Hillsborough EPC Monitors Piney Point Emergency Discharge

What is the Piney Point facility and where is it located?

Piney Point is part of a closed inactive phosphate facility in Manatee County. Lined ponds on top of the old gypsum stack contain stormwater, seawater and remnant process water from former operations.

What agency has primary jurisdiction?

The State FDEP is the primary Agency with Jurisdiction over its regulation. EPC has No authority or jurisdiction over this site in Manatee County.

What happened at Piney Point?

• On March 26, 2021, site staff discovered a leak which, according to Piney Point staff and their engineers, created a risk of an uncontrolled failure/collapse and discharge offsite. According to Piney point staff and their engineers, the likely cause of the breach and process water leakage is a tear/rupture in the pond liner in the South Gypsum Stack.

• On March 29, 2021, the FDEP issued an Emergency Order to allow the discharge of the water from the pond with the suspected tear to Port Manatee. The discharge is allowed only as needed to avert the collapse of the pond and make necessary repairs. The FDEP states that “…this Action is necessary to prevent loss of life, personal injury, or severe property damage."
• On April 9, 2021, the emergency discharge from Piney Point ceased. Any future discharges will be treated to FDEP approved levels prior to release.

What are the environmental concerns?

The primary pollutants of concern for this discharge are phosphorus and nitrogen, which may stimulate and trigger an algae bloom response and cause adverse effects on seagrass, fish, and other wildlife.

How is EPC involved?

EPC, in conjunction with other agencies, is conducting monitoring of the area and has over 50 years of baseline data for comparison. Our data and that of other Stakeholders is being collected by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. The data includes water quality, benthic, seagrass, and fisheries monitoring data.

The monitoring of the affected areas is going to be a long-term effort to gauge the impacts of this discharge incident which may take some time before its full impacts are known.

EPC's Water Quality Monitoring Station locations, in relation to the Piney Point Discharge

For current information, see the below resources and contacts

FDEP Daily Updates Regarding Status at Piney Point: https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/PineyPointUpdate

FDEP Interactive Map with Sampling Results: https://floridadep.gov/dear/dear/content/tampa-bay-sampling-response-and-results

Tampa Bay Estuary Program Website Including Monitoring Results Dashboard: https://tbep.org/

FDEP Public Services: (850) 245-2118, public.services@floridadep.gov

FDEP Press Office/Press Inquiries: (850) 245-2112

FDEP Phosphate Management Program, Tampa Office: (813) 470-5913

FDEP Public Information Office: (813) 470-5707

FDEP Mining and Minerals Programs: (850) 245-8709

Tampa Bay Estuary Program: (727) 893-2765

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This press release was produced by the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County. The views expressed are the author's own.