State Extends Order to Move Fertilizer


By Suzie Schottelkotte
The Ledger
suzbiz@yahoo.com

FORT MEADE -- Florida NViro, a company that converts wastewater sludge into fertilizer, has
another 10 months to clear away the fertilizer piles at its Fort Meade plant.

Last summer, the state Department of Environmental Protection forced the company to shut down its
Fort Meade operations after nearby property owners complained about odors. N-Viro had to stop
processing any sludge by November, then had to remove the processed material from the site by
May 31.

That isn't going to happen.

The company has met each of the earlier deadlines, but won't meet this one.

"The weather just hasn't been on our side," said Harris Bowers, N-Viro's president. "We've had a lot
of rain in recent months, and that's hampered our ability to deliver our product."

Most of the company's clients grow crops, including citrus, strawberries, sod and melons, and
N-Viro delivers its fertilizer to the fields or groves.

"When it's as wet as it has been, we can't get our trucks up into the fields," he said. "We just haven't
been able to physically deliver the product."

Piles of fertilizer as tall as twostory buildings encircle N-Viro's site off U.S. 17 on Fort Meade's north
side. Bowers said he hasn't had a problem selling the fertilizer and anticipates clearing the property
as soon as the rain lets up.

Cheryl Minskey, residuals coordinator with the state DEP office in Tampa, said her office granted the
extension after reviewing N-Viro's situation.

"We conducted a site inspection last month and found that they were in compliance with the terms of
the settlement at that time," she said.

"We talked about their problems getting the product delivered because of the rain, and that is
reasonable, so we granted the extension. We recognize that it's hard to apply this product when the
ground is that wet, so we're willing to work with them."

Minskey said she and other DEP officials will monitor the NViro site in Fort Meade to ensure that the
piles continue to dwindle.

N-Viro opened its Fort Meade operations in 1996 to process sludge -- the solid material left after
sewage is treated -- into fertilizer. It didn't take long for complaints about the odor to begin.

Managers with N-Viro argued that their plant wasn't the sole source of the odor. They pointed to a
nearby landfill and a plant that processes chicken manure for fertilizer as offenders, but the DEP
wasn't convinced.

State regulators said N-Viro took steps to alleviate the odor problem, but that wasn't enough.

Bowers said he's negotiating on another site for the company's operations, but he declined to say
where that is. N-Viro also operates a facility in Daytona Beach.

Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzbiz@yahoo.com or 863-533-9070.

sludge company gains time

http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/100902/tp3ch20.htm?
date=100902&story=tp3ch20.htm

Sludge in Florida
A recent article from Florida that will be of interest to Sludge Watch List Serv
members ...

------------------------------------------------------

Ten dead manatees found recently in Southwest Florida waters and Mari Hollingsworth's
two children, who became ill while living on a DeSoto County ranch, have something in common.

They were all infected with pathogens that originate in human feces.

Hollingsworth, a Port Charlotte nurse, fears the infections could also stem from the
same source: the practice of spreading sewage sludge on cow pastures as fertilizer, a
practice approved by both state and federal agencies since 1992.

Hollingsworth wonders if the large volume of sludge currently being spread in DeSoto
County could also be spreading disease and fouling waters like Horse Creek and the
Peace River.

"Things are unfolding as time passes," Hollingsworth said this week. "You read about
manatees dying and red tide, and you think: Is there a connection?


"I believe there is, because of the amount of sludge that is going to these sites."


Hollingsworth is one of about a half-dozen citizens who have been calling for the
DeSoto County Commission to ban the spreading of "Class B" sludge in the county.


The citizens also want the ordinance to restrict the use of "Class AA," a higher
grade of sludge treated with lime. The material should be banned from the flood
plains of both Horse Creek and the Peace River, the advocates say.


The state has rules governing the use of Class B sludge, including that it is not to
be applied to soaked ground or within 200 feet of creeks and rivers.


But the use of Class AA is currently unrestricted.

The Commission listened to its citizens -- and quickly found itself drawn into a
national debate over sludge regulation as a result.


The debate has also pitted a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency microbiologist, Dr.
David Lewis, against not only the national sludge industry but also some of the top
administrators in his own agency. Lewis, who says he has been exiled to a research
office with no funding as a consequence of publishing his views, spoke of his
research at a community meeting in Arcadia at Hollingsworth's invitation last
month.

In July 2001, the Commission joined more than a dozen other Florida counties that
have passed their own sludge regulations. A couple of the counties have effectively
banned sludge by creating restrictions so onerous haulers no longer deliver the
material to those counties, according to Maurice Barker, a program administrator for
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

But the DeSoto County Commission voted 3-2 to ban the spreading of Class B sludge
outright. It also required haulers to get county permits for Class AA.


Azurix North American Wastewater Residuals Inc., the biggest sludge hauler in the region,
promptly sued DeSoto County. The company won an injunction from a federal
district court judge in September that blocked the county from banning Class B
sludge.

Azurix argues that both the DEP and the EPA allow the spreading of Class B sludge,
therefore DeSoto County has no justification for banning it.


The commission will consider a compromise ordinance at a public hearing at 9 a.m.
Tuesday in the county administration building in Arcadia. The latest draft doesn't
ban Class B, but many new restrictions would go into effect, including a 1,000-foot
setback from streams and rivers.


