PALMETTO – Following testing of multiple potential sources, and with no responsible party identified, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended its investigation on Sept. 26 into the source of an oil spill at SeaPort Manatee, pending any new information.
The spill was reported by SeaPort Manatee on Sept. 1, launching the Coast Guard’s examination of facilities and ships for evidence of an improper oil discharge.
“A forensic analysis of oil samples from approximately 30 sources, including the spill itself, and subsurface dive assessment of the port seawalls and basin for any irregularities was conducted. Despite an exhaustive effort, a definitive source for the spilled material was not identified,” according to a press release from U.S. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg.
By Sept. 12, the spill was 99% cleaned, with the remaining oil residue cleaned by Sept. 21. Approximately 20,500 gallons of oil/water mixture and 6.4 tons of oily debris were removed from the site.
“I am pleased that we were able to quickly isolate the spilled material within the port to mitigate impacts to the environment while enabling a focused response and rapid clean-up,” U.S. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg Commander Capt. Michael Kahle said. “Our investigators worked tirelessly in search of the spill source and the responsible party.”
Coast Guard environmental response specialists leveraged the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF) to clean up the spill.
“The emergency fund of the OSLTF is used for federal on-scene coordinators to respond to discharges and for federal trustees to initiate natural resource damage assessments,” according to the U.S. Coast Guard website. “The emergency fund is a recurring $50 million available to the president annually.”
Approximately $1.17 million from the fund was spent for cleanup and investigation efforts.
“As part of SeaPort Manatee’s ongoing port inspection efforts, port team members were among the first to notice a visible discoloration within the basin, and immediately notified the National Response Center,” according to a press release sent by SeaPort Manatee Director of Communications and Public Relations Virginia Zimmerman. “The U.S. Coast Guard’s prompt response in deploying boom and initiating its cleanup process has resulted in the complete removal of the material at the port. An endangered species analysis of the area conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that no fish or wildlife had been affected.”
“On behalf of the Manatee County Port Authority, I wish to express my appreciation to the U.S. Coast Guard for its tireless efforts in cleaning up and investigating the recent event at the port,” Port Authority Chairman James Satcher said. “While it is disappointing that the investigation could not pinpoint the origin of the material, we are reassured in our proactive response efforts and pleased to learn that it was not identified as coming from a SeaPort Manatee-related source.”
“If anyone has information regarding this spill, please report it to the Sector St. Petersburg command center at 866-881-1392,” Kahle said. “We ask anyone who sees oil or hazardous materials pollution that may impact the water to immediately report it to the National Response Center at 800-424-8802.”
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Hurricane Idalia’s storm surge eroded the Island’s renourished beaches, but the full extent of the damage and when it will be repaired is not yet known.
“It could be months before any decision on what efforts will be undertaken is made,” Manatee County spokesman Bill Logan said in a Sept. 8 email to The Sun.
The first step of the process – evaluation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – has been completed.
“Jacksonville District completed preliminary damage assessments of all federal shore protection projects Sept. 1-3,” according to David Ruderman of the USACE Jacksonville Corporate Communications Office.
“Non-federal sponsors of federally authorized and constructed coastal storm risk management projects which sustained damages resulting from Hurricane Idalia have until Oct. 1 to apply for rehabilitation assistance under Public Law 84-99,” Ruderman said in an email to The Sun.
As of Sept. 15, Ruderman said requests have been received from Manatee and Pinellas counties.
During the Aug. 29 hurricane, storm surge reached 3-4 feet in coastal areas in Manatee County.
“This is the beginning of what I am told is a long process whereby the beaches are hand-measured, staked-out and surveyed for damage estimates from the storm and what measures may be needed to renourish any impacted areas,” Logan said in the Sept. 8 email.
Sarasota Bay Estuary Program (SBEP) Director Dr. Dave Tomasko evaluated the impact from Hurricane Idalia on the SBEP website.
“With Idalia, even though it was about 100 miles offshore, we were on its strong side, and thus we got the storm surge, even though we mostly experienced just tropical storm level winds,” he wrote. “This storm surge came a few hours before the peak of the full moon high tides.”
