The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has given initial approval to a Manatee County plan to inject treated water from the Piney Point phosphate plant into a well.
Members of the public will have an opportunity to submit written comments on the draft permit over the next 30 days. A public meeting to discuss the proposal will take place on October sixth in Bradenton.
Manatee County commissioners applied for the permit to build the injection system in April, after a leak in one of the reservoirs forced the release of more than 200 million gallons of contaminated water into Tampa Bay.
Officials have struggled to determine what to do with the remaining water, which sits in several ponds atop stacks of phosphogypsum, a toxic byproduct produced during the processing of phosphate.
Environmental groups have concerns that injecting water into the ground could contaminate Florida's aquifer.
