Neighbors anxious after Florida sinkhole contaminates water

(AP) — Neighbors of a huge sinkhole sending cascades of contaminated water and fertilizer plant waste into Florida's main drinking-water aquifer are fearful and fuming that it took weeks for them to be notified about the disaster.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection and the company say contaminated water has not migrated enough to threaten private wells in the area, but more than 600 people have accepted Mosaic's offer of free testing since being told of the disaster.

A Mosaic employee discovered the water loss caused by the sinkhole Aug. 27 and the state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was notified the next day, as required by Florida law, according to David Jellerson, the company's senior director for environmental and phosphate projects.

Mosaic stacks it in hill-size piles that can be hundreds of feet tall and visible from space.

Because it is radioactive, the material can't be reused, but the wastewater involved is stored in ponds atop the piles.

Most of the pond water had emptied through the hole by the time the governor toured the site Tuesday, Mosaic also acknowledged that it doesn't really know how deep the hole has grown between the huge radioactive waste pile and the vast aquifer below.