Water levels were retreating as the tide was coming up, Tomasko wrote.
“So, the dreaded ‘high tide on top of a storm surge’ did not happen,” Tomasko wrote. “That is lucky, because that could have added another foot or two. Still, water levels were about 3’ higher than they would have been otherwise.”
The last major beach renourishment locally was the 2021 Coquina Beach Storm Damage Restoration project, which placed approximately 74,805 cubic yards of sand at Coquina Beach.
“Beach renourishment projects not only provide recreational beach width for the benefit of residents and visitors, but during storm events, the sand also provides critical protection for structures and infrastructure landward of the beach. In addition, the beach provides critical habitat and nesting areas for protected species such as sea turtles and shorebirds,” according to Manatee County’s website.
Since 1992, Manatee County has participated in eight beach nourishment projects.
Approximately 6.9 million cubic yards of sand from offshore borrow areas have been placed as a result of the county’s and USACE’s beach preservation efforts.
PALMETTO – The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) continues to investigate the source of an Aug. 31 oil spill at SeaPort Manatee.
As of Sept. 8, the Coast Guard reported about 19,000 gallons of an oil/water mixture had been removed and 6.4 tons of oily debris was disposed of from the port’s inner basin.
USCG Sector St. Petersburg’s Response Department was notified on Aug. 31 through the National Response Center that there was a visible discoloration of the water at the Manatee County-owned seaport located on Tampa Bay.
“A commercial oil response company has been hired,” USCG Sector Commander Capt. Mike Kahle said on Sept. 1. “They’re applying a boom around the oil. It appears to be contained.” To date, 97% of the oil has been removed from the surface of the water, according to Kahle, who said he expected cleanup efforts to be completed by Sept. 10.
On Sept. 8, Congressman Vern Buchanan toured SeaPort Manatee. He was joined by SeaPort Manatee Executive Director Carlos Buqueras and Kahle.
“Our local waterways, environment and marine life are incredibly important to area residents and Florida’s tourism-based economy,” Buchanan said. “With no evidence pointing to any infrastructure failures or pipeline leaks so far, it looks increasingly likely that someone may have dumped this oil and is failing to come forward. Whether an accident or purposeful, any potential bad actors must be held accountable for putting our waterways at risk.”
According to Kahle, about 19,000 gallons of contaminated water were cleaned up from the port. Of that, approximately 3,500 gallons were heavy, unrefined oil.
“It’s still too early to define where exactly that heavy fuel came from, because we don’t handle a lot of heavy fuel,” Buqueras said.
“Since Aug. 31, SeaPort Manatee’s team has been proactively collaborating with the Coast Guard to assist in response activities,” Buqueras wrote in a Sept. 7 statement. “The Coast Guard has inspected every area of the port, yet to date has been unable to identify the origin of the material.
A boom is put in place to contain an oil spill at SeaPort Manatee. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to investigate the source of the spill. – Submitted
“Preserving the environment is among our top priorities, which is why we have fully continued partnering with the Coast Guard,” Buqueras wrote. “We have also encouraged tenant businesses at the port to cooperate with the Coast Guard.”
“NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) experts conducted an endangered species analysis of the impacted area and reported no fish or wildlife is affected at this time,” according to a Sept. 6 USCG report.
Due to its location in SeaPort Manatee, the U.S. Coast Guard assumed jurisdiction for the incident, according to Department of Environmental Protection Press Secretary Brian Miller.
According to the Coast Guard’s Facebook page, on Sept. 1, 4,500 gallons of oil/water were removed overnight and an additional 3,000 gallons removed the following day. On Sept. 2, the following was posted: “7,200 gallons of oil/water mixture was removed from the spill Sunday, including a large amount of oil debris. The source and responsible party are under investigation. Clean up operations will continue until we are sure the oil is removed.”
The following day, the Coast Guard reported 4,400 gallons of the oil/water mixture were removed, and stated, “Investigators are sending oil samples to be type-tested to assist in the investigation into the source and responsible party.”
