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Part Of Spill Penalty To Go To Balm-Boyette Scrub

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

LITHIA - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has announced plans to spend more than $2.3 million from a 2002 phosphate spill penalty on a wetland restoration project at Balm-Boyette Scrub.

The money would be combined with other funding to restore and enhance up to 400 acres of mined-out land at the headwaters of Fishhawk Creek, which drains north into the Alafia River.

The proposal is available for review at www.dep.state.fl.us/southwest/ or by calling DEP spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez at (813) 632-7600, Ext. 495. The deadline for comments is March 15.

The penalty stems from a December 1997 phosphate company dam break in Polk County that released about 55 million gallons of acidic water into the Alafia River. The plume made its way more than 30 miles to Tampa Bay, killing fish and vegetation.

The company, Mulberry Phosphates, has since gone out of business. Several environmental regulatory agencies negotiated a $4.6 million settlement with the company's insurance carrier, of which about $1 million went to pay legal and administrative costs. Another $1.3 million last week was earmarked for saltwater restoration projects at MacDill Air Force Base and two spoil islands in Hillsborough Bay.
Karen Wagner of Valrico, a riverside resident and president of the Alafia River Basin Stewardship Council, objected to the selected projects to the DEP last year. She said the river continues to sustain damage from the spill, and the settlement should help cleanup of fallen trees and stabilizing eroding banks.

In an interview last year, she also criticized the project choices as too distant from the damage site at the Alafia.

Efforts to reach Wagner last week were unsuccessful.

Balm-Boyette Scrub is a 4,900-acre preserve south of Brandon and north of Wimauma. It is owned and managed by Hillsborough County. The proposed project would grade and replant old mine pits and restore a natural stream and floodplain system that was destroyed by mining.

Besides enhancing habitat for wildlife, the project is expected to improve water quality of runoff into two Alafia tributaries, according to the draft plan. The site borders farm land, the plan notes.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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