Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Piney Point Owner HRK Holdings

PALMETTO, FL — Neighbors of Piney Point, a former phosphate processing plant in Palmetto that experienced a significant wastewater reservoir breach in late March and early April, have filed a class-action lawsuit against HRK Holdings, LLC, the property’s owner.

During the crisis, many homes and businesses near the site were evacuated by Manatee County due to the threat of a wall of contaminated wastewater flooding the area. The site is surrounded by phosphogypsum stacks, the radioactive waste leftover from the process of turning phosphate ore into materials used in fertilizer.

The civil lawsuit initially filed April 6 on behalf of Leigh Iannone, owner of Gulfside Dive Services, invites others “who have already suffered harm or are at imminent risk of suffering harm due to the nuisance presented by” the site to join the suit against HRK Holdings.

“(The) defendant (HRK Holdings) has allowed Piney Point to be maintained in such a poor state that it is actively leaking its toxic contents into the community, including into Tampa Bay. It is at imminent risk of catastrophic failure,” the lawsuit said. “Piney Point is a nuisance. Piney Point’s very presence and (HRK Holdings’) mismanagement of it has caused and will continue to cause damage to (the) plaintiff and other similarly-situated businesses, including the loss of business revenue.”

Levin Papantonio Rafferty, the Pensacola-based law firm representing Iannone, is offering free case evaluations to those who might want to participate in the lawsuit.

To qualify for the lawsuit, individuals must be “homeowners who were subject to evacuation orders and deprived of the use of their homes” or must have “suffered losses and damages in the form of economic and noneconomic damages,” according to the law firm’s website.

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Piney Point began operating as a phosphate processing plant in the 1960s. When Mulberry Corporation, the most recent company to use the property as a functioning phosphate plant, ceased operations in 2001, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection took over the land.

HRK Holdings purchased the property in 2006 for $4.3 million. The company was required to maintain the phosphogypsum stacks and contaminated wastewater left behind from the processing plant.

Piney Point makes up just a portion of HRK Holdings' Eastport property, which consists of 676 acres in the northwest portion of Manatee County Florida adjacent to Port Manatee. U.S. Highway 41 borders the property to the east and the west. It also has railroad access.

Just under 300 acres at the site are currently developable, according to the company's website. The site is zoned heavy industrial.

About 365 acres at the site are developed with facilities or are used as reservoirs, including the 77-acre Piney Point property. Current tenants at Eastport include Gulf Coast Bulk Equipment, International Salt Morton Salt Company, Manatee County Port Authority and Mayor Fertilizer, Inc.

On its website, HRK Holdings boasts that the property is a Greenfield site "free from environmental issues."

Small leaks were first discovered at Piney Point March 25. A larger breach was found April 3, and the county worked with regional, state and federal partners to pump more than 200 million gallons of contaminated wastewater from the reservoir and to seal the site with a fabricated metal patch. Much of the water was pumped into Tampa Bay.

State leaders have promised to permanently close the site and dedicate at least $100 million in funding to pre-treat the remaining water in the reservoir and clean up the property.

Manatee County commissioners also recently approved a plan to construct a more than $9 million deep injection well to treat and remove the remaining contaminated wastewater at Piney Point.

Bradenton Patch has reached out to HRK Holdings, Gulfside Dive Services and Levin Papantonio Rafferty for additional information.