Florida Governor DeSantis says he is trying to avoid a ‘real catastrophic flood situation’ in the Tampa area reservoir

Florida Governor DeSantis says he is trying to avoid a ‘real catastrophic flood situation’ in the Tampa area reservoir

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The governor assured the public that the water discharged in neighboring Porto Manatee is not radioactive.

The Manatee County Department of Public Security declared a state of emergency on Saturday and ordered the complete evacuation of the Piney Point reservoir site and surrounding areas due to a leak that could cause the collapse of phosphogypsum piles, radioactive waste that is created during the production of fertilizers and phosphate rock mining.

“What we are looking for now is to try to prevent and respond, if necessary, to a real catastrophic flood situation,” said DeSantis. “The objective is to guarantee the integrity of the chimney system as quickly as possible, in order to minimize impacts to local residents and to prevent uncontrolled discharge.”

Manatee County Commission Chair Vanessa Baugh assured clients of Manatee County public services that “their drinking water is completely safe to drink.”

“The water distribution system is a closed system with no way for flood water to enter,” said Baugh. “There is also no threat to our primary source of drinking water, Lake Manatee.”

The leak in the retaining wall was discovered about a week ago, and residents of the area were evacuated on Thursday, while authorities warned that the Tampa area reservoir could cause a structural collapse at any time.

DeSantis said public security officials in Manatee County sent evacuation notices to residents and businesses in the surrounding area and helped evacuate 316 homes that were in the evacuation zone near Piney Point.

Local engineers said that a controlled release was necessary to avoid a “catastrophic failure”, according to the governor. Controlled discharges that started on March 30 and continued on Sunday are about 35 million gallons a day on average, he added.

The location of the Piney Point reservoir is seen on Saturday, April 3, 2021.

The Florida National Guard is launching additional pumps, which “will be fed into surrounding watercourses”, to help rapidly decrease water levels in the reservoir, DeSantis said.

Acting county administrator Scott Hopes alerted residents, asking them to “listen” to emergency management.

“If we have a total breach, in minutes, we’ll drop to about 340 million gallons that could reach full, in a period of minutes, and models less than an hour, are as high as a wall of 20 feet of water. “said Hope. “So, if you’re in an evacuation area and you haven’t paid attention to it, you need to think twice and follow orders.”

Hopes also said that while they are not yet outside the critical area, the level of risk “has decreased significantly” and they “believe that, probably by Tuesday, we will be in a much better position”.

CNN’s Chris Boyette and Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.

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