"Progress Village was established decades ago to provide affordable housing for Black residents near Tampa. The phosphogypsum stack, containing the toxic waste of fertilizer production, is right next door."
"PROGRESS VILLAGE, Fla.—The radioactive phosphogypsum stack looms tall and wide beside this small, neighborly community southeast of Tampa.
The community was established during the late 1950s to provide affordable housing for segregated Black residents displaced by the construction of Interstate 75. Today the village consists of a few older neighborhoods, sprinkled with newer developments. The population has more than doubled in the past 16 years to at least 11,000. The phosphogypsum stack, situated behind a recreation center and sports complex and also near a middle school, contains the carcinogenic and toxic waste of fertilizer production.
Phosphogypsum stacks, or gypstacks, are basically uncovered open dumps, and the somewhat pyramid-shaped one next to Progress Village could be mistaken for a landfill. The waste contains radium, which as it decays forms radon gas. Both radium and radon are radioactive and can cause cancer, and radon exposure is the second-leading cause of lung cancer. The stack is one of two at the Riverview manufacturing site owned by The Mosaic Co., a Fortune 500 company that is the nation’s largest phosphate manufacturer. The second stack, located across U.S. Highway 41 from Progress Village, is closed; the site also includes a manufacturing plant."
