After Piney Point
Piney Point Poses Risk for the Bay, Sheds Light on Other Pending Disasters It’s hard to ignore the recent near miss at the old Piney Point Gypsum stack, owned by HRK Holdings, LLC in Manatee County. Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on April 3 after the pond atop the stack started leaking. As fears rose that the 480 million gallons of nutrient-laced water could engulf the area, several hundred nearby residents were evacuated, and U.S. 41 was closed. Now folks are back in their homes, roads are open. The leak’s still there, but the Florida Department of Environmental Protection lowered the water level, pumping out millions of gallons into a nearby creek flowing to Tampa Bay. Crisis averted, right? Longtime Concerns Engulf Phosphate Mining
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
By Nano Riley
FDEP deployed submersible cameras to find the torn seam and place a steel plate to temporarily stop the seepage on April 10.
Environmentalist and native Floridian Terry Fortner said the incident “has been a crash course for the general public as we learn the history of Piney Point.” Fortner, a founding member of Friends of Tampa Bay Aquatic Preserves, Inc., said it’s evident DEP officials “have bent the rules and ignored warnings about Piney Point’s problems for nearly five decades,
since it was built in 1966 to keep the fertilizer business open a little longer.” While immediate disaster seems narrowly avoided, the long-term effects are still unknown. “The threat of a 20-foot inundation put lives in immediate danger and caused Manatee County neighbors, and citizens across Florida, to
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realize what’s been overlooked in our neighborhood,” Fortner added. What About the Bay? “We are very concerned about the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged,” said Ed Sherwood, executive director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. “We fear the amount of nutrients will fuel algal and macroalgal blooms in the bay. That’s where our immediate attention is focused: ramping up water quality, sediment quality and other environmental monitoring necessary to generate a recent baseline to assess further impacts down the road.” Currently, Sherwood said, the USF Ocean Circulation Lab headed by Dr. Ronald H. Weissberg is working on forecasts to further aid our efforts and understanding in this regard, but it may take time before we understand the true impact. A Threat to Aquaculture
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In the last 15 years, efforts to enhance water quality in Tampa Bay
theGabber.com | April 22, 2021 - April 28, 2021
