Piney Point study shows contaminated water spread further than initially predicted

PALMETTO, Fla. - Scientists discovered that the polluted water released during the 2021 Piney Point disaster traveled farther than they initially thought. 

In the Spring of 2021, contaminated water was released into Tampa Bay to save surrounding homes from a leaking dam at the old phosphate plant in Manatee County. 

MORE: Breach at Piney Point would pose 'significant danger to environmental and public health'

"I think it's the worst thing to happen to our local waters in decades," Dr. David Tomasko, director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, said. "And I don't think we're over it."

Tomasko co-authored a study published at the end of May, where researchers collected water samples from four selected sites, including Saint Joseph Sound near Tarpon Springs, the northernmost site. 

St. Joseph Sound was the northernmost site researchers collected water from.

"We didn't anticipate anything would happen, so it would be almost like a placebo in a medical study," Tomasko said of the Saint Joseph Sound site. 

But that’s not what they found. The team studied nitrogen levels in the water and discovered a unique chemical marker they’d never seen before. 

"Never seen before in Florida. And that was so unique that it really was able to tell us that, boy, this water made it 30 miles away," Tomasko said. 

Data essentially showed the polluted water released at Piney Point managed to get all the way up to the Tarpon Springs area.  

Contaminated water was released into Tampa Bay to save surrounding homes from a leaking dam two years ago. 

"The model from USF suggested that this plume was going to be found all over west central Florida, all the way out in the Gulf of Mexico," Tomasko said. "And this kind of suggests that the model was right."

 USF MODEL: http://ocgweb.marine.usf.edu/~liu/tracer_early.html

The polluted water they found that far away was diluted, but Tomasko said its presence is noteworthy. 

"200 million gallons of this overflow is kind of functionally equivalent to two billion gallons of sewage coming into our system in ten days. 80,000 bags of fertilizer in ten days," Tomasko said.

Scientist did not expect the polluted water to travel as far as it did.

Tomasko believes the polluted water traveled south, too. 

"We're seeing more algae in the upper part of Sarasota Bay than we've recorded in years," Tomasko explained. 

RELATED: Crews begin pumping millions of gallons of treated wastewater from Piney Point into underground well

Two months ago in April, crews began pumping the rest of the treated wastewater from Piney Point into an underground well to prevent water from going out into Tampa Bay. 

But as Tomasko points out, there are roughly two dozen other sites just like Piney Point across the state.

"We saw the impact when one of these went bad, but these things have gone bad a number of times," Tomasko said. 

The Piney Point leak sparked a major lawsuit by several local environmental groups, alleging that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and other groups long mishandled the site. At last check, these legal matters are still working their way through the court system.