Florida’s governor has declared a state of emergency over concerns that a reservoir containing 400 million gallons of wastewater from a former phosphate mine may collapse and engulf the surrounding Tampa Bay area, prompting efforts to drain its contents into local waterways.
“We’re down to about 340 million gallons that could breach in totality in a period of minutes,” Manatee County’s Acting County Administrator Scott Hopes said at a press conference Sunday on current efforts to deplete the Piney Point phosphogypsum reservoir after a leak was discovered.
