Acidic Wastewater Heading To Gulf PORT MANATEE (WUSF) - Barges could soon be dumping acidic phosphate process water fifty miles off the coast of Pinellas County.


The water would come from an abandoned phosphate processing plant near Port Manatee. The rainy spring weather has threatened to overflow the top of a holding pond at the Piney Point plant into Tampa Bay.


The federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved a state request made more than a month ago to pump the water into barges and dump it into the Gulf.


Officials fear more rainstorms expected in the area could cause the ponds to overflow. Deena Wells is a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.


WELLS: This is the lesser of two evils. What we're facing is the approaching hurricane season, and extensive heavy rains during an El Nino period that simply, the site cannot handle.


There could be elevated levels of nutrients, but state environmental officials say that should be alleviated because of the wide area that it will be dispersed into.


WELLS: In order to prevent an acidic spill into Tampa Bay that could potentially affect 50 miles of fish and wildlife, we propose to treat that water, disperse it into the Gulf of Mexico, where we don't expect to see any impacts to fish and wildlife.


Environmental groups protested about two years ago, when the acidic water had to be released into Tampa Bay. Then, similar rains threatened to collapse the earthen banks. But this time, no such protests are expected.


Dick Eckenrod is executive director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. He says it's unlikely there will be any fish kills or effects on marine life in the Gulf.


ECKENROD: The expects on harmful algae blooms that the estuary program consulted indicated that as long as any discharges occurred at least 40 nautical miles offshore or more, that it was very unlikely that any adverse algae bloom that might be triggered by that would work its way back onshore.


More than half a billion gallons would be poured into an area of nearly twenty-thousand square miles in the Gulf. It would be treated with lime to reduce the acidity level and filtered through reverse osmosis to remove pollutants.


Similar technology has been used in the past two years to siphon 160 million gallons from the site. But Wells says the extensive rainfall has pushed back their plans to close the plant.


Now, approval must come from the International Maritime Organization, which regulates dumping of pollution in international waters. State officials believe they'll get an OK in the next several days. © Copyright 2012, WUSF