Manatee releases water from plant hoping to head off disaster

Since Sunday, nearly 2,700 gallons a minute of dredging material has flowed from a closed fertilizer plant in Manatee County to prevent "a catastrophic release of seawater'' and earthen bank material.

The state Department of Environmental Protection issued an order Sunday allowing release of water from a dredging project at Port Manatee that had been stored in lined earthen compartments at the old Piney Point fertilizer plant.

The compartments were former gypsum stacks that had been sealed.

HRK Holdings, the company that took over the old fertilizer plant that once stored more than a billion gallons of acidic water, noticed a potential leak in liners around the stacks on May 11.

The leak was causing pressure and cracking of a wall around one of the former stacks and could have caused a massive release of seawater and material from the stack embankment, the DEP said in its order.

Also, the company opened holes in the liner of a stormwater ditch to relieve pressure on the wall, the DEP said.

The leak and mounting pressure "… creates an imminent threat of a potential loss of containment and a catastrophic release of large amounts of seawater and embankment materials…" the DEP order said.

On Wednesday, the DEP said in a release that the measures seemed to be working and pressure was dropping.

Samples collected Monday showed water flowing from the site is roughly the same chemically as water in Manatee Harbor and isn't causing turbidity problems, the agency said.

The state is waiting for test results for nitrogen and phosphorus of the water.

The order allows HRK to continue draining the water until the walls are repaired and the leak is fixed and requires the company to monitor the dikes, berms and ditches at the site.

There was no estimate from the DEP about how long repairs will take or how long the discharge will last.

When the port dredging project started on April 22, plans called for water to be pumped to one of two of the lined compartments. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. was hired to perform the dredging work.

This isn't the first time the DEP has had to deal with problems at the 466-acre Piney Point plant.

In 2001, the DEP took over the plant when its owner, Mulberry Phosphates, went bankrupt and left a billion gallons of acid waste water in need of disposal.

Some of the water was treated by reverse osmosis and pumped into a small nearby estuary. More was towed on barges and dumped into the Gulf of Mexico.

HRK bought the Piney Point site in 2006 and operates it site as the Eastport Terminal.

njohnson@tampatrib.com

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