantly, WHY are families falling ill and dying, if it’s “safe”? It seems if the developers have enough capital, they can do anything they want and get away with it, as long as they can turn a profit, they care not if it’s at the expense of the health and well being of the residents that occupy their toxic land.  According to the study in this Tampa Patch article, harmful contaminants are found in the drinking water in Florida, “what’s legal isn’t always safe when it comes to drinking water”: https://patch.com/florida/southtampa/harmful-contaminants-found-florida-drinking-water-study

 

Screenshot taken ONE YEAR AGO: January 28, 2015

Source: http://bloomingdale.tampa4u.com/

The new screenshot below reflects the price for a three bedroom two bath home in Riverview, (albeit a little less square feet than the previous Riverview listing), is $45,000 less and both are still significantly lower compared to two & three bedroom homes elsewhere in Florida. Any price is a bad investment considering the contaminated well water in Riverview is making its residents deathly ill.

UPDATED Screenshot taken January 22, 2016

 Source: http://bloomingdale.tampa4u.com/

Toxic water IS being pumped into resident’s homes in Riverview, on a development 1.76 miles from the largest fertilizer plant in the U.S., regardless of its profiteers claiming otherwise. Refer to the previous quoted article, PLAN FOR BIG DUMP STIRS TAMPA FIGHT – NYTimes.com 1983, that fight was lost and the plant was built under the “assurance” that there would be “no risks”. As a result, there are now Illegal, un-permitted wells on a TOXIC aquafer, proving that there are serious health and environmental risks, yet officials continue to look the other way; refusing to take LaBruno’s legitimate, well documented concerns about the water (consisting of bad odors, discoloration, burning / lesions, and causing illnesses including cancer, and death), seriously. Despite installing expensive filtration systems, LaBruno states there has been no improvement in the water, or her health.

LaBruno asks, “how come MOSAIC never sodded those gypsum stacks before 7/2014, when by law those stacks when no longer being ored are to be sodded?This is a rule that has been in place for a significant amount of time. Why when I am pushing and causing a stir is this when they decide to SOD those stacks FINALLY?
http://archive.flsenate.gov/data/Publications/2005/Senate/reports/interim_reports/pdf/2005-154ep.pdf

Below is a letter from an Environmental Supervisor that claims to have examined the water stating it’s “safe”, but according to LaBruno, this official was not only apathetic and dishonest, but extremely rude and condescending.

June 13, 2012 – Response LaBruno received, dismissing her concerns. Below is LaBruno’s statement of what really happened.

“This woman has a horrible attitude she is mean and I have several complaints about how she has spoken to resident’s that have called to complain. At one point at the end of May 2012 she lied to a resident-Renter, telling this woman that she had just come out there for a visit 2 weeks prior and that the water was fine! Huh, Therese had not EVER been out there at that point! Therese never came to VOB before June 13, 2012. Therese has even yelled at the Tallahassee officials as she was so adamant that there was no need for them to come and do a sight investigation. The official that made me aware of Therese’s attitude said she had not heard someone who works for the state ever raise their voice like that.​” —

This was in June of 2012, once I had figured out that the water was bad. I went and searched for the property and I found the wells, I then was very adamant to get county officials out to figure out the situation. But instead the Florida DOH official that came out, falsified her report to the Region 4 Official. And when she did that I went and I DUG the well lines till they were visible then, the next morning when day light returned I went and took a video… How can Hillsborough County officials claim they did any type of proper checks to the water lines when this is what was on the property?!
Mind you that there are “NO PERMITS” for wells in that area! That is a superfund area, and Mosaic Fertilizer has been producing Phosphoric Phosphate from this area since 1924. Then they added the Sulfuric Acid Process a little over 20yrs ago. If you read the link I have posted to this page you will see that this is some of the most TOXIC land in the country!!! TOXIC. And they know it is. So how did they get the permits to build on that land, and then get away with building outside of code regulations?
I hope that with every message I write with every piece of information I show, I hope that it creates an understanding, that we MUST PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO OUR COMMUNITY’S WE MUST QUESTION OUR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS. WE MUST PARTICIPATE WITHIN OUR LOCAL DISTRICTS AND ATTEND THE AGENDA MEETINGS, this is the only way to prevent this type of activity from happening right in front of our eye’s. Please be patient I will be adding a lot more information. I am juggling many aspects of this crisis right now, so my time is always taken up~ If not by this then by our everyday life, and unfortunately that is the part I am fighting to get back.” –Gina LaBruno

Below is a photograph of chemical stains that appeared in the toilet bowl only 4 days after it was cleaned. According to LaBruno, Riverview is not getting safe drinking water, they are getting RECLAIMED water (for extra pressure) mixed with WELL WATER from illegal wells.

