Nikki Fried, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, speaks during a press conference, at the Manatee County Public Safety Building in Bradenton, Fla., Tuesday, April 6, 2021, about the environmental crisis at the former Piney Point phosphate plant, where breached wastewater reservoirs are threatening to fully rupture. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP)
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A mandatory evacuation order near a leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses was lifted Tuesday as officials said the situation was under control.
With the deployment of more than two dozen pumps and other equipment, fears have eased that the reservoir from an old phospate fertilizer plant would burst through its earthen walls and cause widespread flooding in Manatee County, just south of Tampa.
The reservoir initially held about 480 million gallons of contaminated water, but much has been drained away once the leak was discovered.
'œThe mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted,'ť said Scott Hopes, the county administrator. 'œWe believe the risk has been mitigated and controlled.'ť
Earlier, officials announced that a major highway near the site, U.S. 41, would be reopened.
The decisions on Tuesday come as Florida lawmakers are proposing to spend up to $200 million to clean up and close the wastewater reservoir. But it was not immediately clear how officials plan to tackle what would be a huge engineering challenge.
The state Senate president, Republican Wilton Simpson, said a legislative committee on Wednesday will take up an amendment to use federal money for the project. Its sponsor is Sen. Jim Boyd, a Republican from Bradenton where the Piney Point reservoir is located.
'œThis has been a catastrophe waiting to happen for too long,'ť Simpson said in a statement. 'œWe don't want to be talking about this problem again in five, 10 or 20 years.'ť
A House committee is also expected to consider a similar bill Wednesday.
Under the proposals, the money would come from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package signed into law in March by President Joe Biden.
'œThis is a huge step forward for our community,'ť Boyd said.
Nikki Fried, the state commissioner of the Agriculture and Consumer Services Department, toured the site Tuesday and told reporters the situation appears to have stabilized.
'œIt seems like this is under control, as much as something like this could be under control,'ť said Fried, a Democrat. 'œWe need to take immediate action to fix this.'ť
The reservoir, and two others nearby, sit in stacks of phosphogypsum, a solid radioactive byproduct from manufacturing fertilizer from an old phosphate plant that is no longer in operation.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says the water in the pond is primarily saltwater mixed with wastewater and stormwater. It has elevated levels of phosphorous and nitrogen and is acidic, but does not appear to be toxic. It is not radioactive.
The agency said dozens of pumps and 10 vacuum trucks have been deployed to remove more than 35 million gallons (132 million liters) of wastewater per day into the Tampa Bay estuary, where 11 different sampling operations are monitoring water quality and considering ways of minimizing algae blooms that kill marine life and make beachgoing hazardous to humans in the tourism-dependent state.
Noah Valenstein, secretary of the state environmental agency, said Tuesday that every precaution is being taken to ensure the water heading into Tampa Bay does not cause an environmental disaster.
'œWe've set ourselves up to have the least environmental impact,'ť Valenstein said.
Under the Florida Senate bill, once the money is approved, the Department of Environmental Protection would use competitive bidding to select a company to handle the shutdown of the site. The precise contours of that plan are not yet clear.
Glenn Compton, director of the ManaSota-88 environmental group, said nothing like this has ever been done in Florida before.
'œNobody can say exactly how it would be done. That remains to be seen,'ť Compton said. 'œHow they cap this would be an engineering feat that has never before been done.'ť
Some ideas on the table include deep-well injection to send the water thousands of feet underground, but that comes with its own concerns about contamination.
As for the reservoir, Compton said there have been discussions of using fly ash, a byproduct of coal-burning power plants, which would eventually harden and prevent the reservoir from filling with water again.
There are about two dozen other sites in Florida containing about 1 billion tons of this phosphate production byproduct, officials have said.
'œIf we are destroying our environment, we are destroying our state,'ť Fried said. 'œWe've got to make the environment our top priority.'ť
Nikki Fried, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, speaks as state Sen. Janet Cruz, left, D-Dist. 18, listens during a press conference at the Manatee County Public Safety Building in Bradenton, Fla., Tuesday, April 6, 2021, about the environmental crisis at the former Piney Point phosphate plant, where breached wastewater reservoirs are threatening to fully rupture. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP)
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This aerial photo taken from an airplane shows a reservoir near the old Piney Point phosphate mine, Saturday, April 3, 2021 in Bradenton, Fla. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Saturday after a significant leak at a large pond of wastewater threatened to flood roads and burst a system that stores polluted waters. The pond where the leak was discovered is at the old Piney Point phosphate mine, sitting in a stack of phosphogypsum, a waste product from manufacturing fertilizer that is radioactive. (Tiffany Tompkins/The Bradenton Herald via AP)
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State Sen. Janet Cruz, left, D-Dist.-18, speaks as Nikki Fried, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, listens during a press conference at the Manatee County Public Safety Building in Bradenton, Fla., Tuesday, April 6, 2021, about the environmental crisis at the former Piney Point phosphate plant, where breached wastewater reservoirs are threatening to fully rupture. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP)
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A sign regulates passage into an inlet at a coastal mangrove estuary off Port Manatee, on Tuesday, 6, 2021, in Palmetto, Manatee County, Fla., where authorities responding to a leaking wastewater pond at the old Piney Point phosphate plant reopened a nearby stretch of U.S. 41 that had been closed for days between Manatee and Hillsborough counties. The move signaled improving conditions at the site. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
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Raw materials are offloaded from the Ivy Unicorn at Port Manatee, on Tuesday, 6, 2021, in Palmetto, Manatee County, Fla., where authorities responding to a leaking wastewater pond at the old Piney Point phosphate plant reopened a nearby stretch of U.S. 41 that had been closed for days between Manatee and Hillsborough counties. A mandatory evacuation order near the leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses has been lifted on Tuesday. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
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Seasonal algae floats in the water off Port Manatee, on Tuesday, 6, 2021, in Palmetto, Manatee County, Fla., where authorities responding to a leaking wastewater pond at the old Piney Point phosphate plant reopened a nearby stretch of U.S. 41 that had been closed for days between Manatee and Hillsborough counties. A mandatory evacuation order near the leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses has been lifted. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
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Effluent flows from a pipe into a drainage ditch at Port Manatee South Gate on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, in Palmetto, Fla., where authorities responding to a leaking wastewater pond at the old Piney Point phosphate plant reopened a nearby stretch of U.S. 41 that had been closed for days between Manatee and Hillsborough counties. A mandatory evacuation order near the leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses was lifted Tuesday as officials said the situation was under control.(Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
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An unidentified foam collects on reeds where effluent flows from a pipe into a drainage ditch at Port Manatee South Gate on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, in Palmetto, Fla., where authorities responding to a leaking wastewater pond at the old Piney Point phosphate plant reopened a nearby stretch of U.S. 41 that had been closed for days between Manatee and Hillsborough counties. A mandatory evacuation order near the leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses was lifted Tuesday as officials said the situation was under control. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
The Associated Press
A great blue heron rests off a coastal mangrove estuary at Port Manatee, on Tuesday, 6, 2021, in Palmetto, Manatee County, Fla., where authorities responding to a leaking wastewater pond at the old Piney Point phosphate plant reopened a nearby stretch of U.S. 41 that had been closed for days between Manatee and Hillsborough counties. The move signaled improving conditions at the site. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
The Associated Press
This Oct. 30, 2020, image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a view of a retaining pond at the 77-acre Piney Point reservoir in Manatee County, just south of the Tampa Bay area, in Florida, before a leak was discovered. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies via AP)
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