Despite years of professionals advising against keeping the Piney Point phosphate mine open, HRK Holdings, the company that owns Piney Point, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), and the Manatee County Port Authority continued their plans to use the toxic property for their personal gain. Their neglect for public safety led to a near catastrophe, the evacuation of 300 homes, and the toxic water held on the site being dumped into Tampa Bay.
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The event was completely preventable, yet failures in the state, local, and private sector caused the leak to arise. Residents filed a class-action lawsuit in April against HRK Holdings for allowing “Piney Point to be maintained in such a poor state that it is actively leaking its toxic contents into the community, including into Tampa Bay. It is at imminent risk of catastrophic failure.”
The leak also had negative environmental effects, and multiple conservation groups have sued Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the acting secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection which approved the project, the Manatee County Port Authority, and the property’s owner, HRK Holdings, LLC “for the release of hundreds of tons of hazardous pollutants into Tampa Bay and groundwater,” according to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity. In the lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, Suncoast Waterkeeper, ManaSota-88 and Our Children’s Earth Foundation state that the dumped wastewater violated the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species act.
In response to the incident, Governor DeSantis plans to permanently shut down the site and clean the wastewater that should have been treated years ago. The cleanup is expected to cost $200 million. But who will pay the price for these organizations’ mistakes?
State and local officials are pointing fingers and asserting that they are going to hold HRK responsible. Governor DeSantis claims, “Our administration is dedicated to full enforcement of any damages to our state’s resources and holding the company HRK accountable for this event. This is not acceptable. This is not something we will allow to persist.”
However, HRK filed for bankruptcy back in 2012 after a similar spill the year before, claiming they couldn’t afford to clean up the previous spill. Getting the company or the owner William F. Harley, III, a hedge fund manager, to pay millions and be held financially responsible looks to be unlikely. Daily Mail says, “They are shielded by ‘one shell company after another,’ a county official said, making it hard to pin culpability on one person or entity, according to a report from the Miami Herald.”
For now, the county, and specifically the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, is undertaking the brunt of the work to treat the wastewater, shut down the site, dispose of the water and fund the whole $200 million project, meaning that taxpayers will be the ones paying. In a state that only plans to invest $120 million in mental health initiatives this upcoming year, $200 million is a large price to pay to clean up the state’s mess.
Sources and More Information
Environmental Group Plans to Sue
Piney Point Lawsuit Filed Against DeSantis, State Of FL
Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Piney Point Owner HRK Holdings
Manatee County leaders credit DeSantis for $100-million in state funding for Piney Point cleanup
Piney Point owner points finger at contractors, FDEP in new statement over massive leak