This bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency to establish stricter requirements for approving any new uses of phosphogypsum, a radioactive industrial waste byproduct. Since 1992, the EPA has prohibited phosphogypsum in road construction because it contains uranium and radium that pose cancer risks to workers and the public through air and water contamination. The bill requires that any new proposed use of phosphogypsum must meet the same safety standard as the EPA's existing threshold—no more than a 9.1 in 100,000 lifetime cancer risk—and must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis rather than approved categorically. Applicants seeking approval must provide detailed information about worker safety, product exposure, water contamination risks, and quarterly monitoring plans. All approval requests and test results must be made publicly available on the EPA website. The EPA has two years from the bill's enactment to finalize these new regulatory requirements.
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