A massive sinkhole opened up in Polk County Friday outside a company that makes fertilizer in Mulberry.
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Officials discovered the 45 foot wide hole after draining a lake in late August at the New Wales Mosaic facility in Mulberry, located about 10 mile south of Lakeland.
Callie Neslund, Communications Specialist for Public Affairs for Mosaic, said workers noticed August 27 that the level of water on top of one of the stacks at the New Wales phosphate fertilizer manufacturing plant was dropping. About a week later a sinkhole was confirmed to have opened up under the gypsum stack. The sinkhole is about 40 feet across. Gypsum is a soft white or gray mineral consisting of hydrated calcium sulfate. WFLA has reported the contaminated water is “slightly radioactive”, while The Ledger says the water is “acidic”. It is water you wouldn’t want to drink.
“We activated a recovery well so we can capture any water that has gone down the hole”, said Jellerson.
Mosaic said it immediately reported the incident to state and federal authorities. The aquifer may contain groundwater that could be contaminated by water from the sinkhole.
As of now Mosaic doesn’t believe the contaminated water has made its way to any private wells since it hasn’t shown up in the monitoring wells around the plant.
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“We continue to monitor the stack, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to insure that there’s no safety or environmental concern on top of the gypsum stack itself, as well as around the rest of the property”, plant assistant general manager Chris Hagemo also told WFLA.