Whether the compromise will resolve the litigation remains to be seen.


In negotiation sessions behind closed doors, Asurix continued to object to many of
the draft provisions, said Commissioner Ronald Neads.

"Every time we'd offer something, they'd want something more," he said. "They didn't
want us to enforce anything in Double A."


Neads was one of the two commissioners who voted against banning Class B sludge. He
said the threat of litigation was his reason.


"It would have been so simple," he said, almost wistfully. "We would have passed an
ordinance and we would never have heard the name 'sludge' again."


Class B sludge is dewatered sewage that has been treated in aerobic and anaerobic
"digesters." The treatment uses microbes to reduce by some 50 times the natural
concentrations of bacteria, viruses and worms.


Class AA is further treated, commonly with lime, to reduce the pathogens virtually to
zero.

Sounding the alarm

Hollingsworth first became alarmed about sludge in 1994, after her two young children
became sick with flu-like symptoms. She suspected the illnesses were caused by the
sludge that was being spread on the V.C. Hollingsworth Ranch, where she lived with
her husband, Clyde Hollingsworth, son of the ranch owner.

But, the illnesses went away after she ran out in front of a truck that was spraying
sludge and ordered the operation to cease, Mari Hollingsworth said.

In 1998, however, both her children again became ill. This time, they were diagnosed
with rotavirus, an ailment spread by a "feces to mouth" interaction. The spraying had
resumed after Mari had moved from the ranch following a divorce, she pointed out.


Mari Hollingsworth has been a foe of the sludge industry ever since.


The Hollingsworth Ranch is the biggest of eight, totaling 16,000 acres in DeSoto
County, that accept sludge. They receive an estimated 250,000 gallons of sludge each
day, based on reports in county files.

The sludge arrives in 6,000-gallon tanker trucks. Azurix alone delivers 50 to 60
truckloads per day from 200 customers outside the county, said Jeff Snyder, Azurix
project manager. The company has operations in 36 counties.


The amount delivered in DeSoto went from 768 tons in 1992 to 13,488 in 1999,
according to a DEP report. The sludge comes from sewage treatment plants at utilities
ranging in size from small mobile home parks to large cities. Azurix attorney Michael
Ciccarone, in a letter to the county last fall, lodged objections to a proposal to
limit operations to daylight hours and weekdays.


"Contracts with Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale require us to haul 24 hours a day,
every day of the year," he said, adding that the company has "a few other contracts
like that."

Perhaps surprisingly, the hauler voiced no objection to the 1,000-foot setback to
Horse Creek and the Peace River, provided the county drop its proposed setback for
"tributaries."

"That's a major concession, because these two water bodies are not considered Class 1
Outstanding Florida Waters within the boundaries of DeSoto County," he said.


Others lobbying for DeSoto County's ordinance include residents Larry Paquin and
Tanya Bond. In 1995, they videotaped a truck dumping sludge near their ome. A herd of
cows was pictured following the truck, which was disbursing its load near the flood
plain of Horse Creek, the couple said this week.

Bond said the odors reminded her "of a Port-O-Let that hasn't been emptied in five
days."

"It's a knockout," she said. "And you can't get the smell out of your house."

Hollingsworth has also taken hundreds of pictures of sludge operations, sometimes
following the sludge trucks at night. Her pictures show mounds of a white cake-like
material dumped in piles. Some piles are within a stone's throw of a wetland.


Hollingsworth has turned such photos over to the DEP in hopes of sparking an
investigation. However, the DEP has rarely confirmed even the most minor of
allegations.

In a March 6 notice, for example, the DEP advised Azurix that its inspectors had
found two cows grazing in the vicinity of four trucks that were disbursing their loads.
However, no evidence of dumping sludge in wetlands was found, the investigator
wrote.

State rules require cows be kept off such fields for 30 days; the public must keep
out for 12 months after Class B is sprayed.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm doing their job for them," said Hollingsworth, referring
to the DEP.

A rancher's rules

"The problem isn't the sludge," said Larry Hudson, president of Hudson farms, which
receives some 60,000 gallons of sludge from Charlotte County Utilities each day. "The
problem is the delivery and distribution."

He said his ranch hands supervise haulers to make sure they obey state-mandated
setbacks and other rules.

Without supervision, the haulers have a tendency to do what ranch hands call "blowing
a load out," Hudson said.

"My policy is: They're not here to get rid of it, they're here to grow me grass," he
said.

Situated between two residential areas, Hudson farms has had few complaints, he said.
That should indicate sludge can be applied without problems, he said.

Hudson personally feels the proposed 1,000-foot setback from streams is "overkill."
But, he added that counties should regulate the operations.

"The key is having county inspectors checking to see if it's done right," he said.


Relying on the DEP to perform that task isn't sufficient, said Jerry Hill, chairman
of the DeSoto commission, .

"It's basically the honor system," he said.

"I think there's a place (for sludge)," Hill added. "I also certainly feel we've got
to have some regulation so that we can maintain some control.


"It needs to be regulated."

You can e-mail Greg Martin at gmartin at sun-herald.com

By GREG MARTIN

Staff Writer