Have questions about Piney Point’s deep well? Public hearing may provide answers
A public hearing Wednesday in Bradenton will be your best opportunity to learn more about the next step in the plan to close Piney Point.
Staff from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Manatee County will be available to discuss and answer questions that residents may have about the technology that will store treated wastewater underground. An underground injection control well is meant to resolve the environmental disaster at the former phosphate processing facility.
Members of the public are encouraged to attend the public hearing, which begins 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6 at the Central Library, 1301 Barcarrota Blvd. in downtown Bradenton. Organizers expect the meeting to last until 7 p.m.
In March, Piney Point’s site operators found a leak in a pond that held 800 million gallons of contaminated water. In a rush to prevent that leak from destabilizing the larger system, state officials allowed 215 million gallons of that water to be released into Tampa Bay.
As state and local officials work toward closing the hazardous site for good, experts say an underground injection control well, also known as a deep well, is the best way to get rid of the contaminated water. The proposed deep well, which is slated to be built along Buckeye Road, would pump the water 2,000 feet below the Lower Floridian Aquifer after it undergoes a treatment process.
Scientists say putting the water that far below ground level would force the water to undergo a natural treatment process over several thousand years. According to hydrogeologists, the wastewater would appear as clean water in the Gulf of Mexico 100,000 years from now.
The Manatee Board of County Commissioners voted in April to move forward with the $10 million well. Wednesday’s public hearing is a mandatory step in the permitting process, which is overseen by FDEP officials. The state’s top environmental agency recommended the deep well as the most effective method of wastewater disposal.
In previous interviews with the Bradenton Herald, leaders have emphasized the success of other wells located throughout the state. During a February workshop meeting, one hydrogeological expert said FDEP places strict regulations on underground injection wells, ensuring that the wastewater does not affect the county’s drinking supply.
“If you look at the total picture of getting this site closed safely and the proven record, it does prove itself as a viable option,” FDEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton said in September.
But in a lawsuit notice, a group of environmental organizations threatened to sue Manatee County if officials move forward with plans to build a deep well. In a detailed complaint, the group said they didn’t believe the well involved as many safeguards as necessary to protect the community.
“We don’t want to see another environmental catastrophe, but the public been has been misled,” said Jaclyn Lopez, director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re talking about putting hazardous water underground. That’s something that Florida banned more than 40 years ago.”
Lopez pointed to Manatee County’s own deep well application, which says the pre-treatment process is only meant to remove the chemicals that would clog the well. Because the water at Piney Point may contain a number of hazardous materials, such as lead, arsenic and cadmium, the lawsuit alleges that Manatee’s well would be a form of illegal dumping.
“Since we’re going into a zone of the aquifer that’s unused, there are no water quality targets that you have to achieve,” Hamilton told state lawmakers on Sept. 22. “There’s a pre-treatment that has to happen before the water is injected — the purpose of that pre-treatment is to protect and maintain the integrity of the well.”
The goal of the lawsuit notice, Lopez said, is to encourage state and county leaders to consider a different plan for getting rid of the water at Piney Point.
“This is not going to be an easy problem to fix. We still need to figure out where the water goes. It’s going to be an expensive challenge that should be closely monitored and public vetted,” Lopez said. “We should be sparing no expense to ensure that Tampa Bay and surrounding areas aren’t harmed by this decision.”
Officials have wondered what to do about Piney Point for more than two decades. After the former owners abandoned the facility in 2001, FDEP took possession of the 676-acre property and all the hazardous waste that came with it. The former phosphate processing plant used to extract phosphorus, a key ingredient in fertilizer, from phosphate rock.
That process left behind a host of materials that are difficult to deal with. The water that helps operate the machinery absorbs some of the nutrients from the phosphate rock and becomes known as process water, which must be treated before it can be released into local waterways.
Processing phosphate rock also results in a byproduct called gypsum, which is slightly radioactive. Because gypsum cannot be used for any other purpose, the material is piled into massive mounds called gypsum stacks. At Piney Point, those stacks are 80 feet tall.
In order to prevent the gypsum from contaminating surrounding areas, the gypsum is covered by a heavy-duty plastic liner. The mounds also included deep cavities at the top, holding millions of gallons of process water. A rip in that liner led to the state of emergency earlier this year.
Piney Point public hearing on injection well
- When: Wednesday, Oct. 6 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Where: Central Library, 1301 Barcarrota Blvd. in downtown Bradenton
- What: Open house format for residents to learn more about the proposed well
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 3:42 PM.
