Manatee County has more water pollution problems. Do they bring these problems on themselves? Yes, certainly they do to some extent.
This is because they invite the destructive phosphate industry into their midst, while they and the rest of us pay for it. Piney Point gypstack has caused the Manatee BOCC to wring their hands and whine while at the same time they allow more mining by Mosaic, ensuring future problems of the same.
I guess the money is just too much for them to turn down.
The waters of Tampa Bay have suffered horrible pollution because of the phosphate industry, which after more than 100 years has not been able to figure out a way to dispose of their toxic waste other than leave it around in huge piles to cause environmental problems.
Returning to the present, it is now one of their rivers that Manatee County is polluting because they have not been able to handle their wastewater.
If I lived on the Manatee River I would not be “cautiously optimistic.” I would be outraged because this could have been prevented.
So much of our wastewater infrastructure is taxed to the limit, even though Florida wants more and more population increases.
Read the complete article here at WFLA.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
9M gallons of wastewater bypassed into Manatee River; city says improvements are in the works
The bypass came as no surprise to Suncoast Waterkeeper Founder Justin Bloom.
City officials say the lawsuit helped accelerate improvement projects they already had planned. The city has begun the roughly $20 million process of re-lining the sanitary sewer pipes and manhole pipes city-wide. With the upgrade, the city says there wont be as much ‘seepage’ into the pipes during a heavy rain event, therefore making it less likely that the plant will be overwhelmed.
“The other thing we are doing is, here at the wastewater treatment plant is, we are adding another tank that will expand our capacity considerably. That goes out to bid probably next month and it will probably be done sometime next year,” said Roberts.
Residents who live near the city’s outflow on the Manatee River are eager to see the upgrades produce results for the environment. Some say they’re “cautiously optimistic.”
“I think it is a step in the right direction. It sounds like some of the projects they are talking about to improve the pipes and some of the systems. They seem to be steps in the right direction. I am assuming like most of my neighbors, we are all cautiously optimistic that they are doing the right thing now, but it is still disconcerting when you hear about 9 million gallons being discharged in the river,” said resident Paul Grivas….
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