Manatee County to spend $18 million on water treatment center to help close Piney Point
Manatee County will pay nearly $18 million to build a facility that treats the contaminated water at Piney Point before it goes into an underground injection well.
The payment is expected to be one of the final expenses that county leaders will have to approve as part of an ongoing effort to close the former phosphate processing facility for good. Last year, the site threatened a disaster when the water, which contains nutrients and chemicals that are harmful to the environment, began leaking into Tampa Bay.
The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the design-build agreement. The move caps the cost of the pre-treatment facility at $17.9 million during a period of “intense inflationary pressure,” according to County Attorney Bill Clague.
While the county government agreed to make the up-front payment, the entire cost of the pre-treatment center will be fully reimbursed in a partnership with state leaders. In 2021, the Florida Legislature approved $100 million toward the site’s closing.
Legal counsel urged board members to approve the deal Thursday morning instead of waiting until after the summer recess. That delay could have seen the cost rise above $20 million, officials said.
“It is in the best interest of the public and the two parties to get this done,” Clague explained.
The county will own the well and have the final say over what goes into it, but the state will pay for the ongoing operation and maintenance of the well and pre-treatment center, according to County Administrator Scott Hopes.
Piney Point, a former phosphate processing facility, was abandoned by its operator more than 20 years ago. At the time, the former owners left behind all of the machinery and equipment they used to extract phosphorus, a key ingredient in fertilizer, from phosphate rock.
That 667-acre site, which sits on the east side of U.S. 41 near Port Manatee, holds enormous ponds of contaminated water that began leaking last March. Hoping to avoid a total collapse, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection authorized site operators to release 215 million gallons of water into Tampa Bay.
But there is still a lot of work to be done to shut the site. Along Buckeye Road, construction crews are digging about 3,000 feet into the ground to build an underground injection well, which will remove the water from Piney Point.
The $18 million pre-treatment center will be used to remove clogging solids from that water before it goes into the well. In a recent tour of the Piney Point facility, site operators told the Bradenton Herald that the water has already been treated to remove nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
Once the well and the pre-treatment center are complete, site operators will begin using the well to shoot the treated water underground. Hydrogeology experts say the water will undergo a natural treatment process before reappearing in the Gulf of Mexico 100,000 years from now.
“The good news is that the water is being treated before it goes down into the well,” Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said.
“The deep well is scientifically the best option — always has been,” Commissioner Misty Servia added. “I’m glad we went to that and the public should be comfortable.”
Storing the water underground isn’t a popular option among local environmental groups, though. Several organizations came together last year to file a lawsuit urging FDEP to reconsider the permit to build the well.
At the time, environmentalists said they were concerned that the permit did not include strict enough requirements to remove hazardous materials from the water at Piney Point.
That case has been put on hold while construction work continues on the well. County officials say they hope to have the well and the pre-treatment center in operation by April 2023.
Even after the well opens, there is still a long way to go before Piney Point is closed. Because the well can only handle a million gallons per day, engineers say it could take roughly two years to fully drain the water.
