The leak at the Piney Point phosphogypsum stack made the national news over Easter Weekend, with fears that the controlled release of water earlier approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) (GM April 2, p. 29), would not be enough keep the stack from breaching and causing a “20-foot wall of water.”
By late Friday afternoon, April 2, FDEP said the situation was “evolving,” and soon thereafter some 316 local residents were evacuated. Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 3 issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in the three counties that could be affected by the 79-acre reservoir. Luckily, the controlled discharge, as well as several pumps and vacuum trucks that were rushed to the, site appear to have worked.
The evacuation was lifted on April 6, and on April 8 FDEP said only 232 million gallons remained in the NGS-South compartment, down from the initial 480 million gallons when the leak was discovered on March 26. As of April 8, the discharge into Port Manatee was estimated to be less than 5 million gallons per day.
FDEP had stressed all along that the major problem with the water was its nutrient content, and that it was not radioactive. It said teams are now deploying nutrient reduction and removal treatments on the water onsite to address any required discharges in the future.
FDEP said on April 7 it deployed diving companies and submersible cameras in the compartment and identified a seam separation on the east wall. It said it has contracted crews to work around the clock to implement the necessary repairs to the line to contain the flow.
FDEP said it intends to hold site manager HRK Holdings fully accountable through enforcement action.
Environmental groups were not happy with state action, even before this incident. They petitioned the U.S. EPA in February to regulate phosphogypsum stacks under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. A decision is expected in May. The groups have also appealed a late 2020 EPA decision to allow phosphogypsum to be used in road building (GM Oct. 16, 2020). TFI has intervened in the road building case (GM March 26, p. 31), and is also challenging the groups regarding EPA regulation of phosphogypsum.
TFI Vice President of Public Affairs Kathy Mathers told Bloomberg Law that the Piney Point ponds “are not representative of modern phosphate fertilizer plant phosphogypsum stacks and pond systems,” which she said are tightly regulated and do not need the additional controls that the petitioners seek.
In the meantime, the Florida Legislature is considering a full cleanup and restoration of the site, estimating it will cost some $200 million. It is looking to fund the work using the $1.9 billion COVID-19 relief package passed in March.
One question is how to clean up a phosphogypsum stack. One possibility is to retrieve rare earth elements from the waste, according to Bloomberg columnist David Fickling, who cited a 2017 study of the Florida stacks that indicates that there are concentrations of around .2 percent of rare earth elements in the waste.
Fickling said traditional leaching and flotation techniques common to the mining industry could retrieve the elements, along with radium and uranium, for high-tech, medical, and nuclear use, respectively. He noted that in the 1980s some 20 percent of U.S. uranium supply was recovered from phosphates. Some of the remaining product could also be usable for construction or agriculture.