of the middle Peace River has declined from to per second (38.23 to 22.65 m³/s). Each holding pond has been perceived as a risk that threatens water quality, public health, wildlife, and the regional economy. Dams restraining the ponds have overflowed or burst, sending a slurry of clay into the river, and coating the riverbed for many miles with a toxic clay slime that suffocates flora and fauna. One such incident in 1971 killed over three million fish when of phosphate waste swept into the river, causing an estimated tide of slime that spread into adjacent pastures and wetlands. Since the 1971 spill, clay settling areas are now constructed as engineered dams. In 2004, during Hurricane Frances, a phosphogypsum stack was overwhelmed by hurricane rains and the levees were breached, sending over of acidic process water into Tampa Bay. Cargill Crop Nutrition, who owned the stack, added lime into the affected areas in an attempt to neutralize the highly-acidic runoff. Due to the extraordinary amount of runoff created by the hurricane, the spill was quickly diluted and environmental damage was minimal. In a consent agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection, Cargill greatly increased its water treatment capacity at the facility. The facility is a no discharge facility and was overwhelmed by the above normal rainfall in 2004, in addition to being affected by three hurricanes. On occasion, clay slime spills have prevented the Peace River Manasota Water Supply Authority from using river flows for drinking water, forcing municipalities to seek water supplies elsewhere, or rely on stored supplies. On several occasions, the effects of heavy rainfall have created sinkholes beneath the settling ponds. In August 2016, a sinkhole opened up under a gypsum stack at the Mosaic’s New Wales fertilizer plant in Mulberry, Florida. 215 million gallons of containment water dumped into the Floridan Aquifer. Most recently in March 2021, millions of gallons of industrial wastewater from the former Piney Point fertilizer processing plant in Manatee County was released into Tampa Bay in response to the facility’s second leak in a decade. DEP permitted the controlled release into the Port of Manatee waters in Manatee Harbor to prevent such a failure. Environmental advocates are concerned about the effect that releasing nutrient-rich water once again will have on wildlife in Tampa Bay, and if red tide blooms, over the potential for economic impact. See also Bone Valley Formation - fossil