Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vows to close wastewater plant for good after near "catastrophic" breach: "We want this to be the last chapter of the Piney Point story"
CBSN
Piney Point, the former phosphate mining facility that leaked millions of gallons of wastewater near Tampa Bay, will soon take steps toward "permanent closure," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Tuesday.
A leak broke through one of the facility's wastewater ponds last month, spewing millions of gallons of wastewater into the environment. Though officials got the leak under control last week and were able to redirect it to stay onsite instead of flowing into a nearby creek, part of that process entailed pumping untreated wastewater from the reservoir into Port Manatee, which leads into Tampa Bay. DeSantis spoke from Port Manatee on Tuesday, saying "we've made good strides" since he visited the facility on Easter Sunday, and that officials have "mitigated the imminent threat to public safety."The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau last week launched an inquiry into what the agency is calling "junk fees in mortgage closing costs." These additional fees, involving home appraisal, title insurance and other services, have spiked in recent years and can add thousands of dollars to the final cost of buying a home.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.