Piney Point Update – Nov. 9, 2021
The department has finalized its agreement with the court-appointed receiver, supporting his transition into his role to both manage and undertake final closure of the site. As part of this transition, water treatment will continue and all available options to manage water onsite will continue to be pursued in an attempt to minimize the potential need for any future treated discharges.
The department will continue to closely monitor site conditions to ensure the protection of human health and safety, and minimize environmental impacts.
Key status updates and response activities (bolded and underlined language reflects changes):
- The site received no rainfall overnight. Piney Point has received approximately 34.88 inches of rain since the beginning of June. The current storage capacity for additional rainfall at the site is approximately 12.9 inches. This capacity is expected to change with rainfall amounts, as well as adjusted water management activities at the site. As hurricane season progresses, the department and the receiver will continue to closely monitor weather and changing site conditions. At this time, expected rainfall for October through the end of November is approximately 2 inches.
- As part of the site's water management efforts, piping of water to the North Regional Water Reclamation Facility resumed Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, and to date, 6,071,510 gallons have been transferred. Spray evaporation also continues.
- Approximately 260 million gallons are currently held within the NGS-South compartment. Pond level readings are expected to fluctuate due to a host of factors, including rainfall, water management activities and wind/associated waves in the pond.
- Innovative technology has been used for onsite water treatment since April 2021, and this is ongoing. As a result of these innovative water treatment practices, nutrients, including Total Phosphorus (TP) and Total Nitrogen (TN), have been significantly reduced. To date, approximately 200 tons of TN and 150 tons of TP have been removed from ponded wastewater.
- On Sept. 1, 2021, DEP issued the Notice of Draft Permit to Manatee County for their planned Underground Injection Control Well. This project is one potential critical element of the necessary water disposal that will enable the ultimate closure of the Piney Point facility once and for all, eliminating the threat from this site to the environment and the community permanently. A public meeting was held on Oct. 6, 2021 to allow an opportunity for citizens to provide input on the draft permit as well ask questions and obtain information about the draft permit and permitting process. Those comments are currently being reviewed.
- On Aug. 25, 2021, a judge issued an order appointing a receivership to serve as an independent third party to oversee management and closure of the Piney Point site. Day-to-day management and operations will now come from this receiver.
- On Aug. 5, 2021, DEP filed a complaint in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court of Manatee County initiating enforcement action against HRK Holdings, LLC. Learn more by reviewing DEP’s enforcement complaint and a frequently asked questions document.
- DEP's interactive water quality dashboard details sampling locations and corresponding results collected from April through October 2021 to evaluate any environmental impact. For a comprehensive view of all sampling in Tampa Bay related to Piney Point, visit Tampa Bay Estuary Program's interactive water quality dashboard.
- DEP continues working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the Florida Department of Health to monitor algal blooms and water quality. FWC is the lead agency on red tide and will continue to update conditions on their website. For more information on red tide, please visit ProtectingFloridaTogether.gov.
Residents can find the latest information on the status of the site and response activities at ProtectingFloridaTogether.gov/PineyPointUpdate.
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