- Named Best Florida Newspaper In Its Class -
VOL 25 No. 5
September 25, 2024
Former Piney Point owner fined for 2021 dumping BY LESLIE LAKE SUN CORRESPONDENT | llake@amisun.com
ST. PETERSBURG – A federal judge has found HRK Holdings LLC liable for the intentional dumping of wastewater from Piney Point into Tampa Bay in 2021. The discharge from the former phosphate processing facility was linked to a widespread red tide and fish kill. More than 215 million gallons of wastewater was discharged into the bay to avert the potential collapse of a phosphogypsum stack that supported a pond where the waste was stored. The Sept. 18 ruling in a lawsuit filed by five conservation groups imposed a fine of $846,900. “As a result of the lawsuit, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection separately agreed to fund independent monitoring of the Piney Point disaster’s ongoing harm to Tampa Bay’s water quality,” according to a press release
SEE PINEY POINT, PAGE 27
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY | SUBMITTED
A view of the south side of a Piney Point gyp stack. The stacks hold ponds containing wastewater from phosphate processing operations.
Shack tenants receive eviction notices
Businesses received eviction notices effective Sept. 30, but county officials said agreements will be negotiated after the October sale. BY LESLIE LAKE SUN CORRESPONDENT | llake@amisun.com
CORTEZ – Business owners on the Seafood Shack property received eviction letters effective Sept. 30, but a Manatee County spokesperson said new agreements with those businesses are possible after the county buys the property. “It is the intention of Manatee County to make every effort to establish new contracts that include county contract requirements with legacy and/or new vendors once the county is the owner of the property,” Manatee County Information Out-
reach Manager Bill Logan wrote in a Sept. 20 email to The Sun. Manatee County commissioners unanimously approved the $13 million purchase at a Sept. 5 land use meeting with the anticipated use of the property as a public boating access facility consisting of a boat ramp, dry storage facility and marina. The scheduled closing date for the sale is Oct. 7. Logan said the business owners’ properties are leased on a month-tomonth basis. “The current landlord (owner Vandyk Properties) would not agree to a sale date extension to allow the buyers (Manatee County) an opportunity to evaluate the current leases prior to closing, so the current
SEE SEAFOOD SHACK, PAGE 23
Sun archive installed at Historical Museum
The Sun is also compiling a digital archive as it enters its 25th year of publication this week. BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com
ANNA MARIA – The new Anna Maria Island Sun newspaper archive is now on permanent display at the Anna Maria Island Historical Museum. The newspapers were preserved by longtime Sun reporter and copy editor Pat Copeland, who passed away in 2023. Her husband, Doug Copeland, built the red oak bookcase that now holds the archived newspapers she saved and stacked in her home office. On Sept. 19, Copeland and AMI Historical Society board member Barb
RARE SHOREBIRD spotted on Anna Maria Island beach. 11 Page 21 Anna Maria Island, Florida
The Island’s award-winning weekly newspaper
Murphy met at the museum at 402 Pine Ave. to discuss the museum’s new installation. “Pat started saving these Island Sun newspapers and kept all of them up through 2021. She donated them to the museum and the museum wanted to get them bound” with The Sun’s cooperation, Copeland said. “I volunteered to make and donate a new bookshelf for them." Joan Bowling assisted Copeland in building the bookcase. “The beautiful, handcrafted display for The Sun’s bound archive is a heartfelt gesture we appreciate so much,” Sun Editor Cindy Lane said. The new installation coincides with The Sun beginning its 25th year serving the Island community this week.
SEE SUN, PAGE 27
STATE INVESTIGATES sewage
dumping in Manatee River. 12
AME STUDENTS, teachers, community
celebrate Peace Day. 8
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