The next photograph is the bathtub drain, showing chemical stains, and excessive hair loss, one of the most prevalent symptoms, along with chronic fatigue, edema (swelling), skin lesions, decreased immune function, infections, cancers, and a host of other health complications caused by the toxic water.

We’ve all heard of Hinkley, California and Erin Brockovich. It is not unusual for entities that believe they’re above the law to “poison people and lie about it”.  That is why LaBruno contacted Erin Brockovich for help with this ongoing battle.

Gina LaBruno – Community Health Book / Erin Brockovich

Fighting for over a year now.

The development that myself and my 11yr old son lived in for 4 yrs is feeding toxic water to the resident’s of this community. Which is in Riverview, FL it sits 1.76 miles from the MOSAIC Fertilizer (Cargill Co.)

GYPSUM Stacks and Cooling Ponds. This company has resided there since 1924 and they make a lot of fertilizer and energy product there. This is also where the Fluoride for the the potable water sysytem’s is made. And it is made with the waste from creating the fertilizer. Fluorosilicic Acid is the man made version of Fluoride.  This company is known to be a top violator of pollution.

Having so many spills through out the land and the air, it has made the ground water aquifer “EXTREMELY TOXIC”.

The developers and the CDD to the community have placed ILLEGAL UNPERMITTED WELLS on the property. The land is DELINEATED making the aquifer TOXIC. These developers and county officials are allowing well water to be given to the residents in place of the potable water supply. And they are doing it thru a cross connection with the reclaimed water line.

The amount of people whom have fallen ill is not just a coincidence. What it is, is a violation of FEDERAL LAWS. 

Cancer, Extreme Fatigue, Anemia, Hair Loss, Vision Problems, Breathing Issue’s, Skin Rash’s, Tumor’s, Teeth Cracking, Sudden Heart Attacks, 9yr old that was not ill had a stroke. And death. Resident’s with diabetes seem to be the one’s that have fallen ill the fastest and the hardest.

The local government officials are telling lies and helping the developers to cover this up. They have lied to their lead officials out of Tallahassee, and the Tallahassee officials have ignored the blatant lies, they have ignored the photo’s and water test result’s.The federal officials that were lied too are also running this issue thru circles. NO ONE, NOT ONE GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL HAS STEPPED IN AND DONE THE RIGHT THING. NOT ONE, “YET“

I have had 14 water tests done. Test results show we are not receiving potable water, I have taken videos of the well lines that are tapped into to the county water main lines. I also took pictures of the water meters on those water mains for months because those meters are not ticking.  Yet they were still billing for water usage!!

I hope that by posting this issue here tonight I can help bring light to this very serious problem occurring through out  the U.S.

Bringing awareness to each other is all we have right now. We have to step out of our comfort zones and into the local government offices by attending the agenda meeting’s paying attention and voting before certain amendments and changes are passed. This is how  “We The People” can pull our selves and our government out of this awful mess. 

It is the TAXPAYER’s Dollar and we have a right to “CHANGE” what we do not like.

I will take any suggestion’s from others that are going through similar issues. 

STAY STRONG, STEP UP, FIGHT HARD, BELIEVE IN YOURSELVES. IT IS ALL UP TO US COMING TOGETHER AND PUSHING FOR WHAT THIS COUNTRY PROMISED!

