Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC Reaches Regulatory Settlement In Florida And Louisiana

Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC, a subsidiary of The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS), announced on Thursday 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.

Tags: Environment