Manatee County in Florida has expanded the evacuation ahead of a possible ‘catastrophic failure’ at a former phosphate processing plant’s water dam that could lead to devastating floods.
Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at a news conference in Piney Point on Sunday, stressing that the state is responding aggressively to the crisis.
“Public health and safety is the top priority,” DeSantis said.
The focus is on an abandoned reservoir for Piney Point fertilizer plants, which contained hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater and began leaking amid a breach in a wall.
DeSantis said workers are currently pumping out 33 million gallons of wastewater a day, stressing that the water left to Port Manatee is being tested and that it is “not radioactive.”
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Should a catastrophic failure occur, the reservoir could dump about 340 million gallons of wastewater into the surrounding area, which some experts say could lead to a 20-foot-high wave of water washing through an area with hundreds of homes.
This photo shows a reservoir near the old Piney Point phosphate mine, Saturday, April 3, 2021 in Bradenton, Florida. Florida government Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency on Saturday after a significant leak at a large dam of wastewater threatens to flood roads and burst a system that stores polluted water. The dam where the leak was discovered is at the old Piney Point phosphate mine, in a stack of phosphogypsum, a waste product from the production of fertilizer that is radioactive. (Tiffany Tompkins / The Bradenton Herald via AP)
((Tiffany Tompkins / The Bradenton Herald via AP))
DeSantis on Saturday issued an evacuation order for a half-mile radius around the plant, which has so far led to evacuations for 316 homes.
The state works with the Red Cross to provide shelter and resources for displaced families, many of whom stay in local hotels.
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DeSantis has appealed to those seeking refuge to contact Manatee County authorities.
Authorities began controlled dismissals on March 31, hoping to prevent a transgression and subsequent flooding. DeSantis claims that the water has been tested and monitored and that the water currently meets dissolved oxygen, salinity and PH standards.
The state is also bringing in additional equipment to double the effort to dump more water from the reservoir and into surrounding waterways.
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The Florida National Guard is airing pumps that will fit over the stacks of the plant to speed up the pumping process, which currently uses 10 vacuum trucks in addition to 20 current pumps.
DeSantis also said the state would hold the company HRK Holdings, which managed the site before the 2001 strike, liable for any damages resulting from an infringement.
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“Our administration is committed to the full enforcement of damages to our state’s resources and to holding the company HRK responsible for this event,” DeSantis said. “It is not acceptable and not something that will keep us going.”
Updates are available on the Protecting Florida Together website.