News

Actions

Mosaic holds public meeting for neighbors

Residents invited to ask Mosaic questions
Posted at 11:17 PM, Dec 05, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-06 12:47:39-05

Residents, who live near Mosaic, attended a meeting tonight to ask Mosaic experts questions about their water.

"I really want to know about the water testing," Delores Westfall said.

Westfall lives a mile and a half from Mosaic.

People did not hold back questions tonight about the New Wales plant.

"We haven't had any problems yet that I know of 'cause I have chickens and they drink from the water, but I don't want to have a problem," Westfall said.

Beth Sprague lives about 5 miles from Mosaic. She said she wants to make the best decision for her family.

"We're considering moving out of the area, but we're afraid we can't sell the house because (who is) going to want to buy it so we're kind of stuck," Sprague said.

ABC Action News has been following the developments in this incident.

A few months ago a massive sinkhole opened and we learned millions of gallons of radioactive wastewater spilled into the aquifer. Sprague said she's already had one test come back positive. She's waiting on the results of a second test.

"We're trying to work with the community (to) assure them that our intention is to make sure that everyone's drinking water remains safe," David Jellerson with Mosaic said.

Jellerson is the senior director of phosphate and environmental projects. He said the company is still trying to seal the sinkhole.

"We have more than 80 monitor wells on site and none of those wells have detected any impact from this event. We're confident that we'll be able to recover the water from the recovering well," Jellerson said.

Jellerson said tonight's meeting is one example of how the company is working to restore people's confidence.

Some people said they left the meeting just as frustrated.

"We're just angry. We just want to get it rectified and we just want to make an informed decision," Sprague said.

The meeting was held at Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Bradly Junction. It lasted an hour and a half.

"I was a little upset because today, if I hadn't been watching the news I would not have known that this meeting was taking place," Westfall said.