Phosphogypsum Study Tour for the Polish Fertilizer Industry
WEC/USAID

In November 1996, KEMWorks conducted a Phosphogypsum Study Tour for senior managers from the Polish phosphate fertilizers and representatives of the Polish Department of Environmental Protection. The group are shown at right comfortably inside a IMC-Agrico dragline bucket!  The Study Tour was part of a Waste Minimization Program being organized by the World Environment Center (WEC). WEC is an independent, non-advocacy organization, contributing to sustainable development by strengthening industrial and urban environmental, health and safety policy and practices worldwide. To accomplish this, WEC establishes and promotes partnerships and acts as a bridge linking industry and government and non-governmental organizations around the world. The Polish Waste Minimization program is funded by USAID.

To start the tour a One Day Forum was held in Lakeland on Tuesday, December 3. Mr. Mike Lloyd, Director of Chemical Research of FIPR, chaired the Forum, which featured presentations from experts in industry, consulting companies, the FDEP, and Polk County.

• Mr. Sam Zamani, who heads the Phosphogypsum Management Group at the Florida Department of Protection (FDEP), described the current Regulation of Phosphogypsum.
• Mr. G J Rubin, previously Technical Manager at IMC-Agrico, who supervised the opening of a new gypsum stack for the company and the plugging of a sink hole that appeared in the IMC-Agrico stack in 1994, spoke on what the industry is doing now with phosphogypsum (PG).
• Mr. Shalish Patel, Project Manager at BCI, spoke about vegetating gypsum stacks and the reclamation work at Brewster Phosphates.
• Dr Jack Rechcigl, Associate Professor of Soil & Environmental Science at the University of Florida, described the Agricultural uses of PG including the demonstration program in Florida. The environmental consequences of such uses will also be discussed.
• Mr. Timothy Kendron, KEMWorks Technology, spoke on how sulfur can be recovered from phosphogypsum while simultaneously producing aggregates.
• Dr William Burnett, professor of Oceanography at Florida State University, spoke on how an ammonium sulfate fertilizer and a calcium carbonate additive for materials such as cement can be produced from PG.
• Dr Timothy Varney, Vice President of Environmental Risk Management with the Lakeland-based engineering firm of Chastain-Skillman, commented on the merit of applying environmental epidemiology and related risk assessment techniques to the phosphate industry and will reflect on the presentations given at the conference.

The forum was followed by visits to gypsum stacks at IMC Phosphates at New Wales, Cargill Crop Nutrition, near Tampa, CF Industries in Plant City, and USAC near Fort Meade. The group also visited Brewster - the site of a shut down phosphate plant with gypsum stack and ponds under remediation, and drove on a road constructed using PG base 20 miles south of Lakeland.

Following the stay in Lakeland the group traveled to Washington, DC, to visit the EPA and The Fertilizer Institute.