5 environmental stories that affected Tampa Bay in 2021 and what’s ahead in 2022

The environment dominated headlines this spring and summer in Tampa Bay, despite the enduring coronavirus pandemic, as back-to-back crises threatened the region’s namesake waterway.

Some headlines felt like they had been written before, as old problems resurfaced this year.

Heading into 2022, here’s a reminder of what happened and a cheat sheet for what to look out for next year.

Piney Point

The Piney Point property used to hold a fertilizer plant, but the only signs of it today are phosphogypsum stacks, a radioactive byproduct of the industry, looming over the landscape near the Manatee-Hillsborough county line.

In late March, workers for the site’s owner, HRK Holdings, found a leak in a plastic-lined wastewater pond inside a pile. The liner had torn, and engineers feared a complete collapse: Hundreds of millions of gallons of polluted water could surge into surrounding homes, businesses and ultimately Tampa Bay itself.

To ease pressure on the phosphogypsum stack — not so radioactive that people cannot work near it but still strictly regulated by the government — the state allowed HRK Holdings to dump contaminated water into the bay through Port Manatee. Over less than two weeks, the company pumped a year’s worth of nitrogen into one part of the estuary.

Contaminants from the Piney Point discharge flowed to other sections of the bay and off the gulf beaches. Nitrogen is fuel for algae. Scientists say a toxic Red Tide that afflicted Tampa Bay weeks later was probably worsened by the pollution (more on that below).

Fury was widespread, from longtime charter captains to local politicians to scientists to waterfront residents. The Piney Point property has festered, leaking and spilling at the water’s edge, for decades. State environmental regulators missed or ignored warning signs, allowing the threat to persist long after the plant closed.

HRK Holdings and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection spent the rest of the year scrambling to keep Piney Point from releasing more wastewater, even after the liner was patched. Workers treated and disposed of the water before summer rains could overtop the ponds.

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There have been no more big discharges so far. But the site is still not completely shut down.

Red Tide

Dead fish floated into St. Petersburg’s waters around the Fourth of July. For weeks huge, stinky plumes drifted through Tampa Bay, then out toward the gulf. Maggots crawled between fish scales and up concrete seawalls. Shrimp boats circled off waterfront parks, netting carcasses.

A toxic Red Tide bloom had not reached so high into the bay in 50 years.

Pinellas County, the epicenter, collected 1,859 tons of dead sea life and debris, said spokesperson Tony Fabrizio. The algae did not only pose a threat to marine animals, though. People reported trouble breathing at beaches, stoking fears of a drop in tourism as businesses were rebounding from the height of the pandemic.

After several weeks, Red Tide’s grip eased, but bloom concentrations continued to show up off Pinellas through the summer and into early fall. Still, visitors kept coming.

What made the bloom so bad? Scientists say winds blew an existing Red Tide this way, and a lack of rainfall left the bay in a salty state ripe for the algae to grow. The pollution dumped off Piney Point almost certainly played a role, too, offering a heaping portion of nitrogen for the organism to feast upon.

The toxic algae drew Gov. Ron DeSantis to Tampa Bay, along with top state environmental officials, who promised to send money to cover the county’s cleanup.

The total cost in Pinellas, according to Fabrizio: $3,024,625.44.

Dying seagrass

Tampa Bay is not just the region’s namesake but also helps drive tourism and livelihoods. It all depends on seagrass, though, which keeps the bay healthy and marine life thriving.

But the bay’s seagrass coverage fell short of a key goal in 2021 after years of progress. A regular survey showed a 16 percent decline, or 6,350 acres lost.

The estuary is a national gem. Fresh- and saltwater mix in its horseshoe, forming a home for a plethora of marine life like crabs, snook and dolphins. It wasn’t long ago, though, that the bay was an embarrassment. In the mid-20th century, it resembled a rotting stew, choked by algae that fed off pollution. Decades of expensive restoration projects and improved oversight of sewage disposal have helped, which is why the bay is considered an environmental success story.

But the latest seagrass losses, coupled with recent Red Tides and the Piney Point discharge, left some environmental leaders worried about its long-term outlook.

Seagrass is a cornerstone of the ecosystem, providing food and shelter for animals. Its health is a bellwether for the whole environment.

Of particular concern is a section of Old Tampa Bay near Feather Sound in Pinellas County, where an algae species called Pyrodinium is thought to be clouding the water, depriving seagrass of the sunlight it needs to survive. That area is responsible for much of the overall loss. Pollution from sewer spills and fertilizer runoff fill the water with too many nutrients, scientists say, which help algae proliferate.

The latest survey showed the bay held 34,000 acres of seagrass — still far more than its lowest point. But environmentalists caution that a few bad blooms in succession could touch off a sudden backslide, reversing years of hard-won progress.

Climate change

Florida lawmakers last year approved a suite of sea level rise policies under the name “Always Ready,” a priority of House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor. The new laws were a departure from Tallahassee’s status quo during the previous decade, when climate change rarely got a serious hearing in the Capitol.

The Legislature in 2021 steered money toward flood infrastructure projects and planning work, called for a research hub on flooding at the University of South Florida and ordered a vulnerability assessment for the state factoring in sea level rise.

In December, the governor announced a three-year plan that is supposed to supply $270 million in state money to dozens of flood defense projects. That work includes elevating parts of a water treatment plant in Oldsmar and expanding a natural shoreline bulwark at Maximo Park in St. Petersburg.

