Wastewater headed to gulf - and then an uncertain future
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published July 6, 2003
PINEY POINT - It's a monumental science experiment.
Fill a barge with millions of gallons of treated wastewater. Haul it 40 miles offshore and spray it into the Gulf of Mexico, one of the world's most ecologically diverse bodies of water. Keep going for 85 more miles.
Wait to see what happens.
That's the state Department of Environmental Protection's plan to get rid of hundreds of millions of gallons of highly acidic wastewater from the Piney Point phosphate plant in Manatee County. It will take months to dispose of it.
State and federal regulators hope spraying the waste will lower nitrogen levels and that the environmental effect will be further diminished by the gulf's vast water.
The first barge is set to head out to the gulf in days, and the only thing scientists agree on are the risks.
"We're putting a cocktail of chemicals and nutrients in the water that no one has done before," said Mitchell Roffer, the independent scientist the fishing industry chose to review the plan. "And we don't really know what's going to happen after that."
Some experts worry the 19,500-square-mile disposal area is too close to sensitive fishing grounds and marine habitats.
Although the water will be treated before it is put into the gulf, it will contain high levels of nutrients and acidity that could cause algae blooms, killing off marine life.
"Fishermen are afraid that there's going to be some ecological effect in the spawning grounds," said Bob Spaeth, executive director of the Southern Offshore Fishing Association.
Spaeth heads a coalition of hundreds of fishermen against the plan. He's pleased with DEP's monitoring guidelines but wants the wastewater dumped farther from shore.
"It's a no-brainer that they should go further out," Spaeth said. "I don't care what the effect is. The risk is too great."
The disposal area includes the protected fishery habitats in Steamboat Lumps, Madison/Swanson and Twin Ridges, according to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, which was created by Congress to monitor sealife in the gulf.
Fishing is banned there to protect grouper and other species and to study gulf ecosystems.
"We're not really sure exactly how it might affect the habitat, but certainly if you put a load of nutrients in the water it is going to have an effect," said Steven Atran, a fishery biologist with the council.
The wastewater has changed Bishop Harbor in Manatee County in the southeastern part of Tampa Bay. In October 2002, DEP began dumping an average of 2-million gallons a day of the treated wastewater into the harbor. Six months later, DEP consultants noticed "an increased abundance" of brown algae in the harbor.
"We've seen a surge of nutrients that has led to impacts, but it's not clear that it's strictly related to the discharge" from Piney Point, said Charles Kovach, DEP environmental manager.
The outgrowth of algae in Bishop Harbor is one reason the state is in a hurry to begin the gulf disposal. The goal is to get rid of enough wastewater to close at least one of Piney Point's two gypsum stacks, end discharges into the harbor and protect Tampa Bay.
Initially, DEP officials envisioned using a series of barges to carry more than 500-million gallons out to the gulf. But they recently signed a contract to use only one barge, which will carry 7.5-million gallons per trip. That decision, which DEP officials cited as the most cost-effective approach, is likely to limit disposal to less than the amount the EPA is permitting. Their permit to dump in the gulf will expire in November, giving them just five months, and hurricanes could limit them even further.
DEP officials say the threat of a hurricane breaching one of the gypsum stacks leaves them no choice.
Pushing the disposal starting point farther west would cost time and money.
"All the scientific evidence that we've received from marine experts indicates that going 40 miles offshore is the best remedy," said DEP Deputy Secretary Allan Bedwell.
Gabriel Vargo, a University of South Florida marine biology professor, disagrees. Vargo, one of more than a dozen scientists DEP consulted, told the agency he was uncomfortable with the dumping 40 miles out.
"I think it's fraught with problems if they come in closer to shore," Vargo said, "because the physical models all show the potential harm for the nutrients returning closer to shore and exacerbating harmful blooms."
DEP officials will sample water quality in the gulf every 7 to 10 days. The monitoring sites cross a wide swath of the disposal area, but there is no plan to monitor areas near the Madison/Swanson and Steamboat Lumps fish habitats, Kovach said.
Scientists also will use satellite imagery and a sophisticated tracking buoy in the proposed dumping area. The buoy will track currents and provide other data from the disposal area. DEP will adjust if there is trouble, Kovach said.
Still, doubts persist.
"Who knows really what the effect of this soup is going to be on the gulf?" asked Roffer, the fishing industry's consultant.
- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 727 445-4182 or rondeaux@sptimes.com
