Hopes confirmed there haven’t been any major changes to the former plant’s status since April 8. He says the steel patch that was fixed to secure the leak is holding, and the plans to move forward with an injection well are still in the works.
Scientists from Manatee, Pinellas, and Hillsborough counties, as well as local colleges and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection are continuing to monitor the water quality around Port Manatee and the bay. Maya Burke with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program says based on the data that she is seeing right now, she is cautiously optimistic.
Itâs never too late to do the right thing, and the momentum now gathering to permanently close the old Piney Point fertilizer plant in Manatee County represents a much overdue bow to those words of wisdom.
Gov. Ron DeSantisâ support for closing Piney Point â which drew local alarm and national attention earlier this month when a leak in its reservoir wall led to widespread evacuations in Manatee County, the temporary closure of U.S. Highway 41 and a state of emergency declaration â serves as the beginning of the end for the phosphate plant.
It will be a welcome demise for a facility thatâs long been plagued by troubling issues and dubious management â yet one that has been allowed to remain a looming environmental threat because of chronic inaction by state officials.