According to that Sept. 3 post, 90-95% of the surface oil had been removed, ship’s hulls were 39-43% cleaned from the oil, and 6.4 tons of oily debris had been removed.
The Coast Guard reported on Sept. 6 that additional samples were taken from three vessels and two pipeline companies for analysis to try to find a match to the spilled oil.
PALMETTO – State leaders are committing financial resources for the ongoing Piney Point response efforts and the implementation of a long-term plan to permanently close the property.
The Piney Point property is owned by HRK Holdings. The company purchased the property in 2006. A phosphate production facility operated on that site from 1966 to 1999.
On Tuesday, April 13, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Noah Valenstein participated in a press conference at the Piney Point property. State Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Manatee), State Rep. Will Robinson (R-Manatee), acting Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes and all seven county commissioners attended the press conference but did not address the media.
Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the permanent closure of the Piney Point property. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
Regarding the initial state response that included DEP, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Florida National Guard, DeSantis noted the controlled discharge of containment stack water into Tampa Bay was stopped within seven days.
The governor then addressed his plans moving forward.
“We want this to be the last chapter of the Piney Point story. Today, I’m directing the Department of Environmental Protection to create a plan to close Piney Point. I’ve requested that DEP’s team of engineers and scientists develop plans for the permanent closure of this site, including identifying necessary resources to do so. This will ensure the state is moving forward with a plausible scientific plan toward closure,” DeSantis said.
“I’m redirecting $15.4 million from existing appropriations at DEP to use innovative technologies to pre-treat water at the site for nutrients so that in the event that further controlled discharges are needed, any potential adverse environmental impacts such as algae blooms and fish kills are mitigated,” DeSantis said.
“I’m further directing DEP to fully investigate the incidents here at Piney Point to take any and all legal actions to ensure we hold HRK and the other actors fully accountable,” the governor said.
Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson addressed the state Legislature’s Piney Point funding efforts. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
Speaking next, Simpson addressed the state Legislature’s efforts.
“This year we’re going to appropriate $100 million for the initial funding. By the end of the year, we hope to get a full closure plan with a fully-funded amount that may be required; and then come back next year and have a fully-funded plan,” he said.
DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein also spoke about holding HRK Holdings responsible for the environmental and economic impacts caused by the breach of the Piney Point containment stack.
“We have a team of attorneys back at Tallahassee that is making sure they take advantage of all the information we’re collecting and then put together a case to hold HRK fully accountable. We are putting every effort to hold folks accountable, regardless or not of a particular corporation’s circumstances,” he said.
After Tuesday’s press conference, Port Manatee Director of Communications Virginia Zimmermann provided The Sun with a tour of the Berth 12 area where the Piney Point water was discharged into Tampa Bay through an inland canal that helped move the discharged water into the deep water shipping channel. Zimmermann said the port remained fully operational while the Piney Point crisis played out.
According to DEP, about 215 million gallons of water containing elevated levels of nitrates and phosphates were discharged into Tampa Bay. Phosphates and nitrates are primary ingredients in fertilizer and concerns linger regarding the potential environmental impact of discharging that much nutrient-rich water into Tampa Bay.
The Piney Point discharge entered the shipping channel and Tampa Bay at Port Manatee’s Berth 12. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
The controlled discharge began on March 31 after a breach was identified in one of the three Piney Point phosphogypsum containment stacks. DEP refers to the breached gyp stack that resembles a small lake as the “NGS-South compartment.”
Another leak
According to DEP’s daily update on Saturday, April 17, approximately 205 million gallons remained in the NGS-South compartment and DEP was preparing to manage increased stormwater on the Piney Point property ahead of weather forecasts predicting rain and windy conditions early this week.
According to Friday’s update, members of the University of South Florida’s School of Geosciences began using bathymetric equipment that day to survey the gyp stack and further assess repairs previously made to its submerged liner.
