DeSantis signs bill allowing use of radioactive mining waste in road construction

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that would allow for roads across the state to be made with “radioactive” mining waste, reports CBS News.

The measure, brought forward by the state House, adds phosphogypsum to a list of “recyclable materials” that state officials say can be used in road construction. The current list includes ground rubber from car tires, ash residue from coal combustion byproducts, recycled mixed-plastic, glass and construction steel.

Unlike the aforementioned materials, phosphogypsum is not aggregated in landfills and is the remanence of mining phosphate, which is described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as being a “radioactive material” because it contains trace amounts of uranium and radium.

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Phosphate rock is mined to create fertilizer, but the leftover material, known as phosphogypsum, contains decaying remains of those elements that eventually produce radon. That substance is known as a “potentially cancer-causing, radioactive gas,” a spokesperson for the EPA previously told CBS News.

“The Clean Air Act regulations require that phosphogypsum be managed in engineered stacks to limit public exposure from emissions of radon and other radionuclides in the material,” an EPA spokesperson previously told CBS News.

Before the material can be used in roads, the state’s Department of Transportation will need to conduct a study to “evaluate the suitability” of its use and “may consider any prior or ongoing studies of phosphogypsum’s road suitability in the fulfillment of this duty,” the bill says. That task must be completed by April 1, 2024.

DeSantis has not yet publicly commented on the signing of this bill.