The contaminated water will surely kill Manatees swimming nearby. Bad news.
Manatees tried to kill my brother-in-law twice. Partly joking. One scratched its’ back on his kayak, nearly dumping him. Another one did dump the kayak he and my niece were in a year later.
Good fun.
Despite the headline, state authorities said, “It is slightly acidic, but not at a level that is expected to be a concern, nor is it expected to be toxic.”
It is more likely that it will have zero effect on Manatees or anyone else. The biggest problem is that it may increase the amount of algae in the water. The risk from phosphogypsums radioactivity to humans is minimal. Oddly enough despite the common perception that the EPA has helped perpetuate that low levels of radiation cause cancer is contradicted by pretty much every study ever done on people who live with higher than normal radiation background levels.
For every 5000 feet in elevation that you are at the background radiation level approximately doubles. People who live at higher altitudes tend to have lower rates of cancer than people who live near sea level. People who are exposed to low levels of radiation where they work also tend to have a lower risk of cancer.
Maybe it will just cause them to grow exponentially. Oh, the huge manatee.