{"id":117343,"date":"2021-04-05T12:12:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T04:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117343"},"modified":"2021-04-05T12:12:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T04:12:32","slug":"us-florida-homes-evacuated-as-wastewater-leak-risks-catastrophic-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117343","title":{"rendered":"US: Florida homes evacuated as wastewater leak risks \u2018catastrophic\u2019 flood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MIAMI, April 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Emergency crews in central Florida were working to prevent an environmental catastrophe at a leaking reservoir that risked sending millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater toward nearby homes and into the Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 300 homes near the site of an abandoned phosphate mine and
fertilizer-production facility in Manatee County were under mandatory
evacuation orders, and Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of
emergency to free up funds to tackle the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we are looking at now is trying to prevent, and respond to if need
be, a real catastrophic flood situation,\u201d DeSantis told a press conference
after viewing the site by helicopter Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said emergency workers, assisted by the Florida National Guard, were
pumping about 33 million gallons of water daily out of a wastewater reservoir at the site, which has sprung a growing leak in its plastic lining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccording to on-site engineers, a controlled release was necessary to
prevent a catastrophic failure,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wastewater \u201cmeets water-quality standards for marine waters,\u201d he said, with the exception of phosphorous and nitrogen levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marine algae thrive on such elements, and environmental groups fear the
release of millions of gallons of nutrient-rich water into the ocean could
trigger a deadly \u201cred tide,\u201d or algal bloom, that can suffocate fish and
other aquatic life and deter tourist activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manatee County\u2019s acting administrator Scott Hopes said inmates and staff
at the local jail had been moved to the second floor of the two-story
building as a precaution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopes sounded a slightly more optimistic note later Sunday, saying the
situation should be in a \u201cmuch better position\u201d by Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cwe are not out of the critical area yet,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collapse of the reservoir also risked sending water into nearby stacks
of phosphogypsum, a leftover from fertilizer production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phosphogypsum is considered radioactive as it contains isotopes such as
radon, as well as toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Center for Biological Diversity national conservation group called for
the US Environmental Protection Agency to step in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFederal officials need to clean up this mess the fertilizer industry has
dumped on Florida communities and immediately halt further phosphogypsumproduction,\u201d Jaclyn Lopez, the organization\u2019s Florida director, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problems at the Piney Point reservoir stretch back decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida\u2019s agriculture commissioner, Nicole Fried, wrote to DeSantis,
saying the current emergency was only the latest in a string of incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor more than 50 years, this central Florida mining operation has caused
numerous human health and environmental disasters and incidents,\u201d she wrote, adding there had been several earlier failures of the reservoir\u2019s lining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopes said authorities were looking to permanently empty reservoirs at the
site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be repairing the liner, we will be depleting the holding ponds
of their water and then we will be moving forward to a permanent solution
into the future once we mitigate the current risk,\u201d Hopes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will \u201cprobably include filling these ponds after they have been
devoid of their contents and capping them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis said the company operating the site, HRK Holdings, should be held
accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not acceptable and it\u2019s not something we will allow to persist,\u201d
he said. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI, April 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Emergency crews in central Florida were working to prevent an environmental catastrophe at a leaking reservoir that risked sending millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater toward nearby homes and into the Tampa Bay. More than 300 homes near the site of an abandoned phosphate mine andfertilizer-production facility in Manatee County […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":117344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117343"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/117344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}