Florida declares a state of emergency: Two billion liters of sewage threaten Tampa Bay

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Aerial view of the Piney Point Reservoir in Florida.

Photo: Tiffany Tompkins / AP

A state of emergency has been declared in Florida because toxic sewage leaks from a reservoir south of Tampa.

More than 300 homes near Piney Point Reservoir have been evacuated and one highway has been closed.

On the Tampa Bay area, wastewater from an old phosphate factory containing phosphorus and nitrogen is stored in three large basins.

A crack was discovered on Friday in an eight-meter-deep retention basin.

There is now the risk that the corresponding protective wall collapses completely and more than two billion liters of contaminated water could flood the adjacent fields within minutes, said Scott Hopes, the minister responsible for the district.

Such a flash flood would also jeopardize the stability of the other two retention basins and they contained significantly more toxic water.

All attempts to repair the leak in the retention basin have so far been unsuccessful.

As reported by the US television station abc, attempts are currently being made to pump out the water.

However, it would take ten to twelve days to fully express.

It's not the first incident of its kind in Florida: In 2016, more than 200 million gallons of contaminated sewage from a fertilizer factory seeped into the groundwater in the US state.

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