Pond leak prompts state of emergency

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Saturday after a significant leak at a storage pond of wastewater threatened to cause flooding and collapse a system with radioactive material.

Officials in Florida were evacuating homes and a highway Saturday near the large reservoir in the area north of Bradenton on Friday. News outlets say the Red Cross has been called in to help residents.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says a break was detected Friday in one of the walls of a 77-acre pond, holding millions of water containing phosphorus and nitrogen from an old phosphate plant.

The Tampa Bay Times says the reservoir in question held about 480 million gallons of wastewater before the company that operates it began discharging some of it to Port Manatee last week. At least 25 million gallons of the water had been discharged by early Thursday.

The pond where the leak was discovered is at a phosphate plant, where there are stacks of phosphogypsum, a waste product from manufacturing fertilizer that is radioactive. It contains small amounts of naturally occurring radium and uranium, and the stacks can also release large concentrations of radon gas.

Officials worry that the collapse of the system could spew polluted water as well as more hazardous material into the area and bay.

State and local crews worked overnight to reinforce the breaches, but residents who live within a half-mile radius of the pond received an alert via text saying to leave the area immediately because a collapse was “imminent.”