Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Getty Images
BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Saturday after a significant leak at a storage pond of wastewater threatened to cause flooding and collapse a system with radioactive material.
The Tampa Bay Times says the reservoir in question held about 480 million gallons (about 1.8 billion liters) of wastewater before the company that operates it began discharging some of it to Port Manatee this week. At least 25 million gallons of the water had been discharged by early Thursday.
The pond where the leak was discovered is at the old Piney Point phosphate plant, where there are stacks of phosphogypsum, a waste product from manufacturing fertilizer that is radioactive. It contains small amounts of naturally occurring radium and uranium, and the stacks can also release large concentrations of radon gas.
Officials worry that the collapse of the system could spew polluted water as well as more hazardous material into the area and bay.
“That’s when we determined that it was no longer safe to be anywhere near Piney Point, so we all kind of raced off the stacks as fast as we could,” Kruse said in a Facebook video, adding that officials would explain later what they have observed.
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