NRBR
October 26th, 2010, 08:21 PM
BUNNELL -- All sludge is not created equal.
There is sludge that is treated as required by law, first at the sewage-treatment plant and then, again, by the companies that haul it away and disperse it on designated sites across the state every day, without incident.
Then there is sludge that violates state law, the kind that was recently dumped on a Bunnell field, straight from the Daytona Beach treatment plant without any secondary treatment. It smells horrible and attracts swarms of flies, "ruining" the lives of nearby residents.
Under-treated sludge also creates conditions ripe for high levels of fecal coliform that could cause "a host of diseases" including E. coli, officials said. And, if a hard rain hits soon after it's been spread, sludge runoff can contaminate nearby lakes or streams and groundwater.
The illegal dumping -- which has happened before and agitated western Flagler County residents for years -- led the state Department of Environmental Protection to send a "notice of permit denial" to Shelley's Environmental Systems of Zellwood earlier this month. The company has until Thursday to file a petition for an administrative hearing or the DEP's proposed action for denial would become final.
"Then it moves into the court system, and there's no way to guess-timate how long it will take," DEP spokeswoman Lisa Kelley said. "Until there's a ruling, they can conduct business."
That is, they can conduct business as long as they're doing it properly, and Kelley said the company would be subject to criminal charges if it dumps under-treated sewage again.
"They, like all facilities, will be monitored closely," she said.
According to its website, Shelley's is "the industry leader in 'biosolids (residuals) management,' for over 25 years." The permit denial by the DEP puts cities that contract with them -- including Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and New Smyrna Beach -- in the position of possibly needing to find a new company quickly to haul away hundreds of tons of treated sewage each week.
Investigators from the DEP, with help from the state Department of Transportation, followed a Shelley's truck Sept. 27 from the Daytona Water Treatment Facility on LPGA Boulevard to Cowart Ranch property off County Road 305 in western Flagler County, according to DEP reports. They witnessed Douglas "Bear" Shelley and Scott Matthew Roberts "dumping raw residual waste on spread fields." Both men were charged with illegal dumping.
"This was not completely untreated waste," Kelley said. "It was treated at the water-treatment facility, but it's supposed to be further treated to reduce (fecal) coliform and vector attraction (flies)."
Dale Clegg's family still has property near the Cowart Ranch, but he no longer lives across the street from where the dumping occurred.
"It was ruining our life," he said. "The smell and the flies. I really couldn't understand why they would do this to us."
Clegg is one of many western Flagler County residents who kept after county and state officials to "do something" to keep the odor under control and the number of flies down. The DEP also found Shelley's out of compliance in August 2007 and is in court with the company now over several inspection violations found in 2008, including improper discharge.
"I've seen them come out (to dump) on Thanksgiving, and then it just sits there piled up," he said. "And then again on Christmas Eve, I tried to let my little girl enjoy the night and the full moon but had to bring her back inside."
Done correctly, "bio-solids are the primary organic solid product yielded by municipal wastewater treatment processes that can be beneficially recycled," according to the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation documentation, commonly referred to as the "Part 503 rule."
Lifelong Bunnell resident Blane Taylor said his concern is what happens to the surrounding soils and aquifer when a spread is done incorrectly.
There are "a host of diseases" associated with under-treated waste, according to Benjamin Juengst with the Flagler County Health Department.
"The most common are E. coli, shigella, giardia, cryptosporidium," he said.
All four can cause severe diahrrea, whether by virus, bacteria or parasite.
Juengst said runoff is more of a problem than what could possibly seep through the ground to the aquifer, because sunshine would kill any viruses spread on the fields. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though, there are some E. coli organisms that can survive several weeks on countertops and up to a year in materials like compost.
David Shelley, the owner of the company, has not returned repeated News-Journal calls, but Rob Cowart -- a member of the family that owns Cowart Ranch -- spoke freely.
