Mosaic has agreed to take steps to protect land around the Peace River basin and do more water monitoring on its site in Hardee County. The agreement comes after months of mining delays caused by a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, ManaSota-88 and the group “People for Protecting the Peace River.”

As part of the settlement, the phosphate mining company will donate the recently purchased Peaceful Horse Ranch to be used as a state park. The company will also provide $2 million for the park’s startup and expenses.

The ranch sits on more than 4,000 acres along the Peace River and Horse Creek. Mosaic’s Russell Schweiss says they bought the land for conservation and mitigation.

“The Peaceful Horse Ranch will be a property that will go into conservation for future generations to enjoy,” says Schweiss. “And based upon its location, it’s also pretty important for the watershed that that property be preserved.”

The ranch is considered to have ecological value because of its biodiversity and its location. It’s located where the Peace River transitions from freshwater to brackish as it enters Charlotte Harbor.

But, ManaSota-88 Chairman Glenn Compton says more needs to be done to protect the Peace River and the surrounding watershed as mining continues.

“I would not classify this or characterize this as a compromise,” says Compton. “I would, more or less, characterize it as a settlement. I certainly don’t view this as a victory. What we did was, we took a really bad permit and we made it a little bit better, but it’s still a pretty bad permit.”

Compton says the phosphate industry does more than strip the land—it also causes air pollution and creates radioactive waste. He says it’s important to continue to look at how each future permit will impact the basin.

He says vigilance is also needed to ensure the impacts of mining are not harmful to tourism, fishing and real estate. And while Compton is happy about the additional environmental protections, he says Mosaic had a reason to settle.

“Ultimately, I think what happened with this settlement is that we got a better preservation of the Peace River basin as a result of having land being set aside for preservation and Mosaic, I believe, only did that because it was to their financial advantage to do so,” said Compton.

Schweiss says the settlement will provide job security for the nearly 250 employees and approximately 400 contractors who rely on continued operations at the South Fort Meade mine.

“They’ve been essentially carrying a cloud over their heads now for greater than a year as this litigation has gone on where there was a lot of uncertainty,” he says. “This settlement restores certainty to those families and we are also a publically traded company so it’s important that we establish some certainty around our future operations as well.”

The U. S. District Court in Jacksonville approved the settlement on March 28 that allows mining to resume at Mosaic’s South Fort Meade location.

Phosphate is a mineral essential to the development of plant and animal cells. It combines with calcium to build bones and teeth and is the second most abundant element in the human body. Phosphate is found in many foods, beverages and household products. It is also a key ingredient in fertilizer.