Records Show County Negotiated with Allied for Nearly a Year

BRADENTON – Public records are providing additional insights into the county’s recent approval of an agreement with sodium hypochlorite manufacturer Allied New Technologies 2.Records obtained by TBT reveal months-long behind-the-scenes work and negotiations between county officials, Allied, and its representative, former Florida Senate President Bill Galvano, to allow the company to dispose of its brine wastewater byproduct at a county-owned industrial injection well.

On Tuesday, commissioners voted 6-1to enter into the agreement with Allied, with only Commissioner James Satcher voting in opposition. Roughly six months ago, TBTfirst reported about the county's permit modification request to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for the injection well at NRWRF–the "Buffalo Creek well." A day after our reporting, the county issued an official press release responding to the details of TBT’s report.

On February 21, the county submitted a major permit modification request to FDEP to add two wastewater streams for disposal at the Buffalo Creek well–Allied's brine wastewater (a byproduct of bleach manufacturing) and wastewater from Piney Point. By March 31, the county revised its modification application to remove the Piney Point wastewater from FDEP's consideration and requested instead a minor permit modification to allow only the discharge of Allied's brine wastewater to the well.

When TBT reported about the permit modification application submitted to FDEP, many of the details were unclear as to why the county had decided to allow Allied to discharge its industrial wastewater into the county-owned well. Although it was clear that the application dated back to February, there had been no public discussion in any BOCC meetings or workshops revealing any plan for the county to enter into such an agreement with Allied.

During last week's meeting, as the board discussed the approval of an agreement with the bleach manufacturer, County Administrator Scott Hopes mentioned that negotiations over the agreement had been months long.

Text message records obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability and provided to TBT for review show that behind-the-scenes efforts toward striking a deal with Allied began at least as early as January of 2022. However, by June, when TBT reached out to each commissioner by email to ask whether any were aware of the negotiations or had received briefings on the permit modification application, four commissioners responded by email telling usthey had no knowledge of a permit modification or arrangement with Allied, while three commissioners never responded to our request.

In addition to text communications obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, TBT has also obtained public records from the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority (FPUA) concerning its agreement with Allied to dispose of brine waste at an FPUA injection well on the east coast. When Allied first appeared before the Manatee BOCC in 2017 to apply for economic tax incentives for the construction of its plant in Palmetto, representatives told the commission it would truck its brine across the state. Allied has a similar, slightly larger bleach plant in Fort Pierce, and it was already disposing of brine waste from that plant's operations into the Fort Pierce well.

Although Allied applied for county economic incentives in 2017 and was approved, the company never took advantage of the approval and no tax exemptions were ever claimed by Allied. In September of this year, county staff brought before the board a second application for ad valorem tax exemption for Allied. The board approved the request, though then-commissioner Misty Servia questioned whether the prior approval included any conditions on Allied trucking its brine waste out of the county instead of dumping it locally. County staff said that while there was discussion about how Allied would dispose of its brine during the BOCC's 2017 application review, nothing was ever formally included in writing. To replay the discussion from the September land use meeting on Allied's economic incentive re-approval, click here.

The agreement approved on Tuesday between Allied and Manatee County will allow Allied to discharge as much as 40,000 gallons of brine per day at the Buffalo Creek well. The county will charge Allied $7.66 for every 1,000 gallons of brine discharged.

TBT made a public record request for the agreement currently in effect between Allied and FPUA for the disposal of its brine wastewater to the FPUA industrial well. The agreement appeared very similar to the agreement between Allied and Manatee County, but for some differences.

In its agreement with FPUA, Allied is charged a monthly usage fee (something not included in the agreement with Manatee County) of $5,200 per month. In addition, Allied is to pay FPUA fourteen cents per every 1,000 gallons of brine disposed of. Another difference between the two agreements is that while Manatee County will allow the disposal of 40,000 gallons of brine waste per day into its well, FPUA restricted Allied to the disposal of only 21,600 gallons of brine per day.

In 2017, when it was before the board, Allied told commissioners that its Palmetto plant (at full capacity operations) would utilize 216,000 gallons of county water per day for bleach generation and would produce 23,000 of brine waste per day to be trucked out of Manatee County for disposal. Allied CEO and President Jim Palmer also told commissioners that the Palmetto plant, when complete, would be roughly 80 percent the size of its Fort Piece facility.

During Tuesday’s commission meeting, Palmer said Allied's Palmetto plant has the capacity to eventually produce 40,000 gallons of brine waste per day–double the projected figure provided by the company in 2017.

