MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Starting Tuesday, the injection well at Piney Point will start pumping water 3,300 feet into the ground.
Those in charge of the project say the water has been filtered and the entire process is safe, but with the rainy season around the corner, it’s also a race against time.
It’s been one of the biggest environmental blemishes in the history of the Tampa Bay area, now filtered wastewater will be pumped deep below the ground from the gypsum stack.
"I know that there is still some opposition to the deep well injection program," Herbert Donica, court appointed receiver for Piney Point, said. "I believe it's safe. We've got the best people working on it. It's highly engineered. It's a technology that's been around for over 70 years."
It’s the latest in what’s been a lengthy and damaging process for the bay's waterways.
"I think it was the worst thing to happen in Tampa Bay in 50 years," Dave Tomasko, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, said. "This was 200 million gallons of basically liquid fertilizer 10 times as concentrated as the worst wastewater treatment plant in our watershed."
There have been concerns that this next step will impact the quality of drinking water in the area, but officials say there are safeguards in place to ensure that won’t happen.
"The deep well injection program will send the water 3,300 feet below the surface way past the aquifer of drinking water," Donica said. 'Also, they have a monitor wall right next to it, which will be continuously testing and reviewing different pressures and results."
The state has given the project the green light, deeming it safe, and some environmental experts agree this is the best course of action
"The water that's being injected, it is being treated," Tomasko said. "So it's not the same water that came out. They've been doing a lot of work to reduce the nutrient concentrations in that."
With wet weather expected in just a few months, it’s an urgent undertaking.
"The evaporating technologies that we're currently using will get the water level down until rainy season. Then, we'll be overcome with rain." Donica said.
Donica said this whole process has been marred by numerous delays both large and small. He also said if anything were to go wrong during this portion of the site, closing the system is programmed to shut down immediately.
You can track the progress of the closing of Piney Point here.