Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday he directed the state's Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan to permanently close the wastewater reservoir at Piney Point phosphate plant that recently threatened to cause a catastrophic environmental disaster, according to AP.Why it matters: The governor said that $15.4 million in agency funds will be used to treat the water, which contains waste from the phosphate production that can cause algae blooms and fish kills and eventually impact the food chain if introduced into the environment in large amounts.Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeContext: A series of worsening breaches was discovered in late March in the huge holding pool, setting off evacuation orders for more than 300 homes, businesses and farms in the area.Emergency management officials were able to avoid a full-on collapse of the reservoir by pumping the water from the pond into Tampa Bay t
Gov. Ron DeSantis inspects a failing phosphogypsum storage site near Tampa Bay on April 4, 2021. Credit: Governor s Office
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday declared the ecological emergency ended at the old Piney Point fertilizer plant in Manatee County, which forced release of hundreds of millions of gallons of polluted water, and announced plans to permanently close the facility.
“We want this to be the last chapter of the Piney Point story,” the governor said during a news conference at the site. “So, today I’m directing the Department of Environmental Protection to create a plan to close Piney Point.”
DeSantis said the Department of Environmental Protection would spend $15.4 million to develop “innovative technology to pretreat water at the site for nutrients so that, in the event that further controlled discharges are needed, any potential adverse environmental impacts such as algal blooms and fish kills are mitigated.”
Tyler Skrzypiec empties a filled food waste basket for a resident customer. Blue Earth Compost was started in 2013 in West Hartford with a goal to recycle food waste into soil that can fertilize plants, as opposed to throwing away in a landfill or incinerator. (Cloe Poisson, CTMirror.org)
Food waste is a fact of life. Also a fact is that it’s smelly, wet and heavy. It makes a mess out of the rest of the trash and is generally nasty.
Getting food waste out of the trash may also provide the key to how Connecticut repairs the dated, expensive, fragmented and environmentally fraught waste systems in the state. But the question is whether it makes more sense to get the food out of the waste stream first or whether other parts of the system get fixed first so the food part follows.
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Sea farmers say bill to prevent large-scale aquaculture could hurt entire industry
The bill would revamp the permitting framework for state aquaculture leases, adding a variety of restrictions and safeguards.
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A Maine legislator who hopes to stave off industrial aquaculture and protect lobstermen and women from what he sees as a “large storm” headed for the industry is proposing a bill that small aquaculture farmers say could sink them.
The bill proposed by Rep. Robert Alley, D-Beals, aims to “protect Maine’s ocean waters, support robust regulatory oversight and the long-term health of the aquaculture industry,” according to a concept draft considered by the Committee on Marine Resources Tuesday.