The island affords a beautiful view of Mother Nature’s best.
When people stand gazing at the aqua waters of Tampa Bay at Anna Maria Island’s north end, they don’t tend to think of bankrupt phosphate plants, gypsum stacks, states of emergency and leaking wastewater.
But Bean Point is where the Gulf of Mexico meets Tampa Bay, and Tampa Bay is where polluted water was being discharged following the discovery of leaks at the site of the defunct Piney Point phosphate plant.
For the past week, there were daily state-authorized controlled releases of the water — said to be a mix of saltwater, rainwater and non-radioactive wastewater — near the Manatee border with Hillsborough County, part of an effort to avoid an environmental catastrophe.
“What we’re looking at now is trying to prevent and respond to, if need be, a real catastrophic flood situation,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a weekend news conference. He had followed county officials in issuing an executive order declaring a state of emergency for Manatee, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
For decades, Piney Point has been an environmental hazard in terms of air, ground and water pollution. The plant isn’t operational but what remains is a massive system of phosphogypsum stacks with containment ponds, liners and cooling systems to handle the waste and other materials generated by the fertilizer operation.
On March 25, on-site management at Piney Point observed and began monitoring what was described as “seepage” from a likely tear in a pond liner that intensified to a point where monitors asked the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to allow the controlled release of some wastewater that would reach into Tampa Bay.
DEP, with concern about the stability of the gypsum stack system and to avoid injury or severe property and environmental damage, authorized the release of wastewater to begin March 30.
“The department has issued an emergency final order requiring that HRK take immediate action and implement all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the stack system and its lined impoundments and prevent an uncontrolled discharge,” the DEP said in a statement March 29.
In addition to the controlled release, an undetermined amount of wastewater was reported flowing from the site and reached a creek that leads to the bay.
“The water is not toxic. The real harm is the potential for excessive nutrients to reach Tampa Bay,” Manatee County environmental division manager Rob Brown said April 1. “Nutrients can cause algae blooms and exacerbate red tide and when we see red tide outbreaks and they may cause fish kills.”
The briefing April 1 prompted Manatee County commissioners to declare a local state of emergency.
The commission’s declaration authorized the county to act quickly with financial and staffing resources.
The declaration said:
- Engineers cannot predict with certainty the location or severity of contaminated water releasing resulting in hazardous impacts;
- Contaminated water released in unplanned large amounts can result in injuries and property damages and may require intervention by first responders and government agencies.
By the next day, the county commission was needing to act under its state of emergency, ordering evacuations of residences and businesses in the area, arranging shelter, closing roads, securing properties and calling for greater assistance that would lead to state and federal aid.
The activity over the weekend was intense, as officials raised concerns that a large-scale breach at Piney Point could unleash a 20-foot wave of the polluted floodwaters.
County officials sought to alleviate concerns April 4 about the drinking water supply.
Meanwhile, Manatee County administrator Scott Hopes said efforts to alleviate pressure from the stacks were succeeding and concerns had eased for a large-scale breach.
“The team is much more comfortable than it was yesterday,” he told the press April 4. “ But we’re not out of the critical area yet.”
But officials could not ease concerns among environmentalists monitoring the bay estuary.
“It looks like this is turning out to be the ‘horror’ chapter of a long, terrible story of phosphate mining in Florida and beyond,” Justin Bloom, founder of Suncoast Waterkeeper, said April 3. “We hope the contamination is not as bad as we fear, but we are preparing for significant damage to Tampa Bay and the communities that rely on this precious resource.”
What’s a phosphogypsum stack?
Phosphogypsum stacks are formed to store the phosphogypsum and associated process water resulting from the chemical manufacturing of phosphoric acid and related fertilizer products.
When processing phosphate rock to make fertilizer, the phosphorous is removed by dissolving the rock in an acidic solution.
The waste that is left behind is called “phosphogypsum.” Most of the naturally occurring uranium, thorium and radium found in phosphate rock ends up in this waste.
Uranium and thorium decay to radium and radium decays to radon, a radioactive gas.
Because the wastes are concentrated, phosphogypsum is more radioactive than the original phosphate rock.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
