White Springs Memories: Stan Posey on Four Decades of Evolution and Environmental Leadership

When Stan Posey arrived at White Springs, Florida in 1984 for his first day of work in land reclamation engineering, he joined a team that was breaking new ground – literally –with the creation of wetlands on the site.

“When I started, we were doing some wetland reclamation, but we were still in the early stages of it,” recalls Stan, now Senior Manager, Environment/Land at White Springs. “Now we're all about restoring the ecological functions as well as trying to recover some economic use for the properties that we mine. We’ve learned a great deal about how to do it, and we've gotten really good at it.”

Having spent more than four decades participating in the evolution of White Springs, Stan notes another key change: the transition from a basic mining operation to its current role as part of Nutrien’s integrated agricultural supply business.

“What we're doing here is bigger than the thing that we do every day,” he says. “We're not just mining phosphate and making phosphoric acid. We're contributing to world food production. When I talk with new people joining us, I tell them, ‘Look at what you're contributing to; you're helping feed the world.’”

Posey started at the site when it was part of Occidental Chemical and he played a role in overseeing environmental permitting and transfers when the facility was purchased by PotashCorp in 1995. He left the company in 2014 but returned following the merger with Agrium that led to the creation of Nutrien in 2018.

In between, Posey served as deputy director of water policy for the Florida Department of Agriculture. That role broadened his understanding of the partnerships among the company, agriculture, and regulatory bodies.

"I gained an appreciation for our connection to agriculture, but also the values of public service,” says Stan. “I worked with farmers, ranchers, and great people working hard to be successful and to be great stewards of the environment that they live in and work in. In a broad sense, we have a shared mission for success.”

The shared commitment to success has been a constant at White Springs – even through changes in ownership and operations. With many of the people on site having grown up or lived in Hamilton County for much of their lives, there is an innate understanding of the importance of the site to the community.

“It’s all about earning and keeping the respect of the community,” he says. “We have a special duty as the largest private employer and taxpayer in the county to operate responsibly – and to recognize that we are building our legacy every day.”

Service remains a driving force in Posey’s career – one that suggests he will continue to look out for the site, the environment, and global food production for the foreseeable future. 

“My running joke has been that I’ll retire sometime between 5 o'clock this afternoon and five years from now, but who knows?” says Stan. “I like what I do. I enjoy the people I work with. The subject matter is just endlessly interesting.”