Florida Gov. Declares State of Emergency Near Radioactive Spill: ‘Collapse Could Occur at Any Time’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency as county officials evacuated residents near a phosphate processing plant over the weekend. Officials warned that a pond filled with toxic wastewater could collapse “at any time.” “A portion of the containment wall at the leak site shifted laterally,” Manatee County Director of Public Safety Jake Saur told WSTP after a “significant leak” was discovered at the Piney Point processing plant. Saur further cautioned that “structural collapse could occur at any time.” Officials on the night of April 3 and the next morning tried unsuccessfully to repair the leak, the report said. Crews used heavy equipment to use rock and earth to “kind of plug the hole in the dam” of the breach, Manatee County Acting County Administrator Scott Hopes said. About 800 million gallons of process water, rainwater runoff, are kept in several retention ponds near Highway 41.