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EPA halts dumping of waste into Gulf
The Associated
Press
PALMETTO -- Florida
will no longer be allowed to dump wastewater from a defunct fertilizer
plant into the Gulf of Mexico after the federal government rejected its
request to continue the practice.
The federal permit
allowing ocean disposal of the waste expires Sunday, and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency rejected the state's request Tuesday for
a six-month extension.
That means two ships
that have been spraying the waste into the Gulf over the past six months
will carry their last loads this week, and instead an aquatic preserve
at the mouth of Tampa Bay will again bear the brunt of the waste
disposal project.
Scientists in the Keys
monitored reports from the dumping and some feared the toxic water would
travel downstream and harm waters off the Keys. No scientific evidence
of a toxic plume was established and recent reports of discolored water
are not believed to be linked to the dumping.
The EPA allowed state
officials to dump the waste from the old Piney Point plant in the Gulf
only because it was an emergency, with hurricane season threatening
rains that could have sent untreated waste into Tampa Bay. Now the
hurricane season is nearly over and so is the emergency, EPA regional
administrator Jimmy Palmer said in a letter to the state Department of
Environmental Protection.
With the end of Gulf
dumping, the state DEP will resume discharging the treated waste into
Bishop's Harbor, a 525-acre aquatic preserve near Port Manatee that has
long been subjected to Piney Point's pollution. At least 2 million
gallons a day will be dumped into the preserve starting Monday, DEP
spokeswoman Deena Wells said.
"That's bad news for
the bay," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Jan Platt, who sits on
the Agency on Bay Management.
But the EPA decision
was praised by environmental activists from the Sierra Club and other
groups.
"This avoids setting a
national precedent that it's OK to dump waste in the ocean when you
don't know what else to do with it," said David White of The Ocean
Conservancy. |
