“A portion of the containment wall at the leak site shifted laterally<\/strong>,” said Manatee Director of Public Safety Jake Saur, after the Piney Point processing plant developed a “significant leak” according to county officials cited by\u00a0WTSP-TV<\/em><\/a>. Saur said that a “structural collapse could occur at any time<\/strong>.” Governor Ron DeSantis\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0state of emergency for the area<\/strong>\u00a0on Saturday.<\/p>\n On Friday, the Manatee County Public Safety Department sent out emergency evacuation notices to those living within a half-mile of the facility, only to expand the orders to those within\u00a0one mile<\/strong>\u00a0north, and half-mile south of the reservoir’s stacks of\u00a0phosphogypsum\u00a0<\/strong>–\u00a0a radioactive fertilizer waste product<\/strong>\u00a0left over when phosphate ore is processed into a fertilizer component.<\/p>\n Nearby stretches of highway were also closed to traffic according to the report.<\/p>\n Mandatory evacuations were extended an additional half mile west and one mile southwest of the site on Saturday evening. Manatee County Public Safety Department said that 316 households are within the full evacuation area. –CBS News<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/2021-04-03.png?itok=UHMpCBnv\")
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