Midwest Florida counties grapple with toxic wastewater spill fsunews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from fsunews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Residents near Piney Point turn attention to environmental concerns
Kimberly Kuizon reports
PALMETTO, Fla. - The threat of a large-scale breach of contaminated water is over at the old Piney Point phosphate plant but concerns remain over water leaking from the holding ponds and the proposed solutions to fix short and long-term problems.
Wednesday night, a dive team and an underwater submersible went inside the pond, hoping to find a way to plug the leaks. But the team is only able to work on one of the several ponds at Piney Point.
In the long-term, Manatee County wants to get rid of all that water. Tuesday, commissioners approved a deep well injection site that will be fast-tracked through the DEP.
County officials say threat of catastrophic flooding diminishes, but plenty of work still to be done snntv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from snntv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Florida officials lift evacuation order for residents and business owners around wastewater reservoir after they were told to flee amid fears it would burst releasing a 20ft wall of water
Manatee County officials lifted the mandatory evacuation order around the Piney Point Reservoir in the Tampa Bay area from 4pm Tuesday
Some wastewater is still leaking from the reservoir but officials said the seepage rates had fallen so it was now safe to return to homes and businesses
Some road closures will remain in place but Highway 41 reopened earlier
Florida lawmakers have proposed spending $200 million to clean up and close the reservoir amid concerns of a similar issue in the future
More than 300 hundred homes and multiple businesses in the area around Piney Point have been evacuated.
A state of emergency has been declared by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for Manatee, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
State and local officials are coordinating efforts.
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Last week, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection approved the pumping of wastewater into the Tampa Bay ecosystem from a retention pond at Piney Point – a former phosphate plant in Manatee County. A leak in the liner of the reservoir has caused a partial breach in one of the containment walls and officials hope that pumping more than 30 million gallons of wastewater out of the reservoir will relieve