MANATEE COUNTY – Repair crews have been working 24/7 in an attempt to try to repair the breach in the 77-acre retention pond at Piney Point. As of the last update, dive teams with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection were able to locate the rupture in the liner and were attempting to affix a temporary steel patch.
Water in the ponds includes process water from past phosphate mining operations that contains high levels of ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphate, all of which threaten to make the surrounding bay waters more inviting to algal blooms, including red tide.
Hundreds of millions of gallons have already been discharged into Tampa Bay and water samples have already shown elevated phosphorus levels. Road closures and an evacuation of the nearby area were lifted this week.
The affected pond had about a quarter billion gallons remaining as of Friday afternoon. On Tuesday, Manatee County Commissioners voted to move forward with a controversial process known as deep-well injection, in which the remaining water from all ponds would ultimately be injected into a well beneath the aquifer on a nearby county-owned site.
Click here to view a comprehensive slide show update given by the county earlier this week.
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