Tampa Bay Phosphate Plant Breach

CMMorgan · Apr 4, 2021

WFLA NEWS
TampaBay.com
NY Times

Good Morning Fellow Reefers...
Please keep the Tampa Bay and all of those that live and make their living off the water in your prayers. There is a decades old phosphate plant that sprung a leak this weekend. They have evacuated over 300 residents as a precaution for a large scale breach. The collapse would send a wave of almost 400 million gallons of polluted water into neighborhoods, local ponds, reservoirs and the Tampa Bay. They are trying to repair the breach and they are currently pumping millions of gallons a day from the Piney Point phosphate pond into Port Manatee - essentially right into the Tampa Bay. At a minimum, we are looking at red tide.... but this could be much worse. The governor has declared a State of Emergency. Engineers have been working around the clock to find a solution.
Some of our fellow sponsors and favorite vendors rely on this watershed. Let's all be there to support them and send positive thoughts and prayers to all of those impacted. #TampaBayReefkeepers #TampaStrong

fish farmer · Apr 4, 2021

That really blows, hopefully they can remedy that situation quickly.

PSU4ME · Apr 4, 2021

Just read this, not good at all. Hopefully they can get it under control

PR_nano · Apr 4, 2021

Saw this yesterday and it sounded terrible. Need to catch up on any update/progress but yesterday they were saying a collapse was imminent.

CMMorgan · Apr 4, 2021

PR_nano said:
Saw this yesterday and it sounded terrible. Need to catch up on any update/progress but yesterday they were saying a collapse was imminent.

Same

CMMorgan · Apr 4, 2021

Sunday Levy Update
2016 Phosphogypsum Stack Sinkhole Study
As of now, they have pumped well over 100 million gallons of water from the phosphate pond, with intentions of draining the remaining 300 million. The goal is to avoid a levy breach, which they predict will send a 20 foot wall of water through Bradenton. They are now saying that the water is NOT radioactive but it is very high in nutrients. This is raising Ph, phosphate, nitrite and ammonia in the impacted areas. It is looking like another case where they just assume dilution is the solution.
Sometimes I wonder if they deliberately ignore ongoing environmental issues, so they can wait for an emergency to justify a major polluting event? It's the whole it's cheaper to keep her solution than actually develop a plan to correct something the right way. Shame on all of the politicians that ride in for photos ops.... where were they for years when everyone knew this would happen? The last phosphogypsum stack that collapsed in 2016 polluted a Florida aquifer. You would think they would have learned something from that one, huh?
The next news conference is scheduled for 12:30 Monday afternoon.

(As a side note.... Florida politicians have a bad habit of trying to scare people with threats of gigantic walls of water. When hurricane Irma came through... they predicted 16 foot tsunamis and millions of people evacuated the state. It was a cat 1 - on Florida terms, NBD. That said, poor Tampa got smacked with that one, too.)

fish farmer · Apr 5, 2021

CMMorgan said:
Sunday Levy Update
2016 Phosphogypsum Stack Sinkhole Study
As of now, they have pumped well over 100 million gallons of water from the phosphate pond, with intentions of draining the remaining 300 million. The goal is to avoid a levy breach, which they predict will send a 20 foot wall of water through Bradenton. They are now saying that the water is NOT radioactive but it is very high in nutrients. This is raising Ph, phosphate, nitrite and ammonia in the impacted areas. It is looking like another case where they just assume dilution is the solution.
Sometimes I wonder if they deliberately ignore ongoing environmental issues, so they can wait for an emergency to justify a major polluting event? It's the whole it's cheaper to keep her solution than actually develop a plan to correct something the right way. Shame on all of the politicians that ride in for photos ops.... where were they for years when everyone knew this would happen? The last phosphogypsum stack that collapsed in 2016 polluted a Florida aquifer. You would think they would have learned something from that one, huh?
The next news conference is scheduled for 12:30 Monday afternoon.

(As a side note.... Florida politicians have a bad habit of trying to scare people with threats of gigantic walls of water. When hurricane Irma came through... they predicted 16 foot tsunamis and millions of people evacuated the state. It was a cat 1 - on Florida terms, NBD. That said, poor Tampa got smacked with that one, too.)

I would say it was a "kicking the can down the road", not a problem right now, cheaper to not take care of it right now, just monitor the situation and hope this type of stuff doesn't happen. I'm amazed though being in hurricane prone areas that nasty stuff like this would have been addressed. Then again what is the probability of a big soaking hurricane hitting that spot directly and causing a breach? Risk vs. Reward.