BOCC Approves Next Step in Piney Point Deep Well

BRADENTON – At Tuesday’s meeting, Manatee County Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a resolution allowing the county to enter a "service agreement related to closure and water management needs for the Piney Point facility" with the property's court-appointed receiver. The vote was approved despite several commissioners' concerns over the potential cost liability the agreement could pose to the county.

In April of 2021, a breach in the 77-acre retention pond sent hundreds of millions of gallons of process water from past phosphate mining operations containing high levels of ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphate into Tampa Bay, making the surrounding waters more inviting to algal blooms, including red tide.

Donica Receivership Services, LLC was appointed by court order to act as receiver for the facility after the decision was made to close the facility via stipulation by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). Donica retained the services of a third-party engineer who prepared a conceptual closure plan that was approved by FDEP. FDEP entered into a contractual funding agreement with the receiver for the maintenance and funding of the receiver’s work and the conceptual closure plan pursuant to the receiver’s appointment order.

Despite the concerns of the community, Donica, its engineer, and FDEP determined that an underground injection control well and water pretreatment system were the most effective and efficient methods to treat and dispose of the water held within the facility. Manatee County then obtained regulatory authorization to construct and operationally test a UIC well and engaged a contractor and obtained cost estimates for completing the design and construction of the intended Water Pretreatment System which will be situated on the County’s property adjacent to or near the UIC Well.

Last April, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis redirected $15.4 million dollars from existing appropriations at FDEP to the response. The state then committed an additional $100 million to a final solution for Piney Point. As per the agreement approved yesterday, the county will front $17.9 million toward the construction of the UIC, which county staff said would be reimbursed. The county is currently projecting $10 million in final expenses on its end, though County Administrator Scott Hopes said that he still hopes to secure additional funding from the state to reduce that amount.

Commissioners Carol Whitmore and George Kruse expressed concerns that the county could be on the hook for additional costs should the project run over its cost estimates and a change order come back before the board. Both staff and the county attorney’s office explained that the agreement is a "stipulated-sum fixed-fee contract“ that only puts the county on the hook for that amount and that any changes would have to be approved.

Commissioner Reggie Bellamy said that it didn’t sound like there was anything fixed about the agreement at all and asked how the county could say no if the project required more funding before it was complete. Deputy County Administrator Courtney DePalo told the board that there is an $800,000 contingency built into the initial amount, which will serve as profit to the contractor if it isn’t used, giving the contractor incentive to bring the project in at or below cost.

Last month, the county advised in a press release that the county utilities department had an application with FDEP to modify a current permit in order to allow more injection of brine at the Buffalo Creek municipal well. This request followed Allied Universal Industries–a local chlorine manufacturer– increasing production at their Palmetto facility.

"This is a typical permit modification,“ said Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes in a press release. "Allied has increased their chlorine production–at a plant that was built with Manatee County economic incentives–and we are fortunate that they are nearby Piney Point to help with the pre-treatment of that process water.“

Because of that increase in chlorine production, the county says that there has been an analogous uptick in the brine that is left over from that process and that they are working with Allied to reduce its burden for disposal with an alternative to trucking the brine that remains to disposal facilities in other Florida counties. Initially designed to dispose of brine that would have been created with a reverse-osmosis water filtration plan, the county says the Buffalo Creek Injection well permit modification is for similar use.