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Piney Point Cleanup: What’s the Status Five Years After the 2021 Crisis?

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Piney Point is not fully cleaned up or closed. Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) labels one reservoir compartment closed, another still undergoing closure work and a third being prepared. The emergency response to the 2021 crisis ended, but water and sediment management, engineered closure work and regulatory oversight continue.

The latest detailed DEP progress update with dated quantities located is from October 25, 2024. Those figures are a historical snapshot, not a current 2026 measurement.

What’s the state of cleanup?

“Cleanup” at Piney Point means phased closure of compartments that were used as reservoirs at a former phosphogypsum stack facility. It involves managing water and soft sediment, building protective covers and stormwater controls, and maintaining regulatory monitoring. It does not mean every contaminant has been removed or that the entire site is closed.

Compartment DEP status What that means
OGS-South Closed DEP says closure work is complete, with a protective liner, stormwater controls, and soil and grass cover.
NGS-South Ongoing Water management and removal and dewatering of soft material remain part of the closure work.
NGS-North Being prepared for closure DEP says it is no longer used to store water; its crest elevation has been reduced as part of closure work.

These are the compartment labels on DEP’s Piney Point closure page. They describe different stages of a phased project, not a single all-or-nothing site status.

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What work remains at NGS-South?

Soft material is being removed and dewatered

In its October 25, 2024 update, DEP reported that more than 330,000 cubic yards of soft material associated with Port Manatee Berth 12 dredging had been removed from NGS-South for dewatering and consolidation. This figure is cumulative through that update date; it is not a current total.

Water is managed separately

DEP reported that 285,282,676 gallons had been transferred from the site for disposal through Manatee County’s permitted Buckeye Road underground injection control (UIC) well by October 25, 2024. The same update said approximately 193 million gallons remained in NGS-South at that time. These are dated quantities, not 2026 readings.

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The transfer total changed substantially over the course of 2024: DEP’s April 5 update reported 173,942,404 gallons transferred by that date. The two cumulative totals reflect different reporting dates and should not be treated as competing measurements from the same day.

DEP describes the county well as receiving and treating non-hazardous industrial wastewater from the former facility for injection. The department says it inspects the injection well and monitoring wells to check that they are operated and maintained under regulatory requirements.

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What will permanent closure involve?

DEP’s closure plan describes a set of engineering and site-management measures, applied as compartments are prepared for closure:

  • Remove water from the reservoir compartments.
  • Use fill and new liners where needed.
  • Install stormwater controls.
  • Place a two-foot-thick soil and vegetative cover, sloped to direct clean, non-contact rainfall into the existing stormwater system.
  • Create notches in reservoir walls so the compartments no longer accumulate water.

For OGS-South, DEP says the cap area has soil and grass cover intended to reduce erosion, along with a protective liner and a new stormwater control system. NGS-South and NGS-North have not reached the same closure status.

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What changed since the 2021 emergency?

EPA’s incident profile says HRK Holdings discovered an indication of a leak on March 25, 2021. Florida DEP’s timeline says emergency-controlled discharges ceased on April 9, 2021, after the immediate threat of a catastrophic NGS-South collapse was abated. Ending that immediate emergency did not complete the longer closure project.

DEP says a court-appointed receiver, Herb Donica of Donica Receivership Services, has overseen the facility’s long-term closure since being appointed on August 25, 2021, with DEP providing regulatory oversight.

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What do permits and monitoring tell us?

DEP issued a renewed NPDES permit to the receiver on September 5, 2024. It sets discharge limits, including nutrient limits intended to protect Tampa Bay, and requires monthly and quarterly monitoring and reporting. Those requirements establish what must be monitored; a permit by itself does not show current compliance or provide current water-quality results.

Separately, Florida’s 2025 Recovery Plan Performance Report describes $185 million in total appropriations for Piney Point Reservoir Stabilization: $100 million for emergency response and expedited closure, plus $85 million for continued stabilization, water treatment and closure. The report also gives 489 million gallons of mixed process water onsite and about 40 million gallons of rainfall storage capacity in its own reporting context. Those report-period figures are not interchangeable with DEP’s October 2024 NGS-South quantities, and neither source’s figures should be presented as a current 2026 water reading.

Who is responsible for the costs?

On August 13, 2024, the Manatee County Circuit Court entered final judgment against HRK Holdings LLC, according to DEP. The judgment awarded DEP $258,132,438.91: $119,745,000 in civil penalties and $138,387,438.91 in costs and expenses. DEP says it may seek additional costs and expenses after site closure.

What can be said about progress today?

DEP’s compartment labels indicate that closure has advanced beyond the emergency phase, but the site remains in phased closure rather than being wholly closed. For precise quantities, the latest detailed DEP update cited here is dated October 25, 2024; the 2025 state report supplies separate report-period funding and site figures, not a replacement current measurement. The available status information does not establish a final whole-site closure date or current water-quality trend.

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