In its June press release in response to our reporting about the permit modification, the county asserted that Allied’s Palmetto plant had increased production to meet the needs of bleach for the pretreatment of Piney Point wastewater. To better understand how much Allied had increased its production, TBT spoke to a representative of Allied’s Palmetto plant and asked how much county water the plant was utilizing per day and how much brine waste was being produced.

The representative explained that the figures provided to the board by the company in 2017 had not changed–216,000 gallons of county water used and 23,000 gallons of brine waste produced were figures based on max-capacity production. The representative confirmed that the plant was producing more bleach product in June than it was when it began its operations at the Palmetto plant, adding that the plant is designed with a projected maximum capacity, and said the figures the company provided in 2017 would not change. Click here to read the response we received from an Allied representative for our June reporting.

If Allied's agreement with FPUA for the use of its well restricts the company to discharging only 21,600 gallons per day, it seems likely the terms of that agreement would be insufficient for Allied to continue disposing of brine waste streams from both its Fort Pierce plant as well as from its Palmetto plant.

During Tuesday's meeting, when the board had taken up the item to approve the agreement with Allied, a citizen made public comment questioning whether the agreement would restrict Allied from disposing of brine from any of its other Florida-based plants into the well at Buffalo Creek. County Attorney Bill Clague addressed the question, offering assurance that the agreement–as written–only permitted disposal of brine from Allied's Palmetto plant.

"It is specific to only the Palmetto plant," Clague answered. "It is in paragraph 13 'Brine Disposal' of the agreement."

When comparing Manatee County’s agreement with Allied to its agreement with FPUA, the language referenced by Clague as precluding Allied from disposing of any wastewater stream other than brine reject from its Palmetto plant into Manatee County’s well, was nearly identical to language found in Allied’s agreement with FPUA.

In the 2014 agreement with FPUA, the section "Brine Disposal" reads in part:

"ALLIED will be permitted to dispose of the brine reject which is a byproduct of ALLIED's manufacture of sodium hypochlorite at its plant located at 9545 Rangeline Road, Ft. PierceÉ"

Section 13 of Allied’s agreement with Manatee County (referenced by Clague) reads in part:

"ANT2 (Allied New Technologies 2) will be permitted to dispose of the brine reject which is a byproduct of ANT2’s manufacture of sodium hypochlorite at its plant located at 2815 Inland Transport Street, Palmetto, FloridaÉ"

Both agreements also include subsections to the "Brine Disposal" section detailing the terms of disposal. Within those terms, each of the agreements specifies in their subsections that Allied is "solely authorized to discharge brine reject associated with the operation of its plant" located at the specific address of the plant (Manatee County’s agreement is limited to brine from Allied’s Palmetto plant, and FPUA's is restricted to brine from its Fort Pierce plant).

TBT followed up with the FPUA to clarify that there was not an amended agreement with Allied after the September 2014 agreement. In a phone call, the records manager for FPUA confirmed that there were no other agreements effective and that the 2014 agreement of which we had been provided copy were the terms. When TBT sought clarification on Allied’s public statements alleging it disposes of its Palmetto plant’s brine at the FPUA well, and that the effective agreement did not include brine disposal from its Palmetto location, the records manager said she would need to contact the appropriate persons and department at FPUA and get back to us with the information.

TBT had not received a call back from FPUA prior to our publication deadline clarifying whether the entity was aware Allied was also disposing of brine from its Palmetto plant in its injection well. To view FPUA’s agreement with Allied, click here. To view Manatee County’s agreement with Allied, click here.

At the commission meeting last Tuesday, the justification for entering into an agreement with Allied was reiterated from the county’s June press release on the matter. Allied’s Palmetto plant has been "ramping up" production of its bleach product "significantly" in order to supply the bleach needed to pretreat Piney Point wastewater for disposal into an injection well. According to public records available through FDEP's access portal, neither the Piney Point injection well, nor the pretreatment facility is in operation at this time.

Based on the statements made during Tuesday's meeting about Allied's increase in bleach production and projected increase of brine output, TBT submitted a public record request to Manatee County seeking usage data on how much county water Allied's Palmetto plant is currently using per day. We had not received the information prior to our publication deadline.

There were no staff presentations given during Tuesday's meeting. Instead, a legal representative of Allied (Bill Galvano of Galvano and Grimes) and the president of the company did the majority of speaking and answering of commissioner questions.

