ST. PETERSBURG – A federal judge has found HRK Holdings LLC liable for the intentional dumping of wastewater from Piney Point into Tampa Bay in 2021.
The discharge from the former phosphate processing facility was linked to a widespread red tide and fish kill. More than 215 million gallons of wastewater were discharged into the bay to avert the potential collapse of a phosphogypsum stack that supported a pond where the waste was stored.
The Sept. 18 ruling in a lawsuit filed by five conservation groups imposed a fine of $846,900.
“As a result of the lawsuit, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection separately agreed to fund independent monitoring of the Piney Point disaster’s ongoing harm to Tampa Bay’s water quality,” according to a press release from one of the plaintiffs, the Center for Biological Diversity.
“The court’s ruling exposes the reckless gamble Florida regulators took by letting this toxic waste facility operate without a permit for more than 20 years,” said Ragan Whitlock, a Florida-based attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This outcome can’t undo the terrible harm done to wildlife and Tampa Bay’s water quality, but it should help state regulators see that trusting corporate polluters to oversee their own toxic waste is asking the fox to guard the henhouse.”
Following the 2021 spill, HRK Holdings declared bankruptcy. U.S. District Judge William Jung issued a default judgment finding that HRK had violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into Tampa Bay without a lawfully issued permit.
“State and local officials knew for years that HRK lacked the financial and operational resources to safely close Piney Point, yet watched this disaster unfold without intervention,” said Daniel C. Snyder, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and director of Public Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Project.
Following the dumping, Tampa Bay experienced a red tide event that killed more than 600 tons of marine life in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, according to the press release.
“During the 2021 wastewater release, Tampa Bay received more nitrogen – nearly 200 tons – than it usually receives from all other sources in an entire year. The red tides that have plagued Florida are fueled by nitrogen,” the press release stated.
“It’s the communities that rely on these coastal waters who are left holding the bag, forced to deal with the lasting damage caused by HRK’s negligence,” said Abbey Tyrna, executive director of Suncoast Waterkeeper, one of the plaintiffs. “Suncoast Waterkeeper and our partners have stepped up to enforce the laws that the state should have been upholding all along. There is still so much work to be done to clean up after this disaster, and the responsibility to protect our waters needs to be shared between the state and the community.”
“It should be noted too that presently there are no federal, state or local regulations that adequately protect the public from hazards associated with phosphogypsum, and no regulations to require the industry to make final disposition of phosphate wastes in an environmentally acceptable manner,” said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota-88, one of the plaintiffs.
Other plaintiffs are Tampa Bay Waterkeeper and Our Children’s Earth Foundation, represented by Public Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Project, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the law offices of Charles M. Tebbutt.
