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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Florida is moving to permanently close the leaky Piney Point wastewater reservoir that poured millions of gallons of water into Tampa Bay while threatening to burst open and flood nearby homes and businesses, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday.The Republican governor said at a news conference at the site that the chronic challenges of containing polluted water at the long-closed phosphate plant must end.We want this to be the last chapter of the Piney Point story, DeSantis said.The reservoir is located just south of Tampa in Manatee County, near waterways that flow into Tampa Bay.The governor said he has directed the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a closure plan, and that $15.4 million in existing agency funds would be used to treat the wastewater to reduce the nutrients that can cause algae blooms and fish kills.When a leak developed at the site this month, in a reservoir that once held 480 million gallons (1.9 million litres), experts fearing a collapse triggered the evacuation of more than 300 homes, businesses and farms in the area.The worst was avoided as engineers rushed in vacuum trucks and other equipment to furiously pump out wastewater, relieving the pressure. Crews also installed a steel plate at the leak site to prevent additional flooding from a seam in the reservoirs plastic liner.The reservoir contains what are called phosphogypsum stacks, a leftover from the phosphate mined for fertilizer. Officials say the water contains nitrogen, phosphorus, ammonia, and small amounts of radium and uranium, but is not radioactive.There are about two dozen other similar phosphate wastewater reservoirs in Florida, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They hold about 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum stacks similar to those at Piney Point. The EPA also says about 90% of the nations phosphate is mined in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.In Florida, the other phosphogypsum stacks have — so far — not had the same massive leak problems as Piney Point and there are no plans to close them, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.However, a Mosaic phosphate plant leaked millions of gallons of wastewater into Floridas underground aquifer after a sinkhole opened up in 2016 beneath a reservoir holding phosphogypsum stacks. Another Mosaic leak happened at a different plant in 2019, but officials said it was largely contained.Noah Valenstein, the Florida DEP secretary, said the state also plans to sue HRK Holdings, which bought the Piney Point property in 2006 and promised a cleanup. Instead, the company filed for bankruptcy following a 2011 spill of 170 million gallons.Stay tuned for litigation, Valenstein said. This is it. The site has to be closed.Wilton Simpson, the Republican president of the Florida Senate, said lawmakers would work to fully fund the cleanup and closure of Piney Point. The Legislature is currently in session.By the end of session, well have a closure plan, Simpson said.Florida officials on Tuesday announced their intention to permanently shut down a leaking wastewater reservoir south of Tampa that had forced hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes under the threat of a catastrophic collapse.Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said on Tuesday that he was allocating more than $15 million to start the process of closing the 79-acre reservoir, which is part of a system of ponds connected to a former phosphate mine in Piney Point, Fla. He said he was directing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan to permanently close the site.We want this to be the last chapter of the Piney Point story, Mr. DeSantis said at a news conference at the reservoir.A leak was detected at the site on March 26, and officials said water was leaking at a rate of two million to three million gallons a day. The reservoir held 480 million gallons of water, and local officials said they feared that if it gave way, a collapse could unleash a 20-foot wall of water. A week later, there were 390 million gallons remaining, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said.Mr. DeSantis declared a state of emergency for three counties near the reservoir. He also issued an evacuation order affecting more than 300 homes near the site in Manatee County.Officials raced to drain the reservoir, pumping 75 million to 100 million gallons a day, up from 35 million gallons earlier. The water being discharged was primarily seawater from a dredging project, mixed with legacy process water and storm water runoffrainfall, according to a state website tracking developments with the reservoir.Officials said the primary concern about the discharged water was the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus but emphasized that the water was not radioactive. A sudden, uncontrolled breach could have upended stacks of phosphogypsum, a waste product of phosphate mining, that hold the ponds.The ultimate cost and timeline for the closing are unclear. Mr. DeSantis said $15.4 million would be redirected for innovative technologies to pretreat water at the site, which can mitigate the effects of further discharges. He also said he expected the state Legislature to allocate additional funding.Wilton Simpson, the Senate president, who joined Mr. DeSantis on Tuesday, said he expected the Legislature to allocate $100 million for the initial funding. And by the end of the year we hope to get a full closure plan with a fully funded amount that may be required.The crisis at the Piney Point reservoir underscores the risks posed by giant pools of wastewater, which are a common feature at thousands of industrial and agricultural sites across the country. They are vital to major industries like livestock and power generation.But environmental groups say they pose major environmental, health and safety risks, whether from mismanagement or, increasingly, from the effects of climate change.
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