"We don't get paid to let them dump on the land," he said while eating a large midday dinner at a long farm table in his kitchen wallpapered with cowboy boots. "But we don't have to purchase fertilizer for our land. And, you know we have poor soil here in Florida."
He doesn't worry about living on the property -- which is a stone's throw from one of many spread fields -- and his nephew Charlie Cowart jokes about playing in the "cake," as the solid residuals are called.
"Besides," the older Cowart said, "what are you going to do with it if you can't put it on the property?"
The Sept. 27 dump in Bunnell was about 25 yards, or 2,000 pounds of partially treated sewage.
"Shelley's is permitted to produce 283.8 dry tons per day for land application on agricultural sites in accordance with an approved agricultural use plan," Kelley said.
There are 10 other "residuals management facilities" besides Shelley's that work in the eight-county Central Florida region of Marion, Lake, Volusia, Seminole, Orange, Brevard, Osceola and Indian River counties. Kelley said there "has been no concern expressed" about whether the other facilities can handle the workload.
According to DEP records, Shelley's dumps bio-solids it collects from Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and New Smyrna Beach, as well as from several local RV resorts and motels, at eight sites in Volusia and Flagler counties totaling more than 3,900 acres.
In the past three years, Shelley's Environmental is the only company of the 11 that serve the Central Florida region that has had violations egregious enough that the DEP had to step in and take action through "formal enforcement," Kelley said.
Daytona Beach has had a waste-removal contract with Shelley's since 2004. The company makes three pickups a day, every day, for a total of 323 tons each week at a cost of slightly more than $35 a ton, which adds up to $11,382 per week.
"We have contacted another hauler, Florida Enviro, who has a facility at the Tomoka Landfill, and they have indicated that they could haul, treat and dispose of our sludge on short notice," Daytona Beach spokeswoman Susan Cerbone said Friday.
Other municipalities also are considering their options.
"We're uncertain whether it will affect us," said Ellen Fisher, spokeswoman with the Utilities Commission of New Smyrna Beach. "We're a little different, because we already treat ours (to a level where it can be directly spread). We are looking at our options, though."
There is sludge that is treated as required by law, first at the sewage-treatment plant and then, again, by the companies that haul it away and disperse it on designated sites across the state every day, without incident.
Then there is sludge that violates state law, the kind that was recently dumped on a Bunnell field, straight from the Daytona Beach treatment plant without any secondary treatment. It smells horrible and attracts swarms of flies, "ruining" the lives of nearby residents.
Under-treated sludge also creates conditions ripe for high levels of fecal coliform that could cause "a host of diseases" including E. coli, officials said. And, if a hard rain hits soon after it's been spread, sludge runoff can contaminate nearby lakes or streams and groundwater.
The illegal dumping -- which has happened before and agitated western Flagler County residents for years -- led the state Department of Environmental Protection to send a "notice of permit denial" to Shelley's Environmental Systems of Zellwood earlier this month. The company has until Thursday to file a petition for an administrative hearing or the DEP's proposed action for denial would become final.
"Then it moves into the court system, and there's no way to guess-timate how long it will take," DEP spokeswoman Lisa Kelley said. "Until there's a ruling, they can conduct business."
That is, they can conduct business as long as they're doing it properly, and Kelley said the company would be subject to criminal charges if it dumps under-treated sewage again.
"They, like all facilities, will be monitored closely," she said.
According to its website, Shelley's is "the industry leader in 'biosolids (residuals) management,' for over 25 years." The permit denial by the DEP puts cities that contract with them -- including Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and New Smyrna Beach -- in the position of possibly needing to find a new company quickly to haul away hundreds of tons of treated sewage each week.
Investigators from the DEP, with help from the state Department of Transportation, followed a Shelley's truck Sept. 27 from the Daytona Water Treatment Facility on LPGA Boulevard to Cowart Ranch property off County Road 305 in western Flagler County, according to DEP reports. They witnessed Douglas "Bear" Shelley and Scott Matthew Roberts "dumping raw residual waste on spread fields." Both men were charged with illegal dumping.
