Sludge is returning to DeSoto County.
Under threat of a potentially costly legal case, a DeSoto County Commission vote Tuesday evening reversed an earlier decision that barred a company from setting up a sludge composting facility on private agricultural land.
The decision ended a two-decade long ban on sludge being brought into the county. Sludge, called biosolids, is the bi-product product of human waste from waste water treatment facilities. Until the early 2000s legal challenge counties and municipalities across the state sent their to DeSoto County to be spread on farmland.
More
- DeSoto County Commissioners vote no, 3-2, on biosolid sludge for placement on agriculture fields
- Decades ago DeSoto residents took on special interests and won battle over sludge; it begins again
This effectively led to the county being called the Sludge Capital of Florida.
But a grass-roots movement to stop this took hold as numerous people said the sludge was making them sick and killing cattle.
The county’s decision Tuesday allows Osceola Organics to bring up to 165 truckloads of sludge to the yet-to-be created facility to turn it into fertilizer.
The conflict between potential business partners Osceola Organics John Arnold and land owner V.C. Hollingsworth against the county centered on a proposal by Osceola Organics to build a biosolids composting facility in DeSoto County -- effectively reviving a "sludge war."
The industry-coined term for sludge is biosolids. Biosolids are the remains of treated human waste from waste-water treatment facilities. Osceola Organics would like to lease Hollingsworth’s land and create a composting facility to further break down the biosolids. Mixed with mulch, the end product can be fertilizer, according to the proposal the county heard this spring.
The DeSoto County Commission narrowly denied a special exception for the project, siding with residents whose fears echoed the battles from the late 1990s and early 2000s when the Hollingworth family was accepting sludge from municipalities all over the state and spreading in on agricultural land.
Resident Molly Bowen led the charge to rid the county of sludge decades ago against V.C. Hollingsworth’s father. Earth Justice legal team took the case pro-bono.
Bowen, one of a dozen or so plaintiffs in the case led the charge again in April against the younger Hollingsworth's plan to partner with Osceola Organics.
“It took a long time, but they did it, they stopped them," she said. " But all these years later, here comes the son. ... You know, sludge farmers, they love money at any cost to the neighbors and they don't care."
After the county nixed Osceola’s and Hollingsworth's’ proposal in April, the duo challenged the local government’s decision when it filed what is called a Request for Relief under the Florida Land Use and Environmental Resolution Act.
Such documents are typically filed when a landowner or developer believes a denied permit or zoning change unfairly burdens their property rights.
This legal document initiates a mediation process.
That what’s happened in this case. In October, the petitioners, Hollingsworth and Osceola Organics and the county participated in a hearing before a special magistrate which resulted in negotiated conditions before a sludge composting business can be created.
The conditions appear to take added safety measures than what was presented to the county in April. The April vote by the commission was 3 to 2 to deny the special request.
The agreement said that should one or more county commissioner change their mind in favor of the business proposal, then no additional legal action will be taken. The settlement that was approved Tuesday evening seems to lay legal action to rest.
The county administrator did not return a phone call from WGCU News. The station is waiting to hear back from Osceola Organics as well.
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