MANATEE COUNTY (WSNN) – As Piney Point’s phosphogypsum stack continues to spew water into Tampa Bay, USF scientists hop on board to help.
A team of USF marine scientists is leading the first research cruise to study Piney Point’s environmental impact. They say time is of the essence as millions of gallons of wastewater discharge into the bay.
“Timing is very important,” USF College of Marine Science Dean Tom Frazer said.
Dean Frazer says it’s paramount to mobilize these teams in an environmental situation this dire.
“What you want to do from a science perspective is understand where that material might be transported, how it might be transformed along the way, and where it might end up,” Frazer said.
Oceanographers are working with a large sampling domain.
“We can compare it essentially to the unimpacted area, so we can quantify or characterize the impacts,” Frazer said. “So if we need to respond or mitigate in some way, we’re able to do that.”
The discharged water from Piney Point is a combination of stormwater, saltwater, and dredged water that could contain nitrogen and phosphate.
“It’s fairly saline and high in nutrients, so our chemists are going to be particularly interested in looking at the fate following nitrogen and phosphorus and other nutrients in the system.”
They’re planning on looking at how the wastewater affects the water chemistry of like pH and temperature.
“The pH from there right now is about 4.56,” USF Environmental science instructor, Jim Ivey said. “The normal pH of seawater in that area is about 8.”
Scientists say the water isn’t radioactive, but it is slightly acidic. The big concern is the potential for harmful algal blooms.
“Ultimately if you have high concentrated nutrients in the water column, that certainly could stimulate phytoplankton growth, and red tide is one type of phytoplankton,” Frazer said.
This impact could have devastating effects on marine life.
“It could be anywhere from weeks to months before we really see the impact of this,” Ivey said.
The scientists say some of the test results come back immediately, but others will take weeks if not months.
