It's been three years since a spill at the Piney Point phosphate plant poured hundreds millions of gallons of polluted water into Tampa Bay.
Now, the owner is being held liable for the damage. But the plaintiffs may never see any money.
A federal judge has ruled that the company that operates Piney Point owes $846,900 to environmental groups that sued after the spill.
Herb Donica, the receiver appointed by the court to close Piney Point, says HRK Holdings — which owns the plant — is broke and their only asset is land that is contaminated with toxic metals and is slightly radioactive.
“Most people who are sober and watch their pocketbooks would not have moved forward on it because they just ain't gonna collect from HRK. There's just nothing there,” Donica said.
Donica says the lead plaintiff, the Center for Biological Diversity, may never see a dime.
“What is the Center for Biological Diversity going to get from HRK?” Donica said. “As a used car salesman once told me when I took up a car that wasn't very good shape. I said, how much you give me for this car? He said, close your eyes and tell me what you see.
“I assign a negative value to that property of a quarter million, or over $200 million. Whoever wants to own it can own it because it's a liability and not an asset.”
But Ragan Whitlock, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was never the intention of the plaintiffs to get any monetary compensation.
"While the court mistakenly ordered “damages” payable to the plaintiffs – that is not what plaintiffs requested, nor can it be accepted," he wrote. "Clean Water Act claims result in civil penalties paid to the U.S. Treasury as a form of restitution for the environmental damage. Essentially, this money goes back to the environment for remediation activities assuming that HRK’s liquidated assets are able to satisfy this debt."
Representatives of the groups point out that even though HRK has filed for bankruptcy, the court issued a separate ruling paying for independent monitoring of the spill's ongoing impact on the water quality in Tampa Bay.
A court ruled in favor of the environmental groups in July.
"In my mind, the most important result of this case is that the court found the discharge of phosphogypsum and process wastewater was unpermitted," Whitlock said. "The Florida Department of Environmental Protection allowed HRK Holdings to operate without a lawfully issued Clean Water Act permit for more than 20 years, as the previous permit expired March 25, 2001. The Department did not issue a new permit for this site until September 5, 2024, years after the pollution event and the start of this litigation. This inaction by state regulators directly led to the massive pollution event. The company then went into bankruptcy, leaving the Florida taxpayer on the hook for the environmental clean-up."
State environmental regulators agreed in a separate ruling to pay for independent monitoring of the spill's ongoing impact on Tampa Bay.
U.S. District Judge William Jung issued that ruling, finding that HRK had violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into Tampa Bay without a lawfully issued permit.
“State and local officials knew for years that HRK lacked the financial and operational resources to safely close Piney Point, yet watched this disaster unfold without intervention,” said Daniel C. Snyder, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and director of Public Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Project. “Tampa Bay and its local communities suffered the environmental consequences of regulators ignoring that alarm bell.”
Two months following the release, Tampa Bay experienced a red tide that killed more than 600 tons of marine life in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
“The catastrophic impacts of the Piney Point disaster will forever be a part of the history of Tampa Bay.” said Justin Tramble, executive director of Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, one of the plaintiffs. “All industries should see the value of a healthy Tampa Bay and become stewards rather than abusers. Our hope is that this ruling makes it clear that the Tampa Bay community will hold polluters accountable for irresponsible and blatant abuse that frankly belongs in the past. The future of a thriving and sustainable Tampa Bay depends on it.”
“It’s the communities that rely on these coastal waters who are left holding the bag, forced to deal with the lasting damage caused by HRK’s negligence. Suncoast Waterkeeper and our partners have stepped up to enforce the laws that the state should have been upholding all along,” said Abbey Tyrna, executive director of Suncoast Waterkeeper, another of the plaintiffs. “There is still so much work to be done to clean up after this disaster and the responsibility to protect our waters needs to be shared between the state and the community.”
Environmental officials say the millions of gallons of wastewater discharged into Tampa Bay continue to spread throughout the estuary and into Sarasota Bay, transporting tons of nitrogen and other pollutants into waterways.
Lawmakers in 2021 decided to spend $100 million to help clean up the site.
Piney Point includes hazardous phosphogypsum stacks, a byproduct of phosphate production, which took place at the site from 1966 to 1999. About 270 millions of gallon of polluted wastewater at the troubled plant is being pumped 3,000 feet below the surface.
