The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Tallahassee, on March 31 announced the issuance of an order approving the conceptual closure plan for the former Piney Point facility that was prepared at the direction of the site’s court-appointed receiver. It said the plan lays framework for ensuring the site’s potential threat to the environment and surrounding community is eliminated permanently.
“Nearly one year ago, in order to prevent a catastrophic collapse of the NGS-South compartment at the site, DEP issued an emergency final order requiring that HRK Holdings LLC take immediate action and implement all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the stack system and its lined impoundments and prevent an uncontrolled discharge,” said DEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton.
“Today, as a result of ongoing efforts on the part of DEP, Manatee County, and the court-appointed receiver, we are in a significantly better place than we were then, and this approval marks a key milestone in ensuring this is the last chapter in the long history of Piney Point,” Hamilton continued.
Since that time, DEP said it has maintained stringent regulatory oversight of ongoing activities at the site, including work by the receiver that has focused on advancing water management, onsite repairs and cleanup work, site maintenance, and long-term preparations for closure.
DEP also said it has worked to ensure that HRK is held accountable. Last October it won a default judgment against the company, and said it is seeking the maximum allowable penalties and recovery of costs and damages.
DEP said the receiver’s approved plan addresses the environmental protection requirements for the closure work and includes a timeline and strategy for continued water management at the site that is essential to eliminate the current process water from the reservoir areas, as well as details on construction of a closed system that protects both ground waters and surface waters in the area.
DEP issued a permit to Manatee County for their planned underground injection control well for Piney Point last December (GM Jan. 14, p. 28). The injection location is beneath the underground source of drinking water, and the well will be constructed with five separate casings to ensure the integrity of the well and the proper confinement and separation for the protection of the overlying aquifer system, according to DEP. Local environmental groups, however, believe it would be safer in the long term to treat the water to advanced quality standards.
The closure plan outlines a phased approach to closure and puts the facility’s anticipated date for final completion of closure by December 2024, with interim dates for closure of each of the reservoirs as water is eliminated from the site.
Once all water is removed from the reservoir areas, the stacks will receive fill material and new liners as needed, as well as a two-foot-thick soil and vegetative cover system that will be sloped to ensure runoff of clean, non-contact rainwater into the existing stormwater management system. “Notches” will be incorporated into the walls of the reservoirs so that the reservoir areas, once closed, will no longer build up water and will only function to provide stormwater management and control stormwater discharge rates. This closure design will be integrated into the site’s existing stormwater management system.