PORT MANATEE – The dumping of 215 million gallons of wastewater into Tampa Bay this spring from a phosphogypsum stack at the closed Piney Point phosphate fertilizer plant has prompted five conservation groups to file a lawsuit today.
The suit, which claims the release endangers the public, marine ecosystems and protected species, names as defendants Gov. Ron DeSantis, Shawn Hamilton, acting secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Piney Point owner HRK Holdings LLC and the Manatee County Port Authority.
The wastewater was released from the compromised stack, which is topped by a pond containing hundreds of millions of gallons of process wastewater, stormwater and tons of dredged spoil from Port Manatee, to take pressure off the stack and avert a worse spill. Surrounding areas were evacuated for fear of flooding prior to the release in late March and early April.
“Piney Point was and still is a ticking timebomb,” said Justin Bloom, Sarasota-based Suncoast Waterkeeper founder and board member, in a press release. “Rather than closing it when they had the chance, FDEP allowed the site to become even more dangerous, knowing full well the risk of collapse and catastrophic contamination. Now Manatee County is seeking to inject the hundreds of millions of gallons of remaining hazardous wastewater into our groundwater. We’re not confident in our regulators’ ability to manage this mess and this legal action is necessary to protect our communities and waterways from further harm.”
According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, Piney Point is an ongoing threat to public health and the environment for several reasons, most pressing, the wastewater discharge into Tampa Bay, which is now experiencing harmful algae blooms and fish kills. Other threats include failure of the gyp stacks and the wastewater pond liners, impacts on groundwater quality and effects from the planned deep-well injection of the wastewater.
“Recent events at the abandoned Piney Point phosphate plant clearly demonstrate that not enough is being done to safeguard the public or the environment from the devastating impacts that the phosphate industry is having on Florida,” said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota-88 Inc., in a press release. “Piney Point represents the true legacy the phosphate industry will leave behind. There is no economically feasible or environmentally sound way to close an abandoned gyp stack. This legacy includes the perpetual spending of taxpayer monies and risks to the public’s health and the environment.”
DEP turned Piney Point into a disposal site for dredge material after the owner went bankrupt and abandoned the property, according to the suit, which claims that while the department owned and operated Piney Point from 2001-04, it oversaw the installation of inadequate liners and approved the use of the site for dredged material storage despite knowing the gyp stacks were at risk of failure due to foundation settling and other problems.
Florida regulators ignored the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ advice to reject the dredge storage proposal, the suit claims.
“Lawsuits like this shouldn’t be necessary, especially in Florida where so much of the state’s economy and residents’ quality of life are dependent on healthy water quality,” said Annie Beaman, co-executive director of Our Children’s Earth Foundation, in a press release. “State and local regulators have failed the public for decades and continue to mismanage the waste generated by the phosphate industry. We resort to federal court oversight when decisions by the political branches of government endanger the public. Enforcing basic environmental standards with citizen suits is the best option we have to ensure a healthier future for Tampa Bay, its communities and its wildlife.”
The wastewater dumped into Tampa Bay continues to spread throughout the estuary and into Sarasota Bay, transporting tons of nitrogen and phosphorus that fuels the growth of toxic algae blooms that kill seagrasses and other marine life, according to the conservation groups. Fish kills caused by red tide have been reported in recent weeks in Manatee, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
Phosphogypsum contained in stacks is radioactive and can contain uranium, thorium and radium, which decay into carcinogenic radon, according to the conservation groups, which claim that 1 billion tons of radioactive phosphogypsum is stored in 25 stacks, including at Piney Point.
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