Developers want to build homes near a hazardous waste site and former phosphate mine in eastern Hillsborough County, and the local rezoning request seems headed for approval.
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The Sydney Phosphate Mine is 3,000 acres spanning both Brandon and Dover. It stopped mining operations in the ‘50s, but was used by the county as a liquid waste dump until 1981.
University Energy Park owns of part of the property.
The company wants to build 1,200 homes less than a mile from the superfund site being monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has recorded cancerous chemicals, like benzene, vinyl chloride and 1,4-Dioxane during testing.
"Moving huge amounts of soil and grading will exacerbate the movement of 1,4-Dioxane driving it deeper horizontally, farther laterally, impacting the health and safety and welfare of community wells as well as the Hawthorn Aquifer,” said Renee Maddison of Valrico.
She was one of six residents who spoke against the rezoning at a county zoning hearing this week.
Maddison said leftover material from the phosphate mine could also be dangerous by releasing cancer-causing gamma rays and radon gas.
"Equally concerning is the amount of radioactive dust that will be created 24/7 throughout the process of land development," Maddison said.
George Niemann has lived adjacent to the mine in Dover about 20 years. He said the community is overwhelmingly against it.
“We've got close to 1,000 signed petitions. I'm only aware of one single person that ever came forward that said he liked the project,” Niemann said, adding that there’s a lot of cancer in the area.
“I've got cancer. My wife has is a cancer survivor. The neighbor cross road from me just passed away two weeks ago from cancer.”
Jake Cremer, an attorney representing the property's owner, addressed the environmental concerns.
He said the county has been responsible for the superfund cleanup portion under supervision of the EPA and that “the work is essentially done,” but his client will continue collaborating with the federal agency per the request of the Board of County Commissioners.
As for the phosphate mine remnants, Cremer said his client will also continue working with the state agency which has jurisdiction, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
"We've got the full alphabet soup of at least six environmental agencies that are going to be reviewing all of these tests before we can even start turning dirt for residential,” Cremer said. “And then, as you'll see in the conditions, we've committed to additional testing."
County staff say they are satisfied with this environmental strategy.
Tim Lampkin with Hillsborough’s Development Services department listed various conditions to approve this rezoning, including “any future residential development adequately addresses potential environmental hazards associated with the site's history as a former phosphate mine and superfund area.”
“Based upon the above considerations, staff finds the request is approvable subject to conditions,” Lampkin said.
The applicant also wants to allow for hotels and motels directly south of State Road 60, which county staff found “compatible” with the future single-family residences.
And there was some disagreement between the zoning applicant and area residents about the safety of removing protective berms, plus the concern for traffic increase and flow.
The Zoning Hearing Master will share recommendations with the Board of County Commissioners, which will have final say — that could happen within the next couple months.
