Piney Point to Discharge Approximately 4.5 Million Gallons of Stormwater into Tampa Bay

Approximately 4.5 million gallons of stormwater will be released into Tampa Bay, Florida, from the defunct Piney Point phosphate facility.

The Islander reported that the release was expected to begin this month and last a couple of days. According to the site management team at Piney Point, the stormwater is not contaminated and the discharge is necessary so the gypstack can be closed. This is part of the process to permanently shut down Piney Point.

The former Piney Point fertilizer plant has not operated since 2001. The Herald-Tribune reported that there were two major failures at one of the gypstacks at Piney Point, the New Gypsum Stack South, which impacted the Tampa Bay waters and put north Manatee County homeowners nearby at risk.

According to Suncoast Waterkeeper in a post, the discharge was prompted by a “woefully inadequate closure plan," reported The Islander.

Approximately 215 million gallons of nutrient-rich wastewater was discharged into the Tampa Bay estuary Spring 2021 to avoid more issues at Piney Point, which the DEP approved. Since then, DEP is the focus of a lawsuit filed by conservation groups which includes Suncoast Waterkeeper, reported The Islander.

The closure plan entails "moving Piney Point’s wastewater into a deep-injection well system and covering the phosphogypsum stacks that currently hold the polluted water", reported The Islander.

The Herald-Tribune reported that the 2021 breach at New Gypsum Stack South forced officials to release about 215 million gallons into Tampa Bay through Port Manatee, and in 2011, it was 170 million gallons of wastewater released into Bishop Harbor.

The 4.5 million gallons of stormwater have accumulated at the Old Gypsum Stack South pond which was dry up until this year's rainy season. The Herald-Tribune reported that this gypstack is the first in line for full closures, but officials have to remove rainwater that has accumulated so that construction can move forward as early as mid-August.