PLANT CITY, Fla. — Leaders at the former Mosaic fertilizer facility in Plant City want the state to let them drill a well to possibly dispose of wastewater.

According to information provided by the company, there’s less likely to be spills if it’s underground, but some residents say they’re worried about what doing that would mean for their water supply. 

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection held an open house Tuesday evening where people could speak with subject matter experts about the plan. Lakeland resident Magdalene attended dressed as the Green Arrow, holding a sign that read, “Mosaic you have failed this city.”

“I went to high school in Bartow,” she said. “It was always well known that, because of the history of mining in that area, we could not drink the water that came out of the taps in our high school.”

It’s because of that experience that she said she wanted to voice her opposition to the exploratory well.

“I know this does not mean that they’re going to immediately put wastewater in, but why do they need to even do the exploration? Why don’t you spend that money on purifying the water?” said Magdalene.

David Brown is a geologist who consults with Mosaic. He said the water that could one day be injected into the well was once used by the plant to make crop nutrients. Brown told Spectrum News that water will be treated and has to be non-hazardous. One of the goals is resiliency. Information provided by Mosaic from the H2O Coalition says getting rid of wastewater deep underground can prevent spills during hurricanes or other events that can damage wastewater facilities.

“If you have a house that only has one door, you can only come and go out of one door, but you’ve got two doors, now, you’ve got two options. So, it gives them another option for disposal of water other than just surface water,” Brown said.

He said while drilling, the team will look at the thickness and other properties of rock called “confining layers” to make sure they’ll prevent water from seeping through. Casings are set into the well until the disposal zone, which can go from 3,700 ft. to 8,000 ft. deep.

Like Magdalene, others said they were concerned with water quality.

Monica Balicki was one of the members of the group Florida Right to Clean and Healthy Waters Initiative who worked outside the event to get people to sign a petition. The group is working to get a clean water amendment on next year’s ballot. She said she’s worried about potential health impacts if wastewater is eventually injected into the well.

“In our opinion, they have a lot of work to do before they can start on an exploratory well,” Balicki said.

Brown said there would be no chance of contamination.

“We will be thousands of feet below the level that their wells are at,” he said. “If there was any potential that that would occur, the permit would not be authorized to go to the next phase.

“At DEP, we’re committed to enforcing Florida’s environmental rules and laws. We certainly would not issue any permit that does not align with that,” said Alexandra Kuchta, communications director for the DEP.

Kuchta said public comment will be taken into account when deciding whether or not to approve Mosaic’s permit application. If the company does want to move forward with injecting wastewater into the well, that would require another permit application process, complete with public input.

The DEP is accepting public comment until 11:59 p.m. Friday. Comments can be e-mailed to app@floridadep.gov.