The public record request submitted by the Florida Center for Government Accountability requested the production of texts from the Manatee County Administrator and Deputy County Administrators. The requested date range of records requested was from January to June of this year.

On January 11, former Florida Senate President Bill Galvano, who is a legal representative to Allied, texted County Administrator Scott Hopes and requested time for the two to speak. After a handful of back-and-forths, Hopes said he would phone Galvano when he got the chance.

Later the same afternoon, Allied’s Palmetto plant manager and its regional manager sent a text to Hopes inviting him out for a drink.

On the evening of January 19, Galvano sent a text to Hopes asking whether "there is any update I can share with Allied."

Hopes responded with a text stating that he had been in Tallahassee and had no news for Galvano or Allied.

On January 26, Galvano reached out to Hopes again, texting, "Can we talk early tomorrow RE: Allied as I really need to share an update at 9:30. Anything helps! Thank you."

Hopes responds to Galvano, "Yes."

On February 4, Billy Roy, Allied’s Palmetto plant manager, sent a text to Hopes asking about Dennis Cooley’s chances of winning the election. Hopes responded to Billy Roy suggesting the two meet for a drink. Billy Roy texted back about the invitation, "Sure, Scott, I’d like that. Name the time and place and we’ll do it, brother."

On February 9, Galvano texted Deputy County Administrator Robert Reinshuttle, requesting an update on the "permit modification."

"Scott and I met with the deputy director of utilities (formerlyJeff Goodwin) on this topic on Monday," Reinshuttle texted back. "Currently in a meeting with Mike Gore (former director of utilities) will call you when I’m done."

15 minutes later, Reinshuttle sent a text to Mike Gore, "I need Jeff to give me a quick update on the permit mod in the next hour."

Roughly 20 minutes after Reinshuttle delegated Gore to get an update from Mr. Goodwin about the permit modification, Gore created a text group with himself, Goodwin, and Reinshuttle, where he proceeded to ask Goodwin for the update.

"They are adding the Piney Point wastestream and should be able to deliver to FDEP next week," Goodwin texted the group. Public records available through FDEP show that the agency received the permit modification application for the disposal of Allied's brine and Piney Point wastewater later that month.

On February 16, Galvano again sent a text to Reinshuttle, this time requesting the "rate analysis." Reinshuttle agreed to get the information for Galvano from Hopes.

On March 3, the text records show that Galvano texted Hopes to arrange a meeting. Included in a back-and-forth about a meeting date and time, Galvano wrote, "I think Bob and Jeff are key. You did a great job getting Courtney. She is sharp."

"Bob" is presumably Robert Reinshuttle, as often in the text records his name is shortened to just Bob. "Courtney" refers to Deputy County Administrator Courtney DePol.

On April 5, records show a text from Galvano to Reinshuttle, again asking for an update on the "well application."

On April 7, Galvano texted Reinshuttle again, this time requesting confirmation that the permit application had been edited to remove the disposal of wastewater from Piney Point. Reinshuttle responds with an affirmative text. Galvano then texted back, writing, "Thank you! By the way, we all think Jeff is a rock star!"

On April 13, public records showed there were six texts exchanged between Hopes and Galvano occurring between 1-3 p.m. When the records of these texts were produced to the Florida Center for Government Accountability, they had been redacted by the county.

On April 21, Allied Plant Manager Billy Roy texted Hopes and included Allied's Regional Manager to invite Hopes to join them for an upcoming golf tournament. Billy Roy told Hopes that Allied's Assistant Vice President of Operations would also be attending the tournament and that the group would "love" for Hopes to join them.

On April 26, Reinshuttle sent a text to Jeff Goodwin letting him know that Galvano would be phoning him. "Just giving you a heads up," texted Reinshuttle. "He wants to get you on a call."

Later that evening, Goodwin sent Reinshuttle a follow-up text letting him know he had spoken with Galvano.

Possibly unrelated to any of the negotiations and planning going on behind the scene between Galvano, Allied, and county administration, Commissioner Vanessa Baugh shared a post to her Facebook page on May 4. In the post, Baugh tagged Commissioner George Kruse and Bill Galvano. Baugh wrote that the group was out together watching the musical Titanic.

The public records show there were several texts exchanged between Galvano and Hopes from May 6 through May 20. While none of the messages appear to be specific to Allied, it is clear the two had taken phone calls and seen one another at least once in person during the timespan.

