Climate Point: Oil infrastructure springs dangerous leaks from Texas to California
USA TODAY
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news from around the Golden State and the country. In Palm Springs, Calif., I’m Mark Olalde.
There s been a disaster brewing in Tampa Bay. After a leak was detected at an old phosphate plant s wastewater pond, 316 homes were evacuated because officials feared the toxic mess could burst through a containment wall. The Tampa Bay Times reports that, to keep the wastewater from breaking containment and risking lives, pumps were deployed to hurriedly siphon off the liquid and send it into the bay. At least 165 million gallons of HRK Holdings waste have so far ended up there.
Tampa Bay Braces for Red Tide Outbreak After Toxic Wastewater Leak
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Climate Point: Oil infrastructure springs dangerous leaks from Texas to California
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When a tear in the lining of a wastewater pool at a former phosphate plant threatened to unleash a 20-foot wave of contaminated water into neighborhoods in Piney Point, Florida, officials had no choice but to pump millions of gallons of the water into Port Manatee, a cargo port along the eastern shore of Tampa Bay.
The transfer of 165 million gallons into the bay averted catastrophe. But scientists and state officials are now urgently monitoring the bay’s water quality, fearful that nutrients in the wastewater could lead to harmful algal blooms and disrupt the bay’s marine ecosystem.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
As wastewater from the old Piney Point fertilizer plant property in Manatee County continued to be pumped out Wednesday at a rate of 38 million gallons a day and dumped into Tampa Bay, state officials announced two companies have been hired to treat the water before discharging.
“The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) tasked two innovative technology companies to initiate nutrient reduction and removal treatments from water on-site prior to discharging to Port Manatee,” DEP said in a press release that provided no other details on the treatment effort.
Funding for the Piney Point cleanup effort also advanced in the Florida Legislature on Wednesday, work was expected to proceed on patching a leak in a wastewater containment pond liner, DEP announced elevated levels of phosphorus were detected around the discharge site and environmentalists criticized past state oversight efforts.