Friday’s update noted that on Tuesday, April 13, a low-level flow was observed from the concentrated seepage area on the east wall of the gyp stack: “Dive crews immediately arrived on scene and identified a small detachment underneath the plate placed over the liner seam separation. At this time, the low-level flow rate appears to be consistent and repair efforts continue.”
Environmental concerns
On Saturday, Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Executive Director Dave Tomasko provided his latest insights on the potential environmental impacts.
“We haven’t had discharges in about a week, but it looks like we’ve got a 10-15 square mile algae bloom centered around Piney Point. It’s pretty much in the same location it was for the past week,” he said.
This satellite imagery from Thursday, April 15 indicates what’s believed to be an algae bloom. – NOAA | Submitted
Tomasko noted the suspected algae bloom appears on the daily satellite imagery provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He said an algae bloom does not necessarily appear as a large mass of material that can be seen on the water’s surface.
“It’s floating microscopic plants,” he said.
Sharing his own personal observations, Tomasko said, “The water does not look the way it normally does this time of year. The water this time of year is usually blue. It looks kind of brownish to me. In that area around Piney Point, people have been noting the water does not look clear. It looks brownish-green. It looks like there’s elevated phytoplankton and this week we’re going to find out if there’s a more macro-algae out there.”
Tomasko said members of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and other volunteers will be out on the water in several locations conducting surveys of the algae, and also of the seagrass the grows on the bottom of the surveyed bodies of water.
“We’ve got baseline conditions before any of the impact was felt and this coming week we’re going to go see if they’ve changed,” he said. “No one really knows what’s going to happen, but it’s hard to believe there wouldn’t be some sort of impact with all the nutrients put into the water.”
Tomasko’s overall concerns also include the presence of red tide (Karenia brevis) in the area.
“We’ve got red tide in Sarasota. These are low to moderate levels. Red tide is not caused by humans but when it comes into water enriched by human activity that’s a real concern. If this plume lingers around and the red tide encounters it, it’s like adding gasoline to a fire,” Tomasko said.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission red tide current status map, medium levels of Karenia brevis cells (red tide) were measured at Siesta Beach in Sarasota on April 12. That same day, low levels of Karenia brevis cells were detected at the New Pass Dock in Sarasota Bay and at Lido Pass.
An April 12 water sample taken near the Rod and Reel Pier in Anna Maria indicated Karenia brevis cellswere not present or were present only at minimal background levels.
The north end of Anna Maria Island is approximately 15 miles from Port Manatee.
Previous seagrass losses
Tomasko also lamented the previous loss of seagrass that occurred in Sarasota Bay prior to the Piney Point crisis.
“We just had our numbers released Friday about the seagrass change. We’re down 18%. We lost more than 2,000 acres of seagrass in the northern part of Sarasota Bay between 2018 and 2020 in the area around Long Bar Pointe. North and south of Long Bar Pointe we’re down 18%, after a 5% loss between 2016 and 2018,” he said.
Tomasko was asked why so much seagrass has been lost near Long Bar Pointe.
“We think it’s because of two red tides in 2016 and 2017. Then you had Hurricane Irma in 2017 and a real strong red tide from 2018 going into 2019. The red tide shuts off the photosynthesis. The seagrass expires because the water is warm and there’s not enough light,” he said.
“The last thing we need is another red tide like we had in 2018-2019. We’re already in a stressed position and now we’ve got red tide to the south and Piney Point to the north. The last thing we need is for people to think the crisis is past. We’re nowhere near close to knowing what the effects are going to be,” he added.
Holmes Beach declaration
On Tuesday, April 13, the Holmes Beach City Commission adopted by city resolution a declaration of a local state of emergency that serves as the city’s preemptive response to the potential environmental and economic impacts of the Piney Point discharge.
“The city commission has determined that the release of contaminated water from the Piney Point facility poses an immediate and real threat to the residents and businesses of the city of Holmes Beach. The city commission supports the allocation of federal and state funds to develop and implement a plan that will eliminate any future threat that the Piney Point facility poses to Tampa Bay and surrounding waters,” the resolution states.
The Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach city commissions declared similar declarations of emergency on April 8.
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