The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has approved a closure plan that it says will permanently eliminate toxic discharge problems at Piney Point, an industrial site that once housed a phosphate fertilizer plant.
Continuing fears of toxic and radioactive discharges from the site, which was later turned into a disposal site for dredge material in Manatee County, have led to lawsuits filed by the DEP and environmental groups over hazards to groundwater and Tampa Bay.
“Nearly one year ago … DEP issued an emergency final order requiring that (Piney Point owner) HRK Holdings LLC 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," DEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton said in a prepared statement on March 31.
Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the development of the closure plan a year ago. In April of 2021, the Piney Point owners decided to release hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated polluted wastewater into Tampa Bay to avert the collapse of water containment systems at the site.
Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said he expects the Piney Point closure plan to permanently end the environmental risks that the site has caused. Among the fixes advanced in the closure plan is a deep underground injection-control well to drain contaminated water on the site away from aquifers used for drinking water in the region.
“We started the drilling earlier this year, we are ahead of schedule and that is the critical component to beginning the closure process," Hopes said in comments emailed to the Florida Record.
Timing, however, is critical to the environmental task the DEP is overseeing, he said. Other parts of the closure plan include repairs that stopped the seeping of pond water, increased water treatment and removal of water to nearby wastewater facilities.
“Piney Point is still very much at risk,” Hopes said. “This is a race against the clock.”
Neither HRK Holdings nor environmental groups responded to requests for comment about the closure plan. The planned final closure of the Piney Point site is scheduled for December 2024.
The closure plan was prepared at the direction of Piney Point’s court-appointed receiver, Tampa-based attorney Herb Donica.