Video - What the Water Quality is Now, After Discharges at the Piney Point Facility in Manatee County
This video was captured on Saturday, April 3rd, 2021 near Piney Point.
Gov. Ron DeSantis was in town yesterday (4/4/21) to look into the Piney Point situation. He assures Manatee County that help is here, and says HRK Holdings will be held responsible
During a press conference Yesterday, Gov. DeSantis assured the public that additional resources were coming to Manatee County to help control the breach at the former phosphate plant at Piney Point .
The governor took an aerial tour over the site and said he had been filled in on the pumping process.
Gov. DeSantis said the controlled discharges of the water have been going on since the March 30th, and on-site engineers said they were necessary to prevent catastrophe.
Currently, water is being pumped out at a rate of 33 million gallons a day. The controlled discharge that is going into Port Manatee is not radioactive, but mainly full of saltwater with nutrients from legacy water and rainwater.
If the stacks were to suffer a major breach, 340 million gallons of water could release and cause catastrophic flooding. This, DeSantis said, explains the urgency of speeding the controlled release
Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes added that the flooding from a collapse could cause significant and dangerous floods in the form of a 20-foot wave of water.
Both DeSantis and Hopes pointed the finger at HRK Holdings, the group responsible for the site, for the failure that has been a potential issue for decades.
Also:
Manatee County Jail: The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office announced last night, As of yesterday, 1.066 inmates are being housed at the county jail. 345 are scheduled to be moved to an undisclosed location at an undisclosed time, for security reasons That leaves 721 inmates at the jail who will be in upper areas of the jail in case of an uncontrolled discharge at Piney Point.
Roads Closed:: The closure of U.S. 41 has now been expanded south from Buckeye Road to Moccasin Wallow Road. Moccasin Wallow Road will be closed west of 38th Avenue East.
Evacuations: There are also an estimated 316 households in the current evacuation area. Those households all received an emergency alert to evacuate
School Bus Routes: The situation has also forced the Manatee County School District to temporarily halt several busing routes to a number of its schools.
Starting Monday (4/5/21), some school busing routes from the evacuation zone will be suspended until the evacuation order is lifted. See all those routes here: https://ctqcountry.iheart.com/featured/maverick-and-lulu/content/2021-04-05-manatee-county-schools-suspends-some-bus-routes-near-piney-point-area/