Nearly "catastrophic" Piney Point wastewater leak could irreparably harm neighboring marine life, experts say
By Li Cohen
April 10, 2021 / 6:06 PM
/ CBS News
Florida officials have been scrambling over the past week after a wastewater pond at the former Piney Point phosphate mining facility sprung a major leak — a situation officials described as a potential "catastrophe." While officials have managed to drain the reservoir enough so that a "tidal wave" of wastewater did not flood the area, experts told CBS News that the threat to the environment remains.
Residents who live immediately around the area are physically safe for the time being, state officials said, but millions of gallons of water have flowed into the ground and local waterways, and millions more were pumped directly into Port Manatee, an entrance to Tampa Bay on Florida's west coast, to prevent the reservoir from collapsing.