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By null, Times Staff WriterThe state's plan to dispose 500-million gallons of wastewater in the gulf sparks outrage.
TARPON SPRINGS - Nearly a month after the state announced a plan to dump 500-million gallons of wastewater into the Gulf of Mexico, some in the fishing industry say they're ready for a fight.
About 25 people from Tampa Bay's sponge, shrimp and commercial fishing industries met with County Commissioner Susan Latvala last week to discuss the possible environmental consequences of dumping treated wastewater from the Piney Point phosphate plant at Port Manatee into the gulf.
Concerned that contaminants in the wastewater could hurt the sea life from which they earn their living, some in the fishing industry say they want county, state and local officials to pressure the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to reconsider its disposal plan and listen to them.
"I was outraged knowing that they had done this without an environmental impact study or any facts or input from the fishing industry," said John Williams, treasurer of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, a multistate industry trade group.
He and others worry that the wastewater could unbalance the gulf's ecosystem or cause Red Tide or other algal blooms that would kill marine life. For that reason, many at the meeting said they'd like to have more input on the state's plan before the disposal begins this summer.
"We're astounded that the state fast-tracked this without any public debate and without giving out all the facts," said Jeff Love, president of the trade group Sponge Associates of Florida.
The DEP came up with the unusual emergency disposal plan after it became apparent that Piney Point's reservoir of tainted water, which is stored in an earthen mound, is in danger of spilling into Tampa Bay.
The state plans to dispose of the polluted water over an area in the gulf measuring about 19,500 square miles. The wastewater will be dumped into the gulf in an area where water reaches a depth of 40 meters, or about 130 feet, Wells said. Scheduled to start in six to eight weeks and end in November, the disposal will disperse enough wastewater to fill more than 700 Olympic-size swimming pools.
"We could get arrested for dumping a gallon of gasoline in the water, and then they want to dump 500-million gallons of toxic material into the water. How does that work?" Williams asked.
Love, Williams and others in the fishing industry said they hope to get answers to their questions about the disposal plan at a public meeting the DEP is planning for this week. The time and place of the meeting are still being ironed out, Latvala said, but she and others said DEP officials familiar with the plan and marine environmental experts will be on hand to discuss the disposal.
"The government has a responsibility to get them the facts," Latvala said. "They (DEP) have to show us what helped them make the decision."
Wells said her agency was sympathetic to the fishing industry's concerns, but the state was left with little choice.
State Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, hopes to attend the next public meeting with DEP officials. He said he doesn't buy the agency's argument.
"We'll do everything we can to prevent it (the disposal plan)," he said. "We're trying to revive the sponging industry and we don't need any more hurdles."
Under the permit for the disposal, the agency will monitor gulf waters to watch for signs of any imbalances in the quality of the water once the dumping is under way. DEP is considering a plan that would call for commercial fishermen to assist with the monitoring by collecting and documenting samples when they travel in the gulf.
But some commercial fishermen and marine environmental experts object to the monitoring proposal. Southeastern Fisheries Association executive director Bob Jones said the DEP not only needs to get more input from fishermen but needs to know more about the gulf itself.
"We don't have an analysis of what the bottom and the quality of the water looks like now," said Jones, whose association includes roughly 500 companies in five states.
"If you're going to have any recourse if something goes wrong, we need to have an idea of what things looked like before."
Florida State University biologist Felicia Coleman agrees. Along with her colleague, Chris Koenig, Coleman has studied grouper and redfish spawning habitats in the gulf for about 12 years. She said some of the protected fishing habitats could be in jeopardy because they abut areas where wastewater dumping is planned.
"If you go out there and just dump stuff on top of it, you could run into problems," Coleman said. "That whole area is a spawning area. It's pretty essential."
- Candace Rondeaux can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or rondeaux@sptimes.com