No. HB 167
Filed under Environment & Water.
Former Phosphate Mining Lands; Provides conditions for cause of action against certain former phosphate mine sites; authorizes landowners to record certain notice of former phosphate mines; specifies requirements for such notice; requires DOH to conduct gamma radiation surveys of former phosphate land parcels upon petition; requires that specified documentation of radiation levels be submitted in certain civil actions related to phosphate mining.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDFormer phosphate mine owners gain a new defense to pollution lawsuits if the contamination is natural geology, they have recorded a notice identifying the site, and the state has surveyed it for radiation.
Landowners may voluntarily record a notice marking their property as a former phosphate mine, a category that excludes phosphogypsum stacks, the radioactive waste piles left over from processing the ore.
The health department must survey a former phosphate parcel for gamma radiation within 120 days of a landowner's petition, and the landowner gets one chance to demand a redo within strict deadlines.
Anyone suing over phosphate-mining pollution, including claims tied to mine reclamation, must now attach a certified radiation survey to the complaint itself, prepared by a specifically qualified health physicist or technologist.
AIAdds a defense to the closed list of defenses under the pollutant-discharge liability statute: a defendant can defeat a claim by showing the contamination is a natural geological substance of a former phosphate mine, provided notice was recorded and the state has surveyed the site.
AILets any landowner record a public notice marking land as a former phosphate mine, in a prescribed form, but the definition used throughout this scheme specifically excludes phosphogypsum stacks -- the radioactive waste piles from ore processing -- so those remain outside this notice-and-defense system.
AICreates a mandatory health department duty to run a gamma radiation survey of a former phosphate parcel within 120 days of a current landowner's petition, share preliminary results within 30 days, and conduct one additional survey within 90 days if the landowner requests a redo.
AIAnyone suing over phosphate-mining pollution, hazardous discharge, or reclamation-related conditions must attach a radiation survey to the complaint itself, prepared and verified under oath by a certified health physicist or radiation protection technologist meeting detailed technical standards.