A Polk County community is raising a stink over what they call an eye-watering stench again.
Residents and business owners are demanding an organic soil farm be shut down.
“It’s raw sewage. It’s untreated raw sewage,” A neighbor said.
Local business owners want the smell gone too.
“Our employees and the employees of all those businesses have to choose between leaving their business, or suck up and enjoy it,” one said.
According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Polk County Code Enforcement, the smell can be traced back to the B.S. Ranch and Farm in Lakeland.
The owners William and Brandy Stanton have refused to comment to the Lakeland Gazette about any article we have written but they the Stanton’s have threatened us with legal action twice.
What are they trying to hide? We just wonder?
They take in the trash and human waste from Polk and other counties and process it into the soil.
Stanton has told other media the company is following their state and county approved permits, and questions if the smell is entirely from them.
“The neighborhood that we’re in here produces a lot of smells. I’m not saying we don’t even have a smell,” Stanton said formally to the media.
But it’s not just neighbors who think otherwise.
Currently, B.S. Ranch and Farm has an industrial wastewater permit from Florida DEP but they have NO county business certificate to operate that type of business. They have an LTD ag business certificate.
On five separate visits, the DEP found the smell to be a problem. FDEP vs BS Ranch & farm Case # 2019-CA-000141
On 9/19/2019, the Polk County code enforcement cited the landowner which the Stanton in a different company for violation of Polk County Ordinance 16-040 Section 2 (6) “objectionable off-site odors” Case number CMA 2019-1286.