DEP Wants Extension On Piney Point Dispersal MANATEE COUNTY (WUSF) - The problem: what to do with hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater at an abandoned phosphate plant in Manatee County.

The water, stored in a gypsum stack at the Piney Point plant, contains ammonia, nitrogen, heavy metals and is slightly radioactive. The toxic mess was left behind when the plant's former owner, The Mulberry Corporation, went bankrupt and walked away. The DEP's solution was to load the water onto a barge and dump it 120 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.

That solution has turned out to be difficult, expensive and highly controversial.

Since the project began in July, less than 120 million gallons of treated wastewater has been disposed of. The state had hoped to dump more than 500 million gallons by the end of November. That's when the emergency dumping permit from the federal government expires. And with that goal clearly out of reach, Florida DEP Secretary David Struhs announced this week the agency intends to ask the federal government for a six-month extension.

DEP spokeswoman Deena Wells says the weather this year has slowed the project.

WELLS: We've had extensive rainfall at the Piney Point site since the beginning of the year, in fact about 26 inches above normal, which, as you may imagine, generates significant wastewater at Piney Point. Because of all the rainfall, we are going to be exploring all of our options and seeking an extension of the ocean dispersal permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In January, when state officials applied for the original ocean dumping permit, it was considered necessary to avert a potential environmental catastrophe. Hurricane season and the wet summer months were approaching and officials feared a tropical storm or even a heavy rainfall could spill the wastewater into Tampa Bay, the state's largest estuary.

But David White, Regional Director of the Ocean Conservancy in St. Petersburg, says the potential emergency has passed, he says, the federal government should not extend the state's permit.

WHITE: The ocean dumping comes under the federal ocean dumping act that was created by congress to deal with extraordinary circumstances. And, in order to qualify for an ocean dumping permit you have to show three things. First, that there is a genuine emergency. Second, that there are no other feasible alternatives than dumping it in the ocean and third that human life is directly at risk.

White says his group agreed with the DEP in January that a genuine emergency existed. That, he says, is no longer the case. Human life is no longer threatened and, he says, there are several reasonable alternatives to ocean dumping.

White says the water, even after it's been treated, poses significant dangers to marine life.

WHITE: The nutrients in this waste water is in the form of ammonia, which is candy to harmful algae and the concern is that it could cause large harmful algae blooms that could affect marine life and marine habitat. The example of this is the 8,000 square mile dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where nutrients come out of the river and have caused a large area of depleted oxygen where very little marine life can actually exist.

White say the Ocean Conservancy also is worried that granting an extension for this ocean dispersal project could set a precedent that would allow other chemical plants, oil rigs and factories to also dump toxins into the Gulf.

But the DEP's Deena Wells says there has been no evidence so far to support the fears of adverse consequences from the dispersal project.

WELLS: We've been monitoring extensively the ocean dispersal, which is over 120 miles offshore. We've seen no environmental impact from the ocean dispersal and our scientists have been on site monitoring water quality and we've been following the dispersal through satellite imagery also. We evaluated many different options to reduce the volume of water at Piney Point and it is a last resort, and as I said, we will continue to monitor to make sure there are no environmental impacts.

There are still more than 500 million gallons of toxic wastewater at the Piney Point site. State regulators and environmental groups agree that the site needs to be cleaned up before the rains come again in the spring.
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