Former Piney Point Owner Liable for Tampa Bay Pollution Tied to Massive 2021 Fish Kill
The Piney Point gypstack. HRK’s Piney Point facility was linked to a massive fish kill after 215 million gallons of toxic wastewater were discharged into Tampa Bay to avert the catastrophic collapse of a waste impoundment.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— A federal judge has found HRK Holdings LLC liable for a major pollution event in 2021. HRK’s Piney Point facility was linked to a massive fish kill after 215 million gallons of toxic wastewater were discharged into Tampa Bay to avert the catastrophic collapse of a waste impoundment.
The Wednesday afternoon ruling, which followed a lawsuit filed by conservation groups, ordered the company to pay $846,900.
As a result of the lawsuit, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection separately agreed to fund independent monitoring of the Piney Point disaster’s ongoing harm to Tampa Bay’s water quality. The department also agreed to make improvements to the Clean Water Act permit, which was finalized earlier this month.
“The court’s ruling exposes the reckless gamble Florida regulators took by letting this toxic waste facility operate without a permit for more than 20 years,” said Ragan Whitlock, a Florida-based attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This outcome can’t undo the terrible harm done to wildlife and Tampa Bay’s water quality, but it should help state regulators see that trusting corporate polluters to oversee their own toxic waste is asking the fox to guard the henhouse.”
Following the spill, the owners of the site entered bankruptcy and their counsel withdrew from the case. With the now defunct corporation unrepresented, U.S. District Judge William Jung issued a default judgment finding that HRK had violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into Tampa Bay without a lawfully issued permit.
“State and local officials knew for years that HRK lacked the financial and operational resources to safely close Piney Point, yet watched this disaster unfold without intervention,” said Daniel C. Snyder, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and director of Public Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Project. “Tampa Bay and its local communities suffered the environmental consequences of regulators ignoring that alarm bell.”
Following the release, Tampa Bay experienced a deadly red tide that killed more than 600 tons of marine life in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
“The catastrophic impacts of the Piney Point disaster will forever be a part of the history of Tampa Bay.” said Justin Tramble, executive director of Tampa Bay Waterkeeper. “All industries should see the value of a healthy Tampa Bay and become stewards rather than abusers. Our hope is that this ruling makes it clear that the Tampa Bay community will hold polluters accountable for irresponsible and blatant abuse that frankly belongs in the past. The future of a thriving and sustainable Tampa Bay depends on it.”
“It’s the communities that rely on these coastal waters who are left holding the bag, forced to deal with the lasting damage caused by HRK’s negligence. Suncoast Waterkeeper and our partners have stepped up to enforce the laws that the state should have been upholding all along,” said Abbey Tyrna, executive director of Suncoast Waterkeeper. “There is still so much work to be done to clean up after this disaster and the responsibility to protect our waters needs to be shared between the state and the community.”
The millions of gallons of wastewater discharged into Tampa Bay continue to spread throughout the estuary and into Sarasota Bay, transporting tons of nitrogen and other pollutants into waterways. The wastewater is harming communities already struggling to manage excessive pollution that has impaired waterways and killed thousands of acres of seagrasses.
“It should be noted too that presently there are no federal, state or local regulations that adequately protect the public from hazards associated with phosphogypsum and no regulations to require the industry make final disposition of phosphate wastes in an environmentally acceptable manner,” said Glenn Compton, chairman of ManaSota-88, Inc.
“This case is a textbook example showing that citizen activism is crucial in enforcing environmental rights by holding governments and corporations accountable for their actions,” said Tiffany Schauer, president of Our Children’s Earth Foundation. “Through grassroots movements and advocacy, individuals can amplify their voices, driving meaningful change and protecting the planet for future generation.”
The groups involved in the lawsuit are the Center for Biological Diversity, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, Suncoast Waterkeeper, ManaSota-88 and Our Children’s Earth Foundation. They are represented by Public Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Project, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Law Offices of Charles M. Tebbutt.
Background
Phosphogypsum is radioactive waste derived from processing phosphate ore into phosphoric acid, which is predominantly used in fertilizer. Radium-226, found in phosphogypsum, has a 1,600-year radioactive decay half-life.
In addition to high concentrations of radioactive materials, phosphogypsum and process wastewater can also contain carcinogens and toxic heavy metals like antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, fluoride, lead, mercury, nickel, silver, sulfur, thallium and zinc.
The Piney Point phosphogypsum stack is a mountainous heap of toxic waste topped by an impoundment of hundreds of millions of gallons of process wastewater, stormwater and tons of dredged spoil from Port Manatee.
Three years ago, after discovering a leak in the facility’s reservoir liner, regulators ordered the discharge of 215 million gallons of wastewater from the gypstack into Tampa Bay to avert a catastrophic collapse and flooding. The massive, fish-killing discharge of toxic, untreated wastewater followed years of regulatory failures and mismanagement at the facility.
During the 2021 wastewater release, Tampa Bay received more nitrogen — nearly 200 tons — than it usually receives from all other sources in an entire year. The red tides that have plagued Florida are fueled by nitrogen.
Learn more about phosphogypsum and efforts to protect public health and the environment from its harms.
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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Public Justice combines high-impact litigation, strategic partnerships, and grassroots organizing with targeted communications to shape the narrative about environmental injustice and build empowering relationships with communities most affected by environmental threats and actions. The Public Justice Environmental Enforcement Project holds polluters accountable by enforcing environmental laws and winning groundbreaking results in court to protect our nation’s clean water, air, and land—and the people, animals, and ecological communities that rely upon it. For more information, visit PublicJustice.net.
Our Children’s Earth Foundation is a non-profit public interest organization focused on protecting the most vulnerable among us: children, seniors, threatened species and ecosystems. OCE educates the public about environmental problems and empowers affected communities to take action to reduce pollution.
ManaSota-88, Inc. is a public interest conservation and environmental protection organization, which is a Florida not-for-profit corporation and a citizen of the State of Florida. The corporate purposes of ManaSota-88 include the protection of the public’s health, the preservation of air and water quality, and the protection of wildlife habitat.
Tampa Bay Waterkeeper works to defend, protect, and preserve Tampa Bay’s watershed through citizen engagement and community action rooted in sound science and research.
Suncoast Waterkeeper works to protect and restore the Florida Suncoast’s waterways through enforcement, fieldwork, advocacy, and environmental education for the benefit of the communities that rely upon these precious coastal resources.
