Piney Point update: Retention pond at former phosphate plant drained of water

PALMETTO, Fla. - Crews are making progress at Piney Point. The first of four gypsum stacks at the former phosphate plant have been drained of water. 

This comes more than two years after the retention pond at Piney Point began to leak, causing officials to send millions of gallons of wastewater into Tampa Bay. Crews have been working to safely close the site ever since. 

The two years of hard work since then have brought Herb Donica, the appointed receiver who oversees the property and its shut down, to this moment. 

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"This is such a great image for me, because we had water in here that we couldn’t handle, and now it’s gone," he said. 

One out of four ponds at Piney Point is now closed off for good. 

"That was our directive from the governor, to get this place shut down and sealed off and that’s what we are doing," said Donica. 

They’ve already removed 100 million gallons of treated water from Piney Point. As ponds are drained, crews are working to place sand, a protective liner and another two foot layer of dirt and grass over the top of it. 

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

The ponds are being reshaped to drain any water into a storm water management system on site. 

"The ponds will all be contoured, so they will actively drain," he said. "There will be checks and balances and pipes and ditches to capture that rain water to slow it down, so it won’t be an uncontrolled release."

For decades, Piney Point sat looming over Manatee County. With one stack now closed off, Donica can see an end in sight. 

"This is like the model home in the subdivision. This will show people what the other three will look like and how they will act, in terms of active drainage," Donica said. "This will show the public what we are doing and how it will happen out here after 23 years of frustration. This is the result. It will now be safe and controlled."

It's not just to protect Manatee County, but all of Tampa Bay. 

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

"It’s engineered for a 100-year rainfall, so I’m very confident we will never have problems with Piney Point again once we finish this project," said Donica. 

Donica said all the ponds should be closed by the beginning of 2025, but it will still take decades of monitoring to make sure the property is meeting state standards.