"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has withdrawn a 2020 rule that would allow a radioactive substance in some road construction.

The October 2020 rule allowed the use of phosphogypsum, a substance generated by phosphate fertilizer production. The waste product is kept in 13 predominantly southeastern states, where the majority of the construction would have occurred.

Between 1989 and the Trump-era rule, the EPA required that all phosphogypsum be stored in “stacks” that experts and activists said would release dangerous amounts of radon gas if dispersed. In Florida alone, 1 billion tons of the substance are stored in 25 stacks, one of which recently leaked millions of gallons into a wastewater reservoir near Tampa Bay."

Zack Budryk reports for The Hill July 2, 2021. [2]