THE TAKING OF THOSE TAX DOLLARS FROM EVERY PAYCHECK WAS/IS TO BE USING IT FOR OUR WELL BEING KEEPING THE INSIDE OF OUR BORDERS REGULATED.“

Gina LaBruno, “the water lady“, strong advocate for bringing attention to this serious matter, hopes to find resolution for the residents suffering illnesses due to the toxic water cover-up, herself included. Deeply concerned for the well being of the residents of Riverview, and keeping the lines of communication open in her community, LaBruno had this to say:

“She, (Riverview resident), has told me that since my last visit the water has gotten very bad again and that the neighbors are even discussing this with her. She cannot remove the red ring from her toilet bowl or from her bath tub. She has been sick now for weeks. Also there is a former property manager who 5 weeks after starting there became VERY sick and had serious breathing problems. I met with her silently and informed her of the issues asking her if she had been drinking water from there and she told me yes! She was making the coffee from the tap water. I expressed my concern about this and she also expressed her findings and concern on how things were operating in within the HOA and the CDD. She then put in her 2 week notice and has had a horrible time ridding herself of the illness she is suffering . I have not spoken to her over the last two weeks but I intend to get an update from her soon.
Also there is more information I recently found out about a resident owner that has lived there since the community opened, her husband and her 19yr old daughter both have died.” 

– Gina LaBruno

Gina LaBruno’s water test’s and the DEP water test’s prove the water is not potable drinking water, all lab results have been well documented and cataloged for future reference.

Below is an article by George Glasser that Gina LaBruno has expressed deep appreciation for, since Mr. Glasser sheds yet more light on this seriously compound contaminated water issue:

Semantics, Politics or Fraud?
George Glasser

EXCERPT: “In April, 2000, the Palm Beach Dental Director, Robert Dumbaugh, found himself in a dilemma in his push to fluoridate the drinking water of the small town of Wellington. When local activists revealed that the product used to fluoridate is, in reality, captured pollution from the production of phosphate fertilizer, Thomas Reeves, the US National Fluoridation Engineer, remained silent on the issue, refusing to answer any questions about the origin of the fluoridation agent.”

“So, during the one day field trip to the Cargill Fertilizer facility, Graziani and Dumbaugh had managed to redefine the nature of FSA pollution effluent”!

However, the US Environmental Protection Agency has a different view of the captured pollution. In 1999, the EPA established that all facilities producing phosphate fertilizers in the United States must use the maximum achievable control technology (MACT) to reduce emissions of hydrogen fluoride, and heavy metals, including arsenic, beryllium, radionuclides, chromium and lead, as well as methyl isobutyl ketone.

Many of the hazardous air pollutants (or air toxics) released from the production of phosphate fertilizer are known or suspected of causing cancer or other serious health effects in humans and animals. EPA’s action was estimated to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants by about 345 tons annually, representing approximately 57 percent reduction from current levels.

National Sanitation Foundation International, which “certifies” the fluoridating agent, stated in correspondence to Florida Department of Health administrator, Pepe Mendez, that because of the EPA’s proposed new guidelines for Arsenic levels in drinking water, there might be “more product failures” due to inherent arsenic in the fluorosilicic acid. They also stated that beryllium was also a problem.

Both beryllium and arsenic are Group 1(a) substances or known to cause cancer in humans. Scientists have found that arsenic is responsible for causing, prostate, bladder, kidney, liver, skin and lung cancers in humans. Beryllium is considered the only verified causative of osteogenic sarcoma, and the EPA’s maximum contaminate level of Beryllium allowed in drinking water is 4.0 parts per billion. Both, arsenic and beryllium are cumulative toxicants in the body. Lead, a neurotoxicant, is also present in the fluoridating agent. It, too, is a cumulative poison.

Source: http://ffo-olf.org/fluorideItsPollution.html

Below is a screenshot of a letter LaBruno received from the EPA telling her the water is “safe”:

Please help show support for the brave Gina LaBruno, and all of the residents suffering ill effects from the toxic water in Riverview, by liking her facebook page, sharing information, and speaking out. The EPA and other public officials must be held accountable for turning a blind eye to this atrocity. https://www.facebook.com/wateratVOB

What might it take for city officials to acknowledge this serious problem? How about a nice big drink of water from the faucet of one of the homes in Riverview?…

How about it, EPA, care for a sip?

