Piney Point phosphate plant

In March 2021, a dam to a reservoir storing wastewater from phosphate tailings within a phosphogypsum stack generated by the plant's operations began to fail, prompting evacuations on April 1 followed by the governor of Florida issuing a state of emergency on April 3. Contaminated toxic water was discharged into Tampa Bay in an effort to prevent the reservoir's collapse.

Although ordered to be closed in August 2021, the plant is not expected to close until at least 2025.

Background

Borden Chemical opened an industrial plant on the site in September 1966 to process phosphate, a key ingredient in fertilizer. By 1970, it had been discovered that the plant was dumping waste into Bishop Harbor, resulting in fish kills. The plant changed hands multiple times in the 1980s, beginning with Borden transferring the property to AMAX Phosphate in 1980. AMAX sold the plant in 1986 to FCS Energy, which was absorbed into Consolidated Minerals, Inc.

By 1988, the plant had changed hands again, this time to Royster Phosphates. In 1989, a leaking storage tank released 23,000 US gallons (87 m³) of sulfate, prompting evacuations of the area. Two incidents in 1991 released sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide into the air, killing three workers and creating an acid cloud that caused 30 people to become ill. The FBI seized company records in 1992.

Mulberry Corporation purchased the plant in 1993 when Royster Phosphates declared bankruptcy. Phil L. Rinaldi was the CEO and the company's entrepreneur. Mulberry ceased operations at the plant in 1999 due to a lack of funds. In January 2001, Mulberry abandoned the property just 48 hours after notifying the government that it could no longer afford to ensure environmental security, and days before declaring bankruptcy. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) briefly stepped in to oversee the plant, with the property later passing to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) through a court-appointed receivership. In 2004, Hurricane Frances caused a hole in a dike, releasing 70 million US gallons (260×10³ m³) of contaminated water.

The site was purchased from the government by HRK Holdings, LLC in 2006 for $4.3 million, with the requirement that they maintain the phosphogypsum stacks and the contaminated wastewater left by the plant's former operations. In 2011, another spill dumped 170 million US gallons (640×10³ m³) of contaminated water into Bishop Harbor and Tampa Bay. Bishop Harbor has stricter environmental protections given its Outstanding Florida Water designation.

HRK Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012, citing expenses from the leak the previous year, when HRK had allowed the Manatee County Port Authority to store materials from the dredging of Port Manatee's Berth 12 expansion in reservoirs on the property. Portions of the property were sold to Port Manatee, Thatcher Chemical of Florida, Manatee Bulk Storage, and an affiliate of Mayo Fertilizer and Farm Supply as part of bankruptcy restructuring for HRK. The remaining property is leased by HRK as an industrial park under the name Eastport, with access to Port Manatee, multiple highways, and a rail yard connected directly to the CSX mainline.

In September 2020, WMNF reported on increasing concerns about rising water levels at the site due to rains and the potential of reaching capacity with just one hurricane. In October, Florida environmental advocacy group ManaSota-88 called on the EPA to investigate the site, calling out "increased the risks of a catastrophic failure of their earthen impoundments".

In February 2021, national and regional environmental groups petitioned the EPA, under the Biden administration, to raise environmental protections from phosphogypsum stacks in at least 12 states under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act; well-known groups included Center for Biological Diversity, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Sierra Club.