Evacuation in Manatee County, Possible environmental disaster
 

I haven't seen a thread about this situation. Here is the background as I understand it.

The area near Tampa has deposits rich in phosphates and nitrogen. These deposits have been mined for the production of fertilizer for many decades. You all recall how high phosphate detergents were eliminated years ago because of the harm high phosphates did to the environment.

A large phosphate mine in Manatee County did what many of these mines did to handle the high phosphate waste water produced by the mining process. It stored the water in large reservoirs. The walls of the reservoirs are built up walls, call stacks, made of another waste product, phosphogypsum. Physophogypsum is radioactive at a low level but too high for general use. It is allowed to be used to build the wall of the retention basin which is above the level of the land. So a large lake is not dug into the ground, rather it is built atop the land like an above ground backyard pool, just huge.

The mining company declared bankruptcy and left in 2001 and a new company, HRK Holdings LLC, bought the land. HRK declared bankruptcy in 2012 For many years the risk that the wall of the basin might fail has been recognized and local citizens have been asking for some action to get rid of the ponds. Nothing has been done.

An excellent news report as of last evening is on YouTube HERE

I really suggest you take the 8 minutes to view the video. Small leaks in the wall have developed and there is a very real concern that this break will expand and the wall will collapse. An attempt to fill the hole with rocks and mud has failed. Water of course is able to rapidly erode when it is under pressure, you know this from using a water pressure cleaner.

There are 800 million gallons of toxic water being held. And now 800 million gallons may flood the locality damaging soil and wells. The local TV station has a 2014 report on the risk of the stacks, nothing done then or since.

HERE is a story from 2013 on the toxic risk and nothing being done

HERE is a newspaper story from a reporter who has been following and details the story since 2003

Now they are pumping the toxic water out of the reservoir at 22,000 gal/minute untreated into Tampa Bay. This human pollution of the Bay would produce high levels of Phosphates and nitrogen in the Bay causing a massive algae bloom and wildlife kill.

Local citizens have been forced to evacuate but the governments have not opened any evacuation shelters nor from what I have found provided any support to these displayed people forced out of their homes because of the sudden risk of harm caused by the failure of business, local and state government to do something with over a decade of warning.

Do we have Gypsum stacks nearby? There are at least 70 gypsum stacks in the United States and about 27 in Florida, mostly in the region of west-central Florida. The wastewater stored in the gypsum stacks is radioactive! I hope we can find out info on this, and why no action was taken on this!

So sad for all that live on Tampa Bay and the creatures that will die.

Fortunately...
 

it hasn't happened as of yet and they will find a solution before it does. The sky isn't falling...yet.

If the stack, wall, fails the damage will be to the local land and potentially to the surface water table as well as the damage done by moving water. However, the damage to the Bay is happening because the Bay is where the polluted water is being pumped in an attempt to empty the ponds before they collapse. No one knows how severe the damage to the water will be but the most likely outcome will be a major algae bloom which chokes out the fish similar to a red tide event.

This situation is a classic case of government knowing of a potential hazardous situation and doing nothing about it until it’s an impending catastrophe to life and property. This didn’t develop overnight. Be prepared for mucho finger pointing.

No action was taken because politics.

This is a problem that's existed since 1995. There's a newspaper article dated 2003 about the state government (at the time) making the right sounds about doing something, but then delaying the consequences to give Mulberry Group a chance to back out and walk away from the problem. Which is exactly what happened.

When the utilities threatened to shut the power off (thus making it impossible to adequately cool and safely control the stacks and flow of refuse drainage), the owner (Mulberry) declared bankruptcy and just let it happen. And so did the state government. And the voters continued voting for people who would continue to allow this to fester and become worse.

Now you're seeing the consequences of inaction. You're seeing the consequences of living in a bubble and rejecting the reality that surrounds it.

Thank you for explaining this so clearly.

So sad and horrifying. I hope all that have had to evacuate are okay.

Manatee County Evacuation
 

Before we moved here in late 2017, we lived about 4.5 miles from the evacuation site in Palmetto. Glad we're not there now!

Doesn’t sound like much if a plan B was in place. So pollute the world is the plan B.

government, the employer of last resort. . . you get what you pay for. . .

I don’t understand why those phosphate pools/lakes didn’t evaporate over the years leaving behind the bad stuff in solid form?

The environmental repercussions are terrible!

Government at its finest. Do nothing until it is too late. Hasn't the latest Pandemic taught us anything?