ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF PHOSPHATE FERTILIZER PRODUCTION IN THE NETHERLANDS - WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE DISPOSAL OF PHOSPHOGYPSUM

The authors, forming Committee 173/1 of the Health Council of The Netherlands, have advised the Dutch government on the problem of an acceptable destination for the 2 × 106 tons of waste gypsum from the Dutch fertilizer industry. The present paper summarizes the aspects for public health and the environment of the generation of this waste material, apart from its application as a base material for the manufacture of building materials, a subject treated elsewhere by the Health Council. The Committee has advised the Dutch Government in the following way. • (i) Primary emphasis should be laid on furthering the development of process alternatives that would free the bulk of the waste gypsum from potentially deleterious components, i.e. cadmium, phosphates and 238U-progeny, in particular 226Ra, 210Pb and 210Po. Discharge of sufficiently "clean" phosphogypsum into the Rhine delta could only effect a trivial increase of the marine calcium sulphate inventory. • (ii) The fact that only part of the objectionable components exit via the gypsum waste stream should be attended to: the main part leaves the plants with the manufactured fertilizer, while a very small part - of possible local importance - is perhaps emitted through stray exits in the manufacturing plant itself. In particular, 210Po might require attention in terms of on-site and peripheral health physics. • (iii) Land-surface storage of the gypsum waste could be considered an environmentally acceptable alternative only if the complete shielding of the ground water from leachate can be guaranteed indefinitely. • (iv) Remaining theoretical alternatives have not been found to lead to any solution of the problem. The paper presents an overview of all aspects in the main body of the text, while data, models, some experimental results, calculations and references are presented in five appendices. © 1990.