The radioactive phosphogypsum stack looms tall and wide beside Progress Village, a small, neighborly community southeast of Tampa.
The community was established during the late 1950s to provide affordable housing for segregated Black residents displaced by the construction of Interstate 75. Today, the village consists of a few older neighborhoods, sprinkled with newer developments. The population has more than doubled in the past 16 years to at least 11,000.
The phosphogypsum stack, situated behind the Johnson Recreation Center and Larry Sanders Sports Complex, and also near Progress Village Magnet Middle School, contains the carcinogenic and toxic waste of fertilizer production…