Before the beginning of every hurricane season, emergency preparedness plans are reviewed, updated and practiced to ensure we are ready to respond to inclement weather. Those plans include proactively monitoring and managing on-site process water inventories in our Florida and Louisiana phosphogypsum stacks – which is a focus for Mosaic year-round, but particularly before and during rainy season.

“We can’t control excess rainfall or hurricane paths, so we focus on controlling what we can – and that means responsibly managing our water inventories, phosphogypsum stacks and other assets year-round,” explains Brittany Cooley, Lead Engineer. “We continuously assess our water management strategy to identify opportunities for improvement.”

Recent improvements include:

  • Upgrading existing Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment facilities across our operations to improve reliability and capacity.
  • Commissioning a new lime treatment plant at our Green Bay facility that helps us manage water used in the manufacturing process.
  • Closing gypsum stack side slopes at our New Wales, Bartow and Riverview facilities to reduce the amount of rainfall collected in our phosphogypsum stacks.

Underground Injection Control: An Important, Environmentally Friendly Alternative

Mosaic has operated two UIC wells to manage our process water inventories at our Uncle Sam facility since 2014.

To help us reduce water inventory at our operations facilities, Mosaic is also looking into securing permits for Underground Injection Control (UIC) in Florida. UIC is a common technology that has been used by municipalities, counties and industry since the 1960s to safely dispose of pre-treated wastewater and excess stormwater into self-contained geologic formations deep underground. Permitted and monitored by environmental regulators, UIC is an important, environmentally benign alternative to discharges to surface water bodies, streams and rivers. Learn more.

Sustainable Operations: Reducing our Freshwater Use

Another way we proactively manage water inventory is by reducing our use of fresh water. Each facility has freshwater usage targets that support Mosaic’s 2025 Sustainability Target to reduce freshwater use by 20 percent per tonne of product. Examples of ideas implemented to reduce freshwater use include installing a heat input system at New Wales that helps increase energy production and RO facility productivity.

“Managing our phosphogypsum stack process water inventories is a team effort,” says Brittany. “Engineering, Operations, Environmental, Permitting and other teams work together year-round to proactively identify risks and opportunities so we can manage our inventories as effectively and efficiently as possible.”