Industry - Plant Management in Florida Waters

FLORIDA INDUSTRY

While agriculture and public water supply demands are by far the largest consumers of Florida's water, a smaller but no less significant consumer of Florida's water resources is the industrial sector. Made up of the manufacturing, mining, and power generation businesses, these industries are important contributors to the state's economy and well-being, but they also directly impact the quality of the water that they use. (Go to our home page to access info about Florida's other industries, such as agriculture and tourism.)

Steam rises from pulp plant and power plant in Palatka

There are 189 mines in Florida extracting minerals including limestone, peat, clay, sand, gravel, phosphorus, titanium, zircon and staurolite. The annual value of these and other non-fuel minerals is $1.92 billion, ranking Florida's mineral production fifth in the nation. For some mineral enterprises, such as phosphorus mining, freshwater is used in every step of the extraction and processing phases.

Water pumped from the aquifer
for use in paper production

There are ten pulp and paper mills in Florida, each using millions of gallons of freshwater per day, thus producing millions of gallons of wastewater per day that must be extensively treated before being returned to the environment. Together, the commercial and industrial sectors use 7% of the 7.7 billion gallons per day of freshwater withdrawn in Florida (2000).
Water also has a variety of uses for power generation. Water is needed to produce steam and it is used to cool equipment, and water itself is used as an energy source, as in hydroelectric plants. Although much of the water used in the power industry is saltwater, nevertheless the power industry uses about 8% of Florida's total freshwater withdrawals.

Phosphate mine
settling pond Pulp plant Hydroelectric
power plant Cement plant Sand plant

AQUATIC PLANT MANAGEMENT AND INDUSTRY
Many of these industrial sites rely on natural waterbodies as their sources of fresh water. Invasive aquatic plants can create problems for industry if plant growth is not controlled.

Infestations of aquatic weeds can clog water intake canals, pipes and valves. Aquatic weeds can also transpire large volumes of water from industry water reservoirs, reducing the amount of usable freshwater. Aquatic weeds also take up room in rivers and lakes, displacing large amounts of water. For example, if a pond is 40% infested with hydrilla, then the pond can hold only a fraction of its design capacity.

An unintended consequence of hydroelectric dams is that they also impact the health of lakes and rivers. Studies have shown that dammed waterbodies have less diverse plant communities and are more susceptible to exotic species growth. This is believed to be due to the lack of natural water-level fluctuations that normally occur in unaltered waterbodies. When the land surrounding lakes and rivers is submerged as a result of damming, the natural plant communities are destroyed. This allows exotics to take over. In undammed situations on the other hand, seasonal high and low water levels keep plant populations diverse by preventing certain types of plants from over-growing. Periodic drying and burning promotes diverse plant communities rather than dense stands of plants like cattail. Occasional flooding also thins out dense vegetation and carries away decomposing plant material and other debris. When there is only one consistent water level, it is much easier for invasive aquatic plants to become infestations.

Aquatic plant management in many industrial situations is a permanent requirement.

MINING
Mining has a long history in Florida dating back to the Native Americans who mined clay and limestone to make tools, pots, and cooking utensils. The Spanish settlers of the 1500s also mined limestone to build forts and homes. Phosphate has been shipped all over the world, from Tampa, since the 1800s. The first modern commercial mining of phosphate took place in Marion County in 1889.

Making fertilizer from phosphate;
one of Florida's billion dollar export industries

Florida's extensive phosphate deposits supply the United States with 75% and the world with 25% of its total phosphate production. Most of this phosphate is chemically treated to extract the phosphorus which is then used to make fertilizer. In 2000, Florida exported $1.13 billion worth of fertilizer. Phosphorus is also used in vitamins, soft drinks, and toothpastes.
The mining and processing of phosphate creates large volumes of wastewater and harmful by-products that must be treated and disposed in an environmentally-compatible manner.

Digging up the phosphatic rock is the first step
After the phosphate rock is dug up, the first step in processing phosphate is to separate the phosphate, clay, and sand that are naturally mixed together, called the matrix. This is done by spraying the matrix with high pressured water in order to liquefy the matrix. This mixture is then transported to a washer where the lumps of clay are broken down into smaller pieces. Screens filter the phosphate from the clay, which is then pumped to settling ponds. Some sand still remains mixed in with the phosphate, so the mixture is put into water tanks where the sand settles out. A chemical process then takes place to turn the phosphate into phosphorus which results in a by-product called phosphogypsum. Water is added to the by-product which is then pumped into a holding lagoon. This lagoon water is highly acidic and could be a threat to aquatic life if it leaked into the environment. However, Florida's phosphate facilities recycle and reuse the majority of the water they use.
See this DEP map for mine locations in Florida.

