Piney Level, a former phosphate mining facility in Manatee County, Florida, is present process 24-hour surveillance forward of Hurricane Ian, CBS Information has discovered. The location made headlines final 12 months when a large leak was detected within the liner of a gypsum stack. The difficulty resulted in thousands and thousands of gallons of wastewater ending up in Tampa Bay and helped contribute to a devastating months-long crimson tide occasion. 

Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried advised CBS Information on Tuesday that she had spoken with Florida’s Division of Environmental Safety earlier within the day and that they don’t foresee Hurricane Ian being “an enormous drawback,” given its present forecasts. 

“Based mostly on the water that’s at the moment in Piney Level, they’ll maintain about 25 inches of rain. And pondering that we’re presupposed to get 12 to fifteen inches of rain, they don’t seem to be seeing this to be an enormous drawback,” Fried mentioned. 

Fried mentioned the division knowledgeable her that the water has been partially handled, in order that even when there’s an overflow, “it will not be of difficulty.” 

Nevertheless, the therapy of that water, she advised CBS Information, is one thing she “by no means had full belief and confidence in.”  

The location is present process 24-hour monitoring, Fried mentioned. 

The state’s devoted website for Piney Level updates final supplied info on Friday, saying that preparations additionally embody staging backup pumps and adjusting water administration ranges. There are roughly 268 million gallons within the website’s reservoir. 

In keeping with Manatee County’s evacuation maps, Piney Level is in evacuation zone B, that means that the world may see a possible surge inundation of 14 toes. 

The county issued obligatory evacuations for these in zones A and B on Tuesday. These in zone C have been really useful to evacuate.

The state is extra involved with building tools on website, which the division is within the technique of “hunkering down” and shifting offsite to keep away from heavy winds turning the equioment into projectiles. A deep injection nicely, accepted in December, is underneath building to carry the water that’s within the reservoir, and the positioning is at the moment within the preliminary technique of closing its south compartment, in keeping with the web site. A part of the method includes grading and shaping the world so it does not accumulate rainwater. 

“The secretary appears to be fairly assured that they need to be OK with the quantity of rain,” Fried mentioned. “In fact, if it was to be head-on with 140 mph sustained wind, that may be a problem. However with this simply probably being a rain occasion greater than the rest in that Piney level space, he felt assured that they might maintain the rain.”