Fogbow

Officials in Manatee County on Florida's Gulf Coast ordered residents living near an old phosphate plant to evacuate immediately Saturday fearing a wastewater reservoir at the site could collapse and send 600 million gallons of acidic radioactive waste into surrounding neighborhoods.

Some of the water has already been drained into nearby Tampa Bay in an attempt to prevent the collapse.

"Evacuate area NOW. Collapse of Piney Point Stack Imminent!" read the alert from county officials about 11 a.m. Saturday.

“There has been further motion with the wall,” Manatee County Public Safety Director Jacob Saur told the Bradenton Herald. “We’ve ordered further evacuations and closed U.S. 41.”

Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said at a briefing Saturday afternoon that attempts to plug the breach overnight with dirt and stone failed.

He said a complete collapse of the wall along the pond could lead to "600 million gallons in a matter of seconds or minutes leaving the retention pool and going over the surrounding areas."

Hopes said officials think the water would flow to the north of the pond across low-lying areas and down into Tampa Bay. The collapse could also threaten other retention ponds on the site, Hopes said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for Manatee County about 1:45 p.m. Saturday.

Officials first discovered a tear Thursday in the reservoir, which contained about 800 million gallons of water and waste products from the manufacture of fertilizer from phosphate, according to the Bradenton Herald.

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:45 am How Love Canal-ish.

But environmental regulations are so yesterday.

bill_g wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:50 am
Yeah. If there were no regs, those retention ponds wouldn't be needed, the effluent would have drained to the Tampa Bay a long time ago, and there would be no danger now.

No fish either.
And you couldn't use the bay of recreation.
And prolly no safe beaches for miles.
And it would smell bad.
But, we'd be safe.
Kind of.
Maybe.
If you didn't have kids or pets.
Or need your kidneys.

Azastan wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:03 am
It's Florida. The spring breakers will happily flock to the beaches anyway.

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:24 am How long do the holding ponds hold the waste? Does the waste evaporate? Does it live forever? This is way worse than chem trails, isn't it?

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:24 am How long do the holding ponds hold the waste? Does the waste evaporate? Does it live forever? This is way worse than chem trails, isn't it?

Frater I*I wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:30 am

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:24 am How long do the holding ponds hold the waste? Does the waste evaporate? Does it live forever? This is way worse than chem trails, isn't it?

No the chem trails are worse, I should know, I install the machinery

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 5:39 pm Thank you, V. Hubby was researching this.

What Governor Ron DeSantis is calling “a possible breach of mixed saltwater” is actually over 800,000,000 gallons of mixed radioactive waste water. He is trying to minimize the severity of a natural disaster that has brewing and pushed aside for decades.
Piney Point has been leaking for almost 20 years and instead of fixing the leak, it has been continually and almost annually decided to pay the fines for polluting our bay instead of fixing the problem. Those decisions have lead our community to awaiting the IMMINANT COLLAPSE of the phosphogypsum stacks at Piney Point, which will lead those 800,000,000 gallons of radioactive water to rush into the surrounding communities in the form of a water wall expected to reach 20’ in height.
A storm surge of radioactive waste water.
It is Easter Day, 2021 and over 300 families have been displaced by the disaster. Inmates at Manatee County Jail have been disregarded as humans and moved to the second story of the building rather than be evacuated. And Ron DeSantis had the audacity to come to our town and flat-out LIE to the nation via Twitter.