Tampa Bay is in danger of becoming an environmental disaster, putting decades of attempts to enhance water quality and wildlife protection for manatees, dolphins, whales, and sea turtles in jeopardy. More than a hundred million gallons of toxic wastewater have been dumped directly into the bay due to a continuing spill at the old Piney Point phosphate plant site.

Related Article: Manatee County, Florida Under State of Emergency for Possible Radioactive Flood After Phosphate Plant Leak

Harmful Chemicals in the Water

The ammonia, phosphorus, and phosphate in the acidic wastewater that has flooded the bay are contaminants that authorities have been trying to eliminate in Tampa Bay for decades.

The worst-case situation, a total breach of the containment structure, seems to have been prevented. Still, one proposed alternative, dumping treated wastewater into an aquifer, comes with its own set of risks.

Piney Point Plant

After its completion decades ago, the Piney Point plant has posed a constant danger to Tampa Bay's health. Despite the plant's turbulent past, Jessica Bibza, senior specialist for wildlife policy for the National Wildlife Federation's Gulf program, said she was disappointed by the state's inability to deter the situation.

Over the last two decades, the Piney Point wetlands have become a ticking time bomb on Tampa Bay's outskirts, and little has been said about it. Decades of investments in the bay's and wildlife's wellbeing have now jeopardized.

In the last five decades, more than 850 water quality enhancement programs have been initiated in Tampa Bay.

"It will take time for us to properly appreciate the impacts on Tampa Bay, but we might see poisonous algae, fish kills, and the depletion of seagrass beds, affecting species like manatees and scallops," Bibza added.

Manatees in the Area

"Manatees in the Indian River Lagoon are starving to death because low water quality has destroyed the seagrass beds on which they depend. The last thing we want is for anything similar to happen in Tampa Bay. The state must keep Piney Point's owners accountable, as well as ensuring that all of Florida's two dozen phosphate mines are supervised, and taxpayers have not left to foot the bill for similar disasters," Bibza said.

Federal initiatives in coastal resilience projects, such as the plan to reconfigure the Howard Frankland bridge to increase water transport across the bay, which will strengthen water quality and deter further outbreaks of toxic algae, may help Tampa Bay's long-term recovery.

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act, introduced in Congress, will provide funding for habitat conservation projects for at-risk wildlife such as manatees. In the previous legislative session, twelve of Florida's legislators voted in favor of the measure, which would give the state over $40 million a year.

Related Article: Why are Manatees Dying at an Alarming Rate in the First Months of 2021?

High Hopes

"The Piney Point breach is a major disappointment, but if there's one thing we've noticed through the years, it's that the bay and its biodiversity are remarkably resilient. They will regenerate if we owe them what they need to recover," Bibza said.

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