Piney Point Update – Environmental Catastrophe Averted

As reported by CBS News on April 11, 2021, “Nearly ‘catastrophic’ Piney Point wastewater leak could irreparably harm neighboring marine life, experts say”.

Abandoned gypsum stacks (small mountains) with massive pools of water contaminated with phosphorus were experiencing breaches in the walls. Approximately 600 million gallons of water with phosphorus levels of 150 mg/L could have spilled into Tampa Bay and destroyed this water body. The gypsum stacks were left behind from abandoned phosphate fertilizer mines.

To get a feeling of how intensely contaminated these pools of water were, compare the Piney Point phosphorus levels to the levels allowed in the Marco waterways of 0.046 mg/L. The concentration of phosphorus at Piney Point was over 3,000 times the concentration allowed here!

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) first shored up the breaches in the walls of the stacks and then immediately deployed a simple and robust technology that strips the phosphorus and nitrogen out of the massive pools of contaminated water threatening Tampa Bay.

An emergency water treatment facility was built in 17 days capable of treating millions of gallons of highly polluted water from atop Piney Point’s toxic gypsum stacks. Within 30 days, FDEP was producing treated water that was cleaner than the water in Tampa Bay helping to avert an environmental catastrophe the likes of which Florida has never seen.

FDEP has now treated more than 500 million gallons of water, removing 240 tons of phosphorus and 265 tons of nitrogen, producing safe, clean water, and reducing the risk of untreated release to Tampa Bay. The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is now using this same technology to remove phosphorus from Lake Okeechobee’s S-191 Basin Surface Runoff. SFWMD pays for this service based on the amount of phosphorus removed. This is a “pay for performance” approach.

The result of the combined efforts of the FDEP and private industry is that a colossal environmental crisis was averted. Residents can find the latest information on the status of the site, response activities and water quality at www.protectingfloridatogether.gov/pineypointupdate.

Eugene Wordehoff

Citizen of Marco Island