On November 24, 2021, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) gave notice that they will allow Manatee County to inject toxic wastewater from the Piney Point phosphate plant into the ground. 

Piney Point, located in Manatee County, Florida, was a phosphate mining site for plant fertilizer from 1966 to 1999. It had many owners before it was abandoned in 2001 by Mulberry Corporation because of bankruptcy and inability to assure environmental security. Before that, many incidents occurred on site that were detrimental to the environment and the people who worked there. This is due to the harmful nature of phosphate mining itself, as well as mismanagement of the plant by its many owners, and agencies such as the DEP, who bent the rules for them. The site is currently owned by HRK Holdings, but Herb Donica was given control to manage the waste through a court agreement.

The phosphate mining at Piney Point left behind a 1.2 billion gallon gypsum stack filled with phosphogypsum: radioactive wastewater containing phosphorous, nitrogen, ammonia, uranium, thorium, radium, and emits radon. Several leaks and discharges of the waste have happened at Piney Point in the past, but the latest incident was in March 2021 when a leak in the liner of the gypsum stack risked overflowing into surrounding neighborhoods. The leak was detected long before this disaster, but nothing was done about it. 215 million gallons of the toxic waste was released into Tampa Bay, inducing a harsh wave of Red Tide that killed marine life, made the water unsafe to be around, and lasted until November.

That same waste is planned to be put into the Earth using a deep injection well. This risks contaminating the Floridian aquifer, which is an important source of drinking water for millions of people. While some officials claim this is the best-case scenario, there are better options available that don't require burying the untreated toxic waste. Water treatment, such as reverse osmosis, is one solution that is less harmful and has proven to work in the past. According to the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute, reverse osmosis produced about 46 million gallons of high-quality water at Piney Point in 2004. As the water is being processed, untreated water can be shipped and stored to avoid other leaks or disastrous spreads from hurricanes or rising sea levels. 

The radioactive waste at Piney Point, which has already been stored much longer than it should be, needs to be managed in a safe and effective way. Disposing of the waste by hiding it underground, is not a solution. It is a bandaid for a wound that will only cause more problems if the waste is not properly taken care of. Far too often, preventable environmental disasters occur that harm the Earth and the humans who inhabit it because money is more important than the risks at hand.  

We can not let Manatee County and the DEP inject radioactive waste into the ground that will possibly contaminate Floridan drinking water. There are 27 gypsum stacks in Florida, nine of which are currently active. A better solution, such as water treatment, needs to be utilized in order to reduce the risks of this hazardous process.

Keep Floridians safe and STOP the toxic wastewater at Piney Point from being injected into our Earth!

(Photo by Tampa Bay Times of toxic wastewater being released from Piney Point).