No immediate threat after thousands of gallons of wastewater overflows at Tropicana Manufacturing

About 7,000 gallons of treated wastewater overflowed into a retention pond Tuesday at the Tropicana Manufacturing Co. site in Bradenton, but officials say there is no immediate environmental threat.

Tropicana, located at 1001 13th Ave. East, reported the overflow occurred at 7:25 a.m. and was reported to the Florida Division of Emergency Management State Watch Office at 4:02 p.m.

“Because the spill was contained in an on-site retention pond, there is no immediate environmental threat,” Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson Jess Boyd said in an email to the Herald.

The State Watch Office incident report stated that approximately 7,000 gallons of “treated effluent” overflowed from a chlorination chamber. The overflow was contained to an on-site retention pond.

There will be no cleanup actions necessary, according to the report. No injuries or fatalities were reported in connection to the spill.

The Department of Environmental Protection will gather additional information after Tuesday’s spill to ensure Tropicana continues to meet its DEP permit requirements, Boyd said.

Information on what caused the chlorination chamber to overflow was not immediately available.

Tropicana representatives could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 5:56 PM with the headline "No immediate threat after thousands of gallons of wastewater overflows at Tropicana Manufacturing."