Florida Senate considers spending up to $200M to clean up Piney Point
Jim Saunders, Reporter, News Service of Florida
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A leak at a wastewater pond at old Piney Point phosphate mine off of U.S. 41 in Manatee County prompted a state of emergency. (Photo by Rebecca Petit via WFTS-TV)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – With work continuing to prevent a potentially catastrophic collapse of a reservoir wall, the Florida Senate will consider a budget amendment Wednesday to spend as much as $200 million to clean up the site of a former phosphate plant in Manatee County.
Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, said early Monday evening that the money would be used to clean up and close hazardous phosphogypsum stacks, a byproduct of phosphate production, at the Piney Point site.