Dumping demand increases

An unexpected boost in requests for human waste sites prompts commissioners Tuesday to consider tougher rules and fewer new permits.

By JOE BLACK
Published July 12, 2004

	[Times photo: Kevin White] Sam Valez, standing in a treated field on Wednesday, says the current restrictions on treated human waste sites are adequate. He helped write them in 1989.

In a normal year, only about two permit applications for treated human waste sites would cross desks at the county Health Department.

They would be relatively easy to deal with and would get approved quickly once all the paperwork was turned in.

But this year department officials say there are at least six applications pending - the most they can remember having at one time - and more could be coming.

The increased number has caused alarm among county commissioners, and the commission is expected to debate a new ordinance Tuesday that could dramatically curtail new permits for spreading treated human waste on Hernando properties.

The new plan would expand the amount of space between a dumping site and its neighbor and would allow more inspections by the county Health Department. It would need to be approved by a majority of commissioners at their meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

"We're not just making up this problem and pulling it out of the sky," said Commissioner Diane Rowden, who pushed for a moratorium on permitting in June. "We need to look out for the future of this county and the people here."

Rowden said tightened restrictions in other counties - such as DeSoto - are pushing people who spread waste to look elsewhere in the state, and they are beginning to target Hernando, which she said has relatively light restrictions.

The proposed ordinance would increase at least fivefold the amount of space between a property line and where treated waste could be spread. Currently that space is set at 100 feet.

It also would increase the space between spreading and a home from 300 feet to 500 feet, and increase the space separating spreading and private wells from 300 feet to 500 feet.

County health officials would be given the right to monitor sites at any time. They currently are mandated to inspect sites twice a year but usually do it more.

There are 12 active spreading sites throughout the county that handle waste pulled from septic tanks and from waste treatment plants.

Both types of waste are heavily treated and rarely pose environmental problems, said Sam Valez, a county environmental supervisor.

He said the current restrictions, which he helped write in 1989, are adequate to prevent problems for neighbors, while still allowing the waste to be used as fertilizer for farmers.

"It's all natural and safe," said Valez, who does most of the county's inspections on the sites. "It's better than putting artificial fertilizer on the ground that could cause problems."

Most of the sites are not near large numbers of homes because the spreading land must be zoned agriculture and used in that fashion, he said.

Walking through a dumping site off Lockhart Road last week, Valez said the waste does not leave an odor that lingers more than 100 feet. Sure, odd wind patterns can occasionally cause a problem, and people who really are trying to smell for foul air may. But, for the most part, neighbors do not notice, he said.

More than 90 percent of the spreading is water that is absorbed into the ground and helps grow hay or fuller grass for cattle to graze upon.

"People don't like the idea of this being near their houses, but it has to go somewhere," Valez said.

However, when residents near a spreading site on Trinity Road in northwest Hernando County complained to commissioners, they began looking at possible ways to tighten up the permitting requirements. Commissioners unanimously agreed in May that more stringent restrictions needed to be debated.

"We do need to beef up this ordinance, and we need to increase the number of inspections," said Nancy Robinson, commission chairwoman.

Seven of the 12 dumping sites in the county are used for waste pulled from homes in the county, Health Department environmental manager Al Gray said. The remaining five sites, which have waste from treatment centers spread on them, come from Hernando and other counties. Two are operated by the county, records show.

Trinity Road residents worried that the spreading site started near their homes would foul the air, attract insects, pollute groundwater and present a health hazard.

"When people move to rural Hernando County, they aren't thinking that this stuff will be on the property next to them," Rowden said. "There might be animals, but this?"

- Joe Black can be reached at 352 754-6117 or jblack@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 12, 2004, 01:00:30]