41+ Mil Gals of Acidic-Radioactive Sludge In Tampa Bay
Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:08 pm
I hope this post is appropriate for this Forum. Everyone is well aware of the toppled trees, damaged homes and loss of power, but I didn't know if others had heard about this damage done by TS Frances. Actually, Frances shares responsiblity with Cargil.
I think of an estuary as analogous to the baby nursery at the hospital. It will be years before the life in the area recovers.
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Acidic spill tops 41-million gallons
By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 7, 2004
St. Petersburg Times
TAMPA - At least 41-million gallons of contaminated water have spilled from a Riverview phosphate plant into a creek that leads to Hillsborough Bay. Another 20-million could end up in the creek by today, officials said...
...The problem was caused when a dike at the top of a 100-foot-high gypsum stack holding 150-million gallons of polluted water broke Sunday after waves driven by Hurricane Frances bashed the dike's southwest corner.
...At the point where Archie Creek meets Hillsborough Bay, the pH levels were measured at 3.1, Elrabi said. Normal levels are between 6.5 and 8.
...Gordon said the wastewater contains a tiny amount of radioactive material.
...Waterways around the western Hillsborough County shoreline are part of a highly sensitive ecosystem, said Holly Greening of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
It's a feeding ground and nursery for redfish, snook, tarpon, manatees, shrimp and crabs as well as birds such as herons, egrets and sandpipers...
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/07/Hills ... _41_.shtml
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Wastewater Spill Is Worrisome
By JOHN VAUGHAN jvaughan@tampatrib.com
Published: Sep 7, 2004
Tampa Tribune
...Cargill Crop Nutrition, a unit of Cargill Inc., faces the possibility of regulatory as well as ecological fallout from the spill that resulted from a reservoir breach amid Hurricane Frances on Sunday.
``It's a serious spill,'' Vice President Gray Gordon told a news conference Monday at company offices north of Gibsonton. ``We're very upset about this, very concerned.''
At one point, he apologetically characterized it as ``a 10 on a scale of 10.''
...The volume is in the range of the more than 50 million gallons of acidic wastewater that escaped from a burst dam at Mulberry Phosphates in 1997. That poisoned about 35 miles of the Alafia River and killed an estimated 3.1 million fish.
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB5JW6GTYD.html
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State: Cargill warned about dike problems
The Ledger - The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla.
...In an Aug. 10 letter, the state Department of Environmental Protection warned the company that a 100-foot stretch of the dike was not 18 feet wide as required. That section was 15 feet wide.
The agency also warned that water in a reservoir was so high that an inch or two of rain would raise the water to the top of the berm. The reservoir sits on top of 180-foot-high gypsum stack.
Cargill officials said they began immediately to thicken the dike, but the work wasn't finished when Frances hit.
...The berm broke in the thin section that had been noted in the state's initial warning.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /409080635
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Hurricane Spills Gallons of Acidic Waste
Newsday - Associated Press
September 8, 2004, 8:58 AM EDT
...An overflow ditch couldn't handle the spill, and for a while the company ran out of a caustic solution used to buffer acid in the escaping wastewater. Then, the storm prevented crews from beginning repairs.
http://tinyurl.com/5tlnm
OR
http://tinyurl.com/create.php?url=http: ... -headlines
**********
On channel 10, WTSP, it was also reported live during the storm that a pump failed as Cargill employees tried to reduce the amount of sludge in the retetnion pond and thus the potential environmental damage.
I think of an estuary as analogous to the baby nursery at the hospital. It will be years before the life in the area recovers.
**********
Acidic spill tops 41-million gallons
By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 7, 2004
St. Petersburg Times
TAMPA - At least 41-million gallons of contaminated water have spilled from a Riverview phosphate plant into a creek that leads to Hillsborough Bay. Another 20-million could end up in the creek by today, officials said...
...The problem was caused when a dike at the top of a 100-foot-high gypsum stack holding 150-million gallons of polluted water broke Sunday after waves driven by Hurricane Frances bashed the dike's southwest corner.
...At the point where Archie Creek meets Hillsborough Bay, the pH levels were measured at 3.1, Elrabi said. Normal levels are between 6.5 and 8.
...Gordon said the wastewater contains a tiny amount of radioactive material.
...Waterways around the western Hillsborough County shoreline are part of a highly sensitive ecosystem, said Holly Greening of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
It's a feeding ground and nursery for redfish, snook, tarpon, manatees, shrimp and crabs as well as birds such as herons, egrets and sandpipers...
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/07/Hills ... _41_.shtml
**********
Wastewater Spill Is Worrisome
By JOHN VAUGHAN jvaughan@tampatrib.com
Published: Sep 7, 2004
Tampa Tribune
...Cargill Crop Nutrition, a unit of Cargill Inc., faces the possibility of regulatory as well as ecological fallout from the spill that resulted from a reservoir breach amid Hurricane Frances on Sunday.
``It's a serious spill,'' Vice President Gray Gordon told a news conference Monday at company offices north of Gibsonton. ``We're very upset about this, very concerned.''
At one point, he apologetically characterized it as ``a 10 on a scale of 10.''
...The volume is in the range of the more than 50 million gallons of acidic wastewater that escaped from a burst dam at Mulberry Phosphates in 1997. That poisoned about 35 miles of the Alafia River and killed an estimated 3.1 million fish.
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB5JW6GTYD.html
***********
State: Cargill warned about dike problems
The Ledger - The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla.
...In an Aug. 10 letter, the state Department of Environmental Protection warned the company that a 100-foot stretch of the dike was not 18 feet wide as required. That section was 15 feet wide.
The agency also warned that water in a reservoir was so high that an inch or two of rain would raise the water to the top of the berm. The reservoir sits on top of 180-foot-high gypsum stack.
Cargill officials said they began immediately to thicken the dike, but the work wasn't finished when Frances hit.
...The berm broke in the thin section that had been noted in the state's initial warning.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /409080635
***********
Hurricane Spills Gallons of Acidic Waste
Newsday - Associated Press
September 8, 2004, 8:58 AM EDT
...An overflow ditch couldn't handle the spill, and for a while the company ran out of a caustic solution used to buffer acid in the escaping wastewater. Then, the storm prevented crews from beginning repairs.
http://tinyurl.com/5tlnm
OR
http://tinyurl.com/create.php?url=http: ... -headlines
**********
On channel 10, WTSP, it was also reported live during the storm that a pump failed as Cargill employees tried to reduce the amount of sludge in the retetnion pond and thus the potential environmental damage.
. poor animals
