PALMETTO, Fla. — Herb Donica said he believes what happened at Piney Point in 2021 was not okay and considers it a stain on the phosphate industry. 

What You Need To Know

For decades, crews processed phosphate at Piney Point to create fertilizer

The process creates leftover water and waste that must be stored securely in stacks 

In 2021, one of those stacks leaked. To prevent collapse and flooding, more than 200 million gallons of wastewater was discharged into Tampa Bay

It led to red tide and fish kills, one of the largest environmental disasters in Florida history

Now, the state wants to safely close Piney Point for good

“It’s a black eye,” Donica said. “This is not what should have happened.”

What happened was one of the largest environmental disasters in Florida’s history.

For years, crews had processed phosphate at Piney Point to make fertilizer. When they do that, they create stacks of leftover waste and water. The stacks are supposed to be secured and contained.

But in 2021, one began to leak and was threatening to collapse. To prevent that collapse and the likely flooding that would have ensued, the state signed off on discharging more than 200 million gallons of industrial wastewater into Tampa Bay.

According to environmental groups, that discharge sent high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous into Tampa Bay.

“That led to the largest red tide bloom in Tampa Bay history, leading to a ton of fish kills,” said Abbey Tyrna, executive director of Suncoast Waterkeeper.

A federal judge later held the site’s operator, HRK Holdings, liable and the state approved a plan to close the site.

A judge tapped Donica to be in charge of closing the site. Officially titled the court-appointed receiver for the Piney Point property, Donica has two main goals before closure:

1. His team has used a deep injection well to treat and remove more than 600 million gallons of water from the gypsum stacks. Donica said crews used the deep injection well to send the water about 3,300 feet down below the aquifer. Donica said there is no more pond water on site.

2. His team is trying to safely cover what’s left at the site, using a combination of liner, sand, top soil and grass.

Those two main goals combine to form Donica’s larger ambition: To make sure the environmental disaster that happened at Piney Point in 2021 never happens again.

“All the water here is captured and managed,” Donica said. “We will no longer have the problem we saw in April, 2021.”

Donica hopes to complete his work by the end of this calendar year and then close Piney Point for good.