Injection wells best solution at Piney Point, truth about Israel

On Oct 3, 2021

The Piney Point phosphogypsum stacks, looking to the south. The ditch in the foreground is filled with wastewater from a breach in the containment wall of the pond at top center. To prevent catastrophic flooding, more than 200 million gallons of polluted wastewater was dumped into Tampa Bay.

Deep well injection right for Piney Point

While I generally appreciate the work of local environmental groups, I am strongly opposed to their planned lawsuit to block the construction of a deep well injection site at Piney Point, as reported Sept. 30 (“Environmental groups to sue Manatee County over Piney Point well plan”).

We all need to understand that the standard for surface water discharge is incredibly strict and there is no way to treat and purify the water in those stacks to a level that would allow continued direct discharge into Tampa Bay or any other body of water. Deep well injection is the only viable answer.

Yes, there are potential risks, but such technology has been used successfully for nearly 20 years (including at Tropicana Products, in Bradenton) with no adverse impact on the water supply.

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Further obstruction and delay of this critical project only raises the risk of another catastrophic direct release of untreated water into Tampa Bay. Rather than litigate and delay the solution, our focus should be on ensuring that this wastewater is pretreated to the cleanest level possible before being injected deep underground.

Time is of the essence and County Administrator Scott Hopes is on the right track.

Rick Dobry, Palmetto

Train military in how to admit defeat

We spent 20 years “winning” in Afghanistan, leaving in failure. Why, you wonder? What lacks in our society, and especially in the military that I served in, is the ability to admit failure and mistakes.

Our military institutions, especially West Point, Annapolis, the Coast Guard and Air Force Academy, need training that emphasizes honestly reporting problems, errors, misjudgments and failure.

We failed in Afghanistan and Vietnam because we were lying to ourselves. The lower echelon fears reporting problems, and they never find their way up through the ranks because nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. Bad news is bad for promotions.

Congress and presidents send “fact-finding teams” to these hot spots and the teams come back with glowing reports of progress and success. Meanwhile, troops are dying, vast amounts of money are being wasted and the truth on the ground is vastly different from the reports.