Manatees

This was the worst year on record for Florida manatees with more than 1,000 dead, many of them starving in the Indian River Lagoon on the state’s east coast due to a lack of seagrass. Ground zero for the die-off is 120 miles from Tampa Bay, but the pain has rippled across the peninsula.

Manatees are a threatened species; their designation improved from “endangered” in 2017. Some advocates and politicians are calling for them to once again be labeled endangered, to encourage stricter oversight and potentially more support.

Critical care facilities, including ZooTampa, have scrambled to help sick manatees, their pools near capacity. Clearwater Marine Aquarium is hoping to build its own rehabilitation center.

Manatees were not totally spared in Tampa Bay, either. Red Tide killed them this summer.

The epicenter of the starvation crisis, the northern Indian River Lagoon, is a scared-straight warning to the rest of the state about the fragility of estuaries harmed by pollution. A series of algal blooms, fueled in part by nutrient-laden runoff from land, have killed tens of thousands of acres of seagrass in the last decade. Manatees congregate in the lagoon each winter by the warm discharges from a power plant.

What’s next

Manatees

It’s winter again, and state wildlife officials will spend the early part of 2022 trying to avoid another spike in the mass die-off in the Indian River Lagoon. Part of that effort will include feeding manatees lettuce by hand to keep them from starving. The operation will only take place around the affected portion of the lagoon on the state’s East Coast.

Elsewhere, including in Tampa Bay, manatees typically have ample seagrass to eat. Giving food to wildlife is not recommended, because it can make animals reliant on humans. People should not take it upon themselves to feed manatees in Florida. It could be considered harassment, which is illegal.

Even with additional rescue teams and backup feeding, the state expects more manatees to die in early 2022. It will take years to restore lost seagrass acreage. Manatees will surely keep returning to the warm water around a power plant in Brevard County, where they will not have enough food, as temperatures drop.

Climate change and Tallahassee

While Florida’s elected leaders start to plan for the consequences of climate change, they have not entertained bills that would set limits for fossil fuel emissions that cause global warming.

Environmentalists say the state is only pursuing costly adaptations to sea level rise without tackling root causes. Last year, the Legislature passed laws that critics say will make it harder for cities to pursue clean energy.

This is a new battle line on climate, and it does not appear Tallahassee will move soon. When DeSantis announced the flood infrastructure plan in December, he was asked about tackling the causes of climate change. The Republican governor mentioned high gas prices — a complex supply issue that cannot be explained solely by energy policies — and said: “What I’ve found is people when they start talking about things like global warming, they typically use that as a pretext to do a bunch of left-wing things that they would want to do anyways.”

DeSantis went on to say that Florida is “a flood-prone state, we do have storms. ... Rather than just simply reacting every time something like that happens, let’s be more proactive and let’s build strong infrastructure.”

Tampa Bay’s future

As the region gets more distance from the Piney Point dump and summer Red Tide, scientists will continue to monitor the bay for long-term environmental effects.

The bloom and fish kills caused the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to temporarily ban anglers from keeping certain species caught in the bay, including redfish and trout, but that prohibition was lifted in October. Some restrictions remain in Southwest Florida after the 2017-19 Red Tide bloom ravaged the coast, sparking concerns about long-term declines in fish populations.

Local leaders are also set to conduct another survey of seagrass coverage in Southwest Florida this year, with more frequent monitoring continuing in Tampa Bay. The health of seagrass is an issue that will affect all of Florida.

Will Piney Point finally go away?

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is suing HRK Holdings, Piney Point’s owner, in state court. An independent Tampa lawyer is now managing the site day to day as a court-appointed receiver.

The state this month issued a permit to Manatee County to build a well deep underground, with the idea that treated wastewater from Piney Point will one day be pumped about 3,000 below the surface so the ponds can be closed for good. Critics from local environmental groups have tried to slow or stop that process, saying they fear it will threaten the drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer.

Meanwhile, work continues to prevent the stacks and ponds from failing again. Those efforts will likely be ongoing next summer, when another hurricane season starts and heightens Piney Point’s lingering threat to the environment.

• • •

Red Tide coverage

Tampa Bay has Red Tide questions. Here are some answers.

Is it safe to eat seafood? Here’s how Red Tide affects what you eat.

Can I go fishing? The state is limiting saltwater fishing.

Piney Point: The environmental disaster may be fueling Red Tide.

Red Tide resources

• The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a website that tracks where Red Tide is detected.

• Florida Poison Control Centers have a toll-free 24/7 hotline to report illnesses, including from exposure to Red Tide: 1-800-222-1222

• To report dead fish for clean-up in Tampa Bay, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1-800-636-0511 or file a fish kill report online.

• In St. Petersburg, call the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 or use St. Petersburg’s seeclickfix website.

• Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the county’s tourism wing, runs an online beach dashboard at www.beachesupdate.com.

How to stay safe near the water

• Do not swim around dead fish.

• Those with chronic respiratory problems should be careful and stay away from places with a Red Tide bloom. Leave if you think Red Tide is affecting you.

• Do not harvest or eat mollusks or distressed and dead fish from the area. Fillets of healthy fish should be rised with clean water, and the guts thrown out.

• Pet owners should keep their animals away from the water and from dead fish.

• Residents living near the beach should close their windows and run air conditioners with proper filters.

• Beachgoers can protect themselves by wearing masks.

Source: Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County