County Issues

BRADENTON – On Thursday, Manatee County issued an official press release addressing the permit modification application the county submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for the utilities’ municipal injection well. Statements in Thursday’s press release were inconsistent with public records and information provided by a representative of Allied New Technologies 2 (Allied)–the company which produces the concentrated brine wastewater the county would begin discharging into the well if the permit modification were approved by FDEP.

On Wednesday, TBT reported on a permit modification request for the North Regional Water Reclamation Facility (NRWRF), or the "Buffalo Creek municipal well," submitted to FDEP. The county submitted the permit request seeking FDEP's approval to include an industrial wastewater stream to the well for disposal.Records available onlineshowed the county applied to modify the existing 2020 permit issued by FDEP, in February of this year.

The existing permit for the Class I injection well (IW-2) authorized Manatee County Utilities to dispose of wastewater from the county’s reuse system into the well. The 2020 permit issued by FDEP reads, "The purpose of the well is to provide disposal of up to a total of 2.14 million gallons per day of excess reclaimed water which has received high-level disinfection from the Manatee County Master Reuse System."

Under the permit’s section titled, "Operating Requirements," the document states that only non-hazardous injectate as described in the permit may be discharged into the Class 1 injection well located at the Buffalo Creek site (NRWRF).

However, in a press release issued by the county Thursday, it stated, "The County Utilities Department has an application with the FDEP to modify a current permit to allow more injection of brine (saltwater) at the Buffalo Creek municipal well."

The inclusion of the word "more" in the sentence seems to imply that the county is currently in possession of an FDEP permit that permits "any" brine to be injected into the well. As TBT reported Wednesday, the municipal injection well at Buffalo Creek was constructed to industrial standards with an intention of one day disposing of brine wastewater derived from a future-planned reverse osmosis water plant. The brine wastewater the county has instead submitted the modification of permit for is to request authorization from FDEP for the disposal of brine wastewater derived from Allied Chemicals' generation of bleach products.

In a 2019 "request for additional information," FDEP followed up on the county’s original permit application for the construction, testing, and operation of the municipal well at Buffalo Creek. FDEP asked the county several questions which were answered by a consultant representing Manatee County in the application process.

Question number three of the correspondence asked, "Is it the intent of Manatee County Utilities to include the future injection of reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate from the new RO plant in this permit? If so, a list showing the major analytes and their anticipated concentrations should be included at this time. This list will not be required if only domestic waste is to be included in this permit. However, a major modification will be required to add RO concentrate to the permit if it is not included at the time of permit issuance."

The consultant, responding on behalf of Manatee County, replied in part, "It is not the County’s intent to add reverse-osmosis (RO) concentrate as source water at IW-2 during this permit cycle. It is understood that adding a new source of water will require a major modification of the permit."

Based on the county’s response to FDEP’s follow-up questions, the permit issued for the Buffalo Creek municipal well in 2020 did not provide any allowance for brine wastewater disposal. Instead, the permit only provided for disposal of a "domestic" water source of excess reuse water. Any future modification to change the permitted use from domestic wastewater disposal to industrial wastewater disposal required that the county submit a major modification application with FDEP.

On its website, FDEP provides at least two permit application types and/or modification forms. A "major wells permitting form"–form number 62-528.900(1) as submitted by the county–and a "minor revision to a wastewater facility or activity permit." A modification to the Buffalo Creek Class 1 injection well from its current authorized use of domestic/municipal disposal to the requested industrial disposal required the county to utilize FDEP's "major" permit modification form.

In its press release, Manatee County stated that "seeking a permit modification is a typical part of the regulatory process and does not represent a change in what will be disposed of in the well."

However, based on the existing 2020 permit for the Buffalo Creek municipal well issued to Manatee County Utilities by FDEP, as well as the most recent application requesting modification of that permit, if approved by FDEP, it will authorize a change to what wastewater streams are permitted to be disposed of in the well.

In another statement contained in Thursday's press release, the county refers to Allied as a company whose plant was, "built with Manatee County economic incentives."

TBT included in last week’s reporting that in 2017, Allied applied to receive county economic development ad valorem tax exemption and the application was approved by the BOCC of that time. The board’s approval was entered by ordinance, but for Allied to ever begin receiving the approved incentives, the company was required to sign an agreement with the county. Such an agreement would have come back to the board to be established as a resolution approved by a majority vote of the board.

The ordinance approved by the board in 2017, showed the agreement for ad valorem tax exemption would have followed an eight-year installment beginning in 2018 and ending in 2025 under specific terms.

A search of board records showed that no such agreement was ever signed by Allied, and no resolution to solidify an agreement was ever passed by the former BOCC. Similarly, property tax records show the company never claimed or received a tax exemption on the assessed value or improvement of its Palmetto property from 2018 through 2021. Despite Allied having applied for county economic incentives, for whatever reason the company never followed through on finalizing the agreement. The county’s statement that the "plant was built with Manatee County economic tax incentives" is not accurate absent a physical agreement with the company.