"This was not completely untreated waste," Kelley said. "It was treated at the water-treatment facility, but it's supposed to be further treated to reduce (fecal) coliform and vector attraction (flies)."
Dale Clegg's family still has property near the Cowart Ranch, but he no longer lives across the street from where the dumping occurred.
"It was ruining our life," he said. "The smell and the flies. I really couldn't understand why they would do this to us."
Clegg is one of many western Flagler County residents who kept after county and state officials to "do something" to keep the odor under control and the number of flies down. The DEP also found Shelley's out of compliance in August 2007 and is in court with the company now over several inspection violations found in 2008, including improper discharge.
"I've seen them come out (to dump) on Thanksgiving, and then it just sits there piled up," he said. "And then again on Christmas Eve, I tried to let my little girl enjoy the night and the full moon but had to bring her back inside."
Done correctly, "bio-solids are the primary organic solid product yielded by municipal wastewater treatment processes that can be beneficially recycled," according to the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation documentation, commonly referred to as the "Part 503 rule."
Lifelong Bunnell resident Blane Taylor said his concern is what happens to the surrounding soils and aquifer when a spread is done incorrectly.
There are "a host of diseases" associated with under-treated waste, according to Benjamin Juengst with the Flagler County Health Department.
"The most common are E. coli, shigella, giardia, cryptosporidium," he said.
All four can cause severe diahrrea, whether by virus, bacteria or parasite.
Juengst said runoff is more of a problem than what could possibly seep through the ground to the aquifer, because sunshine would kill any viruses spread on the fields. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though, there are some E. coli organisms that can survive several weeks on countertops and up to a year in materials like compost.
David Shelley, the owner of the company, has not returned repeated News-Journal calls, but Rob Cowart -- a member of the family that owns Cowart Ranch -- spoke freely.
"We don't get paid to let them dump on the land," he said while eating a large midday dinner at a long farm table in his kitchen wallpapered with cowboy boots. "But we don't have to purchase fertilizer for our land. And, you know we have poor soil here in Florida."
He doesn't worry about living on the property -- which is a stone's throw from one of many spread fields -- and his nephew Charlie Cowart jokes about playing in the "cake," as the solid residuals are called.
"Besides," the older Cowart said, "what are you going to do with it if you can't put it on the property?"
The Sept. 27 dump in Bunnell was about 25 yards, or 2,000 pounds of partially treated sewage.
"Shelley's is permitted to produce 283.8 dry tons per day for land application on agricultural sites in accordance with an approved agricultural use plan," Kelley said.
There are 10 other "residuals management facilities" besides Shelley's that work in the eight-county Central Florida region of Marion, Lake, Volusia, Seminole, Orange, Brevard, Osceola and Indian River counties. Kelley said there "has been no concern expressed" about whether the other facilities can handle the workload.
According to DEP records, Shelley's dumps bio-solids it collects from Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and New Smyrna Beach, as well as from several local RV resorts and motels, at eight sites in Volusia and Flagler counties totaling more than 3,900 acres.
In the past three years, Shelley's Environmental is the only company of the 11 that serve the Central Florida region that has had violations egregious enough that the DEP had to step in and take action through "formal enforcement," Kelley said.
Daytona Beach has had a waste-removal contract with Shelley's since 2004. The company makes three pickups a day, every day, for a total of 323 tons each week at a cost of slightly more than $35 a ton, which adds up to $11,382 per week.
"We have contacted another hauler, Florida Enviro, who has a facility at the Tomoka Landfill, and they have indicated that they could haul, treat and dispose of our sludge on short notice," Daytona Beach spokeswoman Susan Cerbone said Friday.
Other municipalities also are considering their options.
"We're uncertain whether it will affect us," said Ellen Fisher, spokeswoman with the Utilities Commission of New Smyrna Beach. "We're a little different, because we already treat ours (to a level where it can be directly spread). We are looking at our options, though."