Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, who represents the area, said the Piney Point issue has impacted our community for a quarter of a century.
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.
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.
Senate To Consider $200 Million Budget Proposal For Piney Point Cleanup usf.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from usf.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave Florida control of wetlands permitting in December. Now environmental groups want a federal judge to throw out the decision.
Seven environmental groups asked a judge Thursday to throw out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to give the state control of wetlands permitting.
The environmental groups say Florida s application was riddled with errors and the EPA violated the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act when it handed Florida control of wetlands permitting last month.
“There are such unreasonable things in the way EPA has acted in this case that I d be surprised if any other EPA looking at it would have reached the same conclusion,” said Tania Galloni, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Florida Office.
A coalition of environmental groups have sued to prevent a new EPA rule from going into effect, saying that by allowing Florida to manage the permit process for wetlands development, the EPA "is lowering the bar to allow a state, for the first time, to run the federal wetlands program without meeting federal standards.”