A view of a phosphogypsum stack, far, background, and water management at HRK Holdings’ property in Palmetto. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD ]
“The condition of the liner … is not particularly great,” Mike Kelley, an outside engineer working with the property owner, HRK Holdings, told Manatee County commissioners Thursday. “It’s old. There were some installation issues. There’s a long-documented history of that liner system having problems.”
Over the last year, environmental records show, staff have inspected the liner on multiple occasions and found small holes or weaknesses in plastic seams above the water line. They documented potential cracks last December, October and July, the records show.
The looming disaster is an episode of history repeating at Piney Point.
Once a manufacturing hub for the fertilizer industry, the property has been the source of polluted discharges in the past. The old plant contains not just wastewater ponds but stacks of phosphogypsum, a material monitored for its radioactivity.
Responsibility for the dangerous waste at Piney Point has been passed around over the decades from a private company, to the state and then back to another private company. All the while, polluted water and phosphogypsum has lingered as a risk to the bay.
“Piney Point is a long story that just needs to end,” Noah Valenstein, the state’s top environmental official, said Thursday. The Department of Environmental Protection, he said, is now committed to doing that.
When asked about reports of previous cracking, Valenstein, the state environmental secretary, said the source of the current problem remains unclear, but that regulators should always look for opportunities to improve after an emergency.
Site managers are hurriedly sending away wastewater this week to cut pressure on the phosphogypsum stack system. Jeff Barath, a manager for HRK Holdings, said the water began flowing toward Port Manatee on Tuesday at a rate of about 14.5 million gallons a day. The company hoped to start another siphon to dump the wastewater even more rapidly.
Navy Vet