During the regular BOCC meeting in January of 2017 which included the ordinance approval as an agenda item, a representative of Allied answered questions from the commissioners reviewing the company’s application for economic incentives.

Former Commissioner Betsy Benac asked the company, "The wastewater produced will be trucked off-site, is that correct?"

"That is correct," the Allied representative answered, "it will be trucked off-site to a different county."

Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who spoke in support of the board approving Allied’s request for economic incentives said, "You’re not talking about putting any waste into water-use wells–which I’m really glad about, in all honesty–and the 23,000 gallons of brine wastewater produced per day, you’re going to ship it off, and you will use our port. It sounds like a win-win to me."

Although Allied never affirmatively entered into an agreement to receive county economic incentives, the information provided to the board in its review and approval of the company’s application appeared bolstered by Allied’s commitment to not dispose of the brine wastewater produced by its bleach production within Manatee County.

In its press release, the county provided the public with an explanation for requesting that FDEP modify the Buffalo Creek well's permitted use. The county explained that Allied's role in efforts to close the former phosphate processing plant known as Piney Point led to the county's decision.

"This request comes after Allied Universal Industries–a local chlorine manufacturer whose products have been an integral part of the Piney Point pre-treatment process–has ramped up production at their Palmetto facility," the county stated.

"Because of that increase in chlorine production, there has been an analogous uptick in the brine that is left over from that process, and the County is working with Allied to reduce their burden of its disposal with an alternative to trucking the saltwater that remains to disposal facilities in other Florida counties," it said.

But when reached by phone, a representative of Allied’s Palmetto plant stated that while the plant has increased its production of bleach products (the plant does not produce chlorine), it has not exceeded the set capacity of the facility.

The employee explained that while the plant is generating more bleach now than when it first became operational, it is not making more than was ever projected could–or would–be produced at the plant.

When asked whether the increased production of bleach products has changed the projections the company provided to the county in 2017–216,000 gallons of county water usage per day with an output of approximately 23,000 gallons of brine wastewater per day–the representative confirmed that, "Nothing has changed."

"As our customer base has grown, we have ramped up production," said the employee, "but nothing has changed from our original projections."

Requesting the representative affirm one last time that the plant is not using more county water or producing more brine wastewater than its original projected capacity would use/produce, the representative confirmed these facts again before ending the call.

TBT reached out to commissioners by email to inquire whether any had been briefed on the county’s plan to dispose of Allied’s brine wastewater in the municipal well or the permit modification application submitted to FDEP. Four commissioners responded to our questions: Commissioners George Kruse, Misty Servia, Reggie Bellamy, and Carol Whitmore.

Responding by email, Kruse wrote that the Buffalo Creek injection well had never "come up" in discussions during his time on the board. Kruse added, however, his assessment that if the municipal well had been "constructed and approved for additional materials, applications for permitting in line with allowed usage does not necessarily come back to the board" as those would be administrative decisions.

Whitmore wrote in an emailed response to TBT that she was not aware until recently that the county had applied for the permit modification. She also stated that it would have been her preference for commissioners to have been informed of the matter.

Responding on behalf of Bellamy, Commissioner Aide Natasha Harpel stated by email that Bellamy had not been briefed on the matter as of TBT’s reporting last week.

In an emailed response, Servia told TBT that she was also unaware of any changes to the approved disposal of waste into the Buffalo Creek well. Servia wrote, "I’m deeply troubled that our county Administrator chose to apply for a state permit to inject industrial waste into our well without seeking policy direction from the Board of County Commissioners."

Commissioners Vanessa Baugh, Kevin Van Ostenbridge, and James Satcher (the district 1 commissioner where the municipal well is located), did not respond to our emails. The county administrator also did not respond to TBT’s request to clarify whether commissioners had been briefed on the county’s intended use of the Buffalo Creek municipal well to dispose of Allied’s brine wastewater.

In concluding its press release the county added that "seeking a permit modification is a typical part of the regulatory process" and that it does not mean that Piney Point process water will "routinely" be discharged into the Buffalo Creek well. But the county admitted, "There have been some contingencies identified where that process water could go into the Buffalo Creek well, but that is only as a back-up."

As TBT described in reporting last week, the initial application to modify the permit for the municipal injection well did include–initially–a request for FDEP to permit the disposal of both Allied Chemical's brine wastewater as well as processed water from the Piney Point site. A month after submitting the permit application, the county revised its request, removing Piney Point wastewater from the application and asking FDEP to only consider the modification approval for disposal of Allied's wastewater.

Should the county ever intend to discharge process water from Piney Point into the municipal well at Buffalo Creek, it will be required to submit another major permit modification request with FDEP to authorize such discharges.

To read Manatee County's full press release on the Buffalo Creek municipal well's permit modification request, click HERE.

To replay the BOCC January 10, 2017, regular meeting discussion between commissioners and representatives of Allied Chemical, click the video below.



Dawn Kitterman is a staff reporter for The Bradenton Times. She covers local government and entertainment news. She can be reached at dawn.kitterman@thebradentontimes.com.