Winter Environmental completed a major decontamination and mechanical disconnect project at Mosaic’s Plant City Facility, a former fertilizer manufacturing plant that ceased production in 2017. The work was performed in seventeen months. The overall objective was to disconnect, air gap, and decontaminate process equipment, utility lines, tanks, vessels, and associated systems in preparation for full facility demolition.

The roughly eighty-five acre site was divided into thirteen work areas containing process units, production equipment, and utility infrastructure. Winter Environmental performed mechanical disconnects, installed 414 air gaps, and opened 1,388 low point drains. The team completed product removal, cleanup, and decontamination activities, including neutralization and on site discharge of 65,980 gallons of low and high pH materials. Ground and floor surface sealing and liner installations covered approximately 430,000 square feet. Solid waste disposal included 122 cubic yards of onsite waste and 75 cubic yards sent offsite for disposal.

Contaminants of concern included asbestos, sulfuric acid solutions and 96 percent product, phosphoric acid solutions and 65–85 percent product, sodium hydroxide solutions and solids, ammonia, TENORM, sulfur, soda ash, universal waste (bulbs, batteries, ballasts, mercury switches, e waste), and petroleum based materials such as tall oil, binders, hydraulic oils, lubricants, and greases.

The nature of full scale fertilizer production and the extended idle period created significant decontamination challenges. Crews manually removed cementitious fertilizer dust from multi-story steel structures and mezzanine supported process equipment. High pressure cleaning methods up to 20,000 psi were used to clean internal surfaces and route acid piping for caustic neutralization. Work was performed in modified Level C PPE tailored to concentrated sulfuric and phosphoric acids.