Notice the chemical residue stains in the bottom of that jar:

“I am over here in RIVERVIEW, FL Collecting DATA about the water at my former Residence. The community is 1.76 miles from MOSAIC formerly GARDINIER and they make PHOSPHATE Fertilizer. Well this company also CREATED NUCLEAR WEAPONS, and the land they built this development on is said to be a former TOXIC DUMP SITE. I have been poisoned with BARIUM, MERCURY, LEAD, ARSENIC, and I am more then certain RADIATION . Many are sick. Many have died. The County and The Health Dept. are denying what is going on. And I have documented every step I have taken to get the proper attention yet “NO ONE” “NOT ONE OFFICIAL HAS SPOKEN THE TRUTH” Right Now in RIVERVIEW, FL. Please “LIKE” This Page and HELP SPREAD THE WORD. https://www.facebook.com/wateratVOB ” — Gina LaBruno

           “The Water Lady”

UPDATED October 2022

Pollution from Florida’s phosphate mining industry a concern with Hurricane Ian

By Curt Anderson

Published September 28, 2022

• SOURCE: https://www.fox13news.com/news/pollution-florida-phosphate-mining-industry-hurricane-ian

FILE – An aerial view of the location of the old Piney Point phosphate plant in Palmetto, Florida, on May 4, 2021. (Photo by Thomas O’Neill/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Photo by Thomas O’Neill/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry, more than 1 billion tons in “stacks” that resemble enormous ponds, are at risk for leaks or other contamination when Hurricane Ian comes ashore in the state, environmental groups say.

Florida has 24 such phosphogypsum stacks, most of them concentrated in mining areas in the central part of the state. About 30 million tons of this slightly radioactive waste is generated every year, according to the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute.

“A major storm event like the one we are bracing for can inundate the facilities with more water than the open-air ponds can handle,” Ragan Whitlock, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group, said in an email Tuesday.

“We are extremely concerned about the potential impacts Hurricane Ian may have on phosphate facilities around the state,” Whitlock added.

FILE – An aerial view of the partially drained New Gypsum Stack South wastewater reservoir at Piney Point in Palmetto, Florida, on May 4, 2021. (Photo by Thomas O’Neill/NurPhoto via Getty Images)(Photo by Thomas O’Neill/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

A leak in March 2021 at a stack called Piney Point resulted in the release of an estimated 215 million gallons of polluted water into Tampa Bay, causing massive fish kills. State officials, overseen by a court-appointed receiver, are working with a $100 million appropriation to shut down that long-troubled location.

“During the past six months, the receiver has made significant progress toward closing the facility,” lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a court filing Monday.

But the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued with other groups to close down Piney Point, noted that 4.5 million additional gallons of wastewater were released into Tampa Bay in August.

“The imminent and substantial endangerment to the environment and human health and safety posed by Piney Point has not been abated” since a judge ordered a six-month stay in the case.

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What’s in the Piney Point wastewater?

Experts fear the water could feed algae blooms that will choke out fish and could even be harmful to humans. Craig Patrick explains what we’ve seen elsewhere in Florida.

Piney Point wastewater leak: A history of the former phosphate plant site

Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall in southwest Florida on Wednesday before cutting through the state — very close to many of the gypsum stacks.

State Department of Environmental Protection records show that Piney Point has about 24 inches (60 centimeters) of rainfall capacity. Another facility in the Tampa Bay area, operated by phosphate giant Mosaic Co., has just over 9 inches (22 centimeters) of rainfall capacity.

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Ian strengthens to Category 4 hurricane

Hurricane Ian is turned into a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, just 2 mph shy of Category 5 intensity, early Wednesday morning.

A spill could seriously damage rivers and other wetlands near the stacks, according to Jim Tatum of the Our Santa Fe River nonprofit group.

“Valuable aquatic and vegetative resources never fully recover from a spill,” Tatum wrote on the organization’s website. “As the highly acidic, radioactive slime makes its way to the receiving waters, entire aquatic ecosystems are impacted.”

A Mosaic spokeswoman did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment.

Phosphate has been mined in Florida since 1883. It’s used mainly for fertilizer to produce food, animal supplements and a variety of industrial products. Land used in mining is required to be “reclaimed,” or brought as close as possible back to its original state.

The byproducts that wind up in the stacks, however, have few uses acceptable to federal regulators. They can contain radioactive uranium, thorium and radium along with toxic metals such as barium, cadmium and lead, according to the environmental group ManaSota 88.

Fertilizers are made from phosphate rock that contains naturally occurring uranium and thorium, which decay to radium, and radium decays to the radioactive gas radon, the Environmental Protection Agency says. Class-action lawsuits have claimed health effects for people living near the mining waste.

“Phosphate companies have had over 70 years to figure out a way to dispose of radioactive gypsum wastes in an acceptable manner, but they have yet to do so,” said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota 88. –“