By MIKE HUGHLETT, Star Tribune

Last update: August 3, 2010 - 12:10 AM

A federal judge in Florida has dealt fertilizer giant Mosaic Co. a blow by ruling that the expansion of a large mine in Florida would likely violate the federal Clean Water Act.

U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams late Friday issued a preliminary injunction to halt expansion of the phosphate mine in Fort Meade, Fla.

Plymouth-based Mosaic on Monday appealed Adams' decision, but said it would be forced to indefinitely shut down the mine in September, laying off 221 workers.

The Sierra Club and two other environmental groups last month sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, contesting its issuance of a wetlands permit for the extension of Mosaic's mine and asking that the expansion be stopped.

Adams wrote that Mosaic and the corps didn't look hard enough at less environmentally damaging alternatives for the mine expansion. Adams remanded the wetlands permit back to the Army Corps for further review.

"Without a preliminary injunction, plaintiffs and the environment will suffer irreparable harm which outweighs any harm to the defendants," he wrote.

Mosaic executives say the permitting process with the Army Corps was "exhaustive," and claim that further mining at its South Fort Meade operation isn't economically viable without the extension.

Three of the mine's four drag lines, massive machines that strip away topsoil to extract ore, are idled and waiting to get at phosphate reserves in the extension. Reserves in the original mine are close to being exhausted.

"Regrettably, we have no reasonable alternative but to shut down South Fort Meade," Mosaic Chief Executive James Prokopanko told analysts in a conference call Monday.

The mine is set to be idled Sept. 12 if Mosaic isn't permitted to mine the extension by then.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/business/99816494.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