On May 20, at 12:09 p.m., Hopes sent an urgent message to Galvano "Call me ASAP." Later that evening, around 6 p.m., Reinshuttle sent a text to Commissioner Baugh writing, "Scott talked to Galvano."

On June 1, Reinshuttle sent a text to Hopes to inform him that Galvano had called him the evening before to ask about an agreement on rates for Buffalo Creek.

"He (Galvano) is probably looking for an agreement on rates, not that one has already been made," replied Hopes in a text. "Gore has the rates they are paying on the east coast."

Between June 6 and June 21, Galvano and Hopes again exchanged several texts. Among those is a text Hopes sent to Galvano on June 15 which read, "All is good with Clague." (County Attorney Bill Clague)

In mid-June, when TBT learned about the permit modification for the Buffalo Creek well and accessed the application through FDEP public record access portal, we learned the county was requesting to modify the permit to dispose of Allied’s brine waste. Because there had never been a meeting or workshop with public discussion about Allied disposing its wastewater into a county well, TBT sent an email to County Attorney Clague asking for any draft or finalized agreements his office might have between the county and Allied.

Our email to Clague was sent on June 15, roughly four hours prior to Hopes texting Galvano about Clague. Concerning our request for records, Clague responded in an email stating that, to his knowledge, his office had no records that would be responsive to our request.

Following Hopes' text confirming "all was good with Clague," Galvano texted back "Great!" in reply and then asked Hopes whether he could tell Allied President Jim Palmer to reach out to Jeff Goodwin about the permit language.

On June 22, TBT ran its first story reporting on the permit modification request submitted to FDEP by the county–published to our website at 12:01 am. At approximately 11:15 a.m. on June 22, TBT emailed each of the commissioners requesting comment as to whether any had been briefed about the permit modification or the county's intention to allow Allied to discharge brine into the Buffalo Creek well.

At 11:56 a.m., Reinshuttle sent a text to Commissioner Baugh, writing, "Vanessa, no one has applied for a modified permit. I was wrong."

At 12:47 p.m., Reinshuttle sent a text to Mike Gore asking, "Mike what stage is the minor mod?" ("minor mod" is short for "minor permit modification application").

At 1:17 p.m., Reinshuttle sent a text to Hopes, "You could certainly put responsibility for the minor mod on me." To which Hopes texted back, "No, won't do that."

Later that evening at 8:42 p.m., Hopes received a texted version of the county's press release that would be sent the next day in response to TBT’s reporting. One minute later, at 8:43 p.m., Hopes forwarded a copy of the press release via text to Galvano.

The next afternoon, June 23, just before 2 p.m., PIO Bill Logan issued the press release about Allied and the permit modification to the public.

On June 24, Reinshuttle sent a lengthy text to Hopes. The message from Reinshuttle stressed Reinshuttle's strong opinion that Hopes needed to hire a PR firm. Reinshuttle informed Hopes that (in his perspective) county PIO Bill Logan is not up to the job of effectively heading the county’s messaging. Reinshuttle wrote to Hopes, "Most everything you see from him is written by someone else or heavily editedÉthis includes the piece he wrote the other day that you cited in the leadership meeting."

"This is why it’s important to hire a PR firm because he does not have the capacity to do what you need, As you know, I have no stake in anything except to make you and your administration look good and that’s what I’ve been behind the scenes trying to do but it’s an uphill fight," Reinshuttle included to Hopes. "We are against an organized and strategic campaign to make the county look bad."

Reinshuttle has repeatedly encouraged Hopes to hire a PR firm from Tallahassee. In TBT’s reporting in September, we reported on other text message records obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability.

On May 27, Reinshuttle texted a similar message to Hopes, "Scott, I think now is the time to hire Ron Sachs, they have expertise in fighting fires, and that’s what we have right nowÉ I think we need to flood the media with positivity and delineate all the good things that are happening. Ron has already met with commissioners and so it won’t be a surprise to them that we are getting the support. I hope you pull the trigger on this soon."

Ron Sachs is a Tallahassee-based public relations and government communication adviser. His company website tells potential clients, "We deliver bold, game-changing communications solutions that help you conquer your toughest challenges, shift momentum in your favor, and overcome pain points that keep you up at night."

To view text records obtained by TBT as cited in this report, and additional texts related to Allied and the permit modification for the Buffalo Creek well, click here.

Dawn Kitterman is a staff reporter for The Bradenton Times. She covers local government and entertainment news. She can be reached at dawn.kitterman@thebradentontimes.com.