PLYMOUTH, Minn., Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Mosaic
Fertilizer, LLC, a subsidiary of The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS),
today announced that it has reached settlements with federal and
state environmental agencies to resolve claims about how the
company has managed certain onsite waste materials at its
fertilizer manufacturing facilities in Florida and Louisiana. The settlements are subject to
court approval.
"We are pleased to be bringing this matter to a close," said
Joc O'Rourke, President and Chief
Executive Officer of The Mosaic Company. "Mosaic is committed to
meaningful environmental stewardship at all of our facilities, and
we take our responsibility to be good corporate citizens--now and
for the decades ahead--very seriously. The commitments we are
making through these settlements further those stewardship
efforts."
When the settlements become effective, the company will invest
at least $170 million at its
fertilizer manufacturing facilities to modify certain onsite waste
management practices and implement innovative procedures to recover
and beneficially use resources. The company also will place
$630 million of cash into trust as
financial assurance to support the closure and long-term care of
its phosphogypsum stack systems. As part of the agreements with the
government, Mosaic will pay a penalty of $8
million and will conduct two environmental projects valued
at $2.2 million in Florida and Louisiana. The company does not expect the
settlements or resulting operational changes to adversely impact
production rates or volumes. Mosaic has previously discussed the
potential of capital investment and financial assurance parameters
of the settlements in its SEC filings.
The environmental agencies with whom Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC is
settling consist of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ). The
settlements will resolve all of the claims which the agencies have
asserted relating to the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act (RCRA) and state hazardous waste law. EPA initially made those
claims in 2005 and 2006 as part of an enforcement initiative
involving the phosphate fertilizer manufacturing industry.
"In the years since EPA began this enforcement initiative,
Mosaic has voluntarily made a number of major improvements to and
significant capital investments in our facilities to enhance
environmental performance, and the settlements will build upon that
good work," said O'Rourke.
Mosaic has received extensive third-party recognition for its
corporate responsibility, sustainability and environmental
stewardship work. The company has been included on Corporate
Responsibility Magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list in the
U.S. for six consecutive years and was named to the CDP's (formerly
the Carbon Disclosure Project) S&P 500 Climate Disclosure
Leadership and Climate Performance Leadership Indexes two years in
a row. Additionally, Mosaic earned recognition on Newsweek's "Green
Rankings: America's Greenest Companies" list as one of the 500
greenest companies in the U.S in 2013 and 2014, and has twice been
named to The Ethisphere Institute's list of the "World's Most
Ethical Companies."
About The Mosaic Company
The Mosaic Company is one of
the world's leading producers and marketers of concentrated
phosphate and potash crop nutrients. Mosaic is a single source
provider of phosphate and potash fertilizers and feed ingredients
for the global agriculture industry. More information on the
company is available at www.mosaicco.com.
This document contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about
the Wa'ad Al Shamal Phosphate Company (also known as the Ma'aden
joint venture), the acquisition and assumption of certain related
liabilities of the Florida
phosphate assets of CF Industries, Inc. ("CF") and Mosaic's ammonia
supply agreements with CF; repurchases of stock; other proposed or
pending future transactions or strategic plans and other statements
about future financial and operating results. Such statements are
based upon the current beliefs and expectations of The Mosaic
Company's management and are subject to significant risks and
uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include but are not
limited to risks and uncertainties arising from the ability of the
Ma'aden joint venture to obtain additional planned funding in
acceptable amounts and upon acceptable terms, the timely
development and commencement of operations of production facilities
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
the future success of current plans for the Ma'aden joint venture
and any future changes in those plans; difficulties with
realization of the benefits of the long term ammonia supply
agreements with CF, including the risk that the cost savings from
the agreements may not be fully realized or that the price of
natural gas or ammonia changes to a level at which the natural gas
based pricing under one of these agreements becomes disadvantageous
to Mosaic; customer defaults; the effects of Mosaic's decisions to
exit business operations or locations; the predictability and
volatility of, and customer expectations about, agriculture,
fertilizer, raw material, energy and transportation markets that
are subject to competitive and other pressures and economic and
credit market conditions; the level of inventories in the
distribution channels for crop nutrients; the effect of future
product innovations or development of new technologies on demand
for our products; changes in foreign currency and exchange rates;
international trade risks and other risks associated with Mosaic's
international operations and those of joint ventures in which
Mosaic participates, including the risk that protests against
natural resource companies in Peru
extend to or impact the Miski Mayo mine; changes in government
policy; changes in environmental and other governmental regulation,
including expansion of the types and extent of water resources
regulated under federal law, greenhouse gas regulation,
implementation of numeric water quality standards for the discharge
of nutrients into Florida
waterways or efforts to reduce the flow of excess nutrients into
the Mississippi River basin, the Gulf of
Mexico or elsewhere; further developments in judicial or
administrative proceedings, or complaints that Mosaic's operations
are adversely impacting nearby farms, business operations or
properties; difficulties or delays in receiving, increased costs of
or challenges to necessary governmental permits or approvals or
increased financial assurance requirements; resolution of global
tax audit activity; the effectiveness of Mosaic's processes for
managing its strategic priorities; adverse weather conditions
affecting operations in Central
Florida, the Mississippi River basin, the Gulf Coast of
the United States or Canada, and including potential hurricanes,
excess heat, cold, snow, rainfall or drought; actual costs of
various items differing from management's current estimates,
including, among others, asset retirement, environmental
remediation, reclamation or other environmental regulation,
Canadian resources taxes and royalties, or the costs of the Ma'aden
joint venture, its existing or future funding and Mosaic's
commitments in support of such funding; reduction of Mosaic's
available cash and liquidity, and increased leverage, due to its
use of cash and/or available debt capacity to fund share
repurchases, financial assurance requirements and strategic
investments; brine inflows at Mosaic's Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, potash mine or other
potash shaft mines; other accidents and disruptions involving
Mosaic's operations, including potential mine fires, floods,
explosions, seismic events or releases of hazardous or volatile
chemicals; and risks associated with cyber security, including
reputational loss, as well as other risks and uncertainties
reported from time to time in The Mosaic Company's reports filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may
differ from those set forth in the forward-looking
statements.
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060331/MOSAICLOGO
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mosaic-fertilizer-llc-reaches-regulatory-settlement-in-florida-and-louisiana-300152341.html
SOURCE The Mosaic Company