Environmental groups lobby receiver on Piney Point deep well

MANATEE COUNTY — Suncoast Waterkeeper, Manasota 88, and Tampa Bay Waterkeeper were among several environmental groups to sign a letter sent to Herbert Donica, the attorney appointed as receiver for HRK Holdings, the site owner at Piney Point, a former phosphate processing plant that has been the source of multiple environmental catastrophes in Manatee County. The groups requested a "robust, representative, and transparent sampling effort at Piney Point.

"We write today about the present situation at the former Piney Point phosphate plant and the pending application to inject billions of gallons of process wastewater from that site just below the aquifer that millions of Floridians rely upon for drinking water and crop irrigation,” the letter stated. "On behalf of our collective members that reside in Florida, we respectfully request that you, in your role as receiver on behalf of HRK Holdings, LLC, undertake a robust, representative, and transparent sampling effort to confirm that the process wastewater proposed to be disposed of via deep well injection does not contain any hazardous constituents above the regulatory limits …”

The Center for Biological Diversity and Our Children’s Earth Foundation also signed the letter.