POWER PLANTS
About 80% of Florida's power comes from burning fossil fuels, 17% from nuclear sources, and about 1% from hydropower. (The remaining 2% comes from renewable sources such as the wind and sun.)

Fossil fuel
electric plant
Except for wind and solar, each type of power plant has one thing in common: they all use water in their operations to generate electricity. The majority of water used by power plants is for cooling, and almost all of it is eventually returned to its source after being used. In nuclear plants and fossil fuel burning plants, freshwater is also heated to create steam which turns the turbines, which produce electricity. In hydroelectric plants the turbines are turned by the force of water that flows through dams.

In Florida, there are more than 60 fossil fuel (coal) powered electric plants in Florida. Fossil fuel electric plants use about five times as much water as nuclear plants, and most of it is freshwater. (Nuclear plants mostly use salt water.)

Nuclear-powered
electric plant

There are five nuclear power plants in Florida: two in St. Lucie, two at Turkey Point near Miami, and one at Crystal River. The familiar hourglass shaped towers of electric plants are cooling towers. Nearly all of the water that nuclear plants use is saline surface water from the ocean and the gulf. Some of the water used is fresh surface water and some is groundwater. The water used for cooling the plant's equipment is released into the towers and is cooled by evaporation. This water is eventually released back into the adjacent river, lake or bay.

Hydroelectric plant
on the Apalachicola Hydroelectric plant
on Lake Talquin
There are two hydroelectric power plants in Florida. Hydroelectric plants are cheaper and cleaner to operate than are fuel-burning plants since they rely only on water as their energy source. Very few places in Florida are suitable for hydroelectric plants.
The Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam (also known as the Lake Seminole project) on the Apalachicola River on the Georgia-Florida border produces enough electricity for 50,000 homes.
The C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Plant on Lake Talquin near Tallahassee was first built in 1929 and has operated off and on since then.

Paper mill
in Perry Water treatment
at paper mill
PAPER MILLS
The ten pulp and paper mills in Florida are located in the northern forested part of the state. There are more than 14 million acres of productive timberland in Florida: 60% is used for wood pulp, 34% for lumber and 6% for posts, mulch and fuelwood (2002).
The processing of lumber into pulp and paper creates millions of gallons of wastewater each day. One method of processing pulp involves dissolving the pulp in strong chemicals. This leftover water must then be treated. Another, more harmful, source of pollution comes from bleaching the pulp in order to make white paper. The by-products from the chlorine-based chemicals are highly toxic and are a major priority for the EPA. Paper and pulp mills in Florida extensively treat their wastewater to meet water quality standards before it is reused or released off site.

TREATMENT WETLANDS
Even though regulations and pollution limits are in place, the EPA ranked Florida 4th in the nation in terms of total tons of utility-related pollution (2000). Wastes generated from some industrial facilities leak into the ground to contaminate the groundwater; evaporate into the air; or are carried overland by runoff. Older facilities may have faulty pollution-prevention systems, or ones that aren't up to today's standards.

While much of the water used by industry is conventionally treated and reused by the industry or returned to the environment, another way of treating industrial wastewater is to create treatment wetlands. These are "constructed wetlands" built specifically to treat wastes generated by industries; there is much scientific literature relating to constructed wetlands.

Scientists have found that natural wetland ecosystems, through their complex soil, aquatic plant and water systems and interactions, have the special ability to filter out, use up, destroy, or otherwise remove from the environment many pollutants. The goal of constructed wastewater treatment wetlands is to mimic natural wetlands, thus replacing other more costly, energy-intensive wastewater treatment processes.
In constructed wetlands as in natural wetlands, water slowly moves through a system of soil and aquatic plants. In treatment wetlands, wastewater contaminants bind to the sediments and to aquatic plant roots and stems where the pollutants are transformed by certain "pollution-loving" microbes. Various other wetland processes degrade other toxic substances as well.
For more about constructed wetlands, go to this page of our web site.

Some industries are working with scientists and using technology in order to find ways to be more sustainable and responsible in their activities. If the natural resources on which Florida's industries rely are not protected, then there won't be enough left to propel Florida into the future.

For more information on industry use of water in Florida, visit:

the Florida Phosphate Council web site.

The Creators

This page was authored by Becca Hassell
with assistance from Tara Muncaster and Aimee Lyons.
Data is from the APIRS database.
This page was designed and is managed by Becca Hassell.

Vic Ramey is the editor.

DEP review is by Jeff Schardt and Judy Ludlow.

MAIN INDEX

This project is a collaboration of
the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, University of Florida,
and the Bureau of Invasive Plant Management, Florida Department of Environmental Protection


Phosphate mine settling pond	Pulp plant	Hydroelectric power plant	Cement plant	Sand plant