Mulberry, Fla. — Way back in 1997 a spill by Mulberry Phosphates of 56 million gallons of acidic water caused havoc for marine life in the Alafia River, which flows from Mulberry in Polk County through Hillsborough County and into Tampa Bay. Last week, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a report of how to spend some $2.4 million of the $3.7 million settlement the company paid for the damage. Although most of the 377 acres damaged was closest to Mulberry’s processing plant, the money will be spent on portions of the river in Hillsborough County. FDEP said the reason the money will not be spent in Polk County was because the restoration projects there were either on private property or would not have provided significant improvements. Instead, the work will be at Hillsborough County’s Balm-Boyette Scrub Preserve, near Brandon. The plan has been sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for review, according to The Ledger, the daily newspaper in Lakeland, Fla. The start date will be sometime in 2013.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain