The 2,500-acre site is located east of Plant City, Florida, and includes a 980-acre parcel, a 1,365-acre parcel and a handful of smaller parcels occupied by operating businesses. The site also includes a former phosphate rock mine and chemical plant. The site’s surroundings include U.S. Highway 92 to the north, Park Road to the west, Coronet Road to the south and Lexie Lane to the east. A farm is located east of the site. Scattered rural residences and commercial businesses are located to the north. Higher-density urban areas are located to the west and immediately south of the site and include low-income and minority residents.
The Coronet Phosphate Company (separate from Coronet Industries, Inc.) began mining operations at the site in 1906 and conducted phosphate mining operations on portions of the site until about 1940. The company deposited mining wastes that contained smaller particles of phosphate rock, sand and clay on several areas at the site, including the land surface, pond bottoms and construction sub-base. A chemical plant added in 1946 produced a nutritional animal feed supplement (coronet defluorinated phosphate, or CDP). The company added another product line (potassium fluoroborate, or KBF4) in 1958. Coronet Industries, Inc. purchased 980 acres of the site in 1993, which consisted mainly of the chemical plant and wastewater management system. Operations at the chemical plant ended in 2004. Parties eventually removed several large industrial structures associated with the chemical plant.
EPA did not list the site on the NPL, but considers it an NPL-caliber site and is addressing the site through the Superfund Alternative Approach. This approach uses the same investigation and cleanup process and standards used for sites listed on the NPL. Active businesses continue to operate on site. Parties are evaluating redevelopment opportunities for portions of the site that are not in use.