{"id":44238,"date":"2024-04-16T14:44:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T18:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=44238"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T18:44:13","slug":"will-the-city-of-lakeland-get-into-composting-biosolids-human-waste-there-is-money-in-poop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/04\/16\/will-the-city-of-lakeland-get-into-composting-biosolids-human-waste-there-is-money-in-poop\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the City of Lakeland get into composting \u201cBiosolids\u201d human waste? There is MONEY in poop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lakeland officials are wondering whether the city’s unwanted waste could lead to a new source of revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n

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City commissioners voted unanimously on Monday to contract Tampa-based Geosyntec Consultants Inc. to run a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether Lakeland could benefit from opening its own composting \u201cBiosolids\u201d facility. It will pay nearly $120,000 for a six-month study and report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of composting is to enhance biosolids, or treated human waste, by incorporating yard waste to produce a nutrient-rich soil additive, according to Robby Kniss. The city could use the product itself or sell it to any interested parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the city’s top-ranked Class AA biosolids are utilized as a low-grade fertilizer, Kniss said, which is about 20% solids and spread using agricultural equipment. Kniss said it’s very wet and can be hard to handle. It’s been processed this way for the past 16 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Properly treated biosolids may be used as a fertilizer supplement or soil amendment, subject to regulatory requirements that have been established to protect public health and the environment. These requirements (found in Chapter 62-640, F.A.C.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal sewage, wastewater, and biosolids (sludge) are all excluded from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) definition of hazardous waste\/hazardous materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s in biosolids that makes opponents squirm? Pharmaceuticals, steroids, flame-retardants, metals, hormones, and human pathogens, among other things.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Environmental Protection Agency found more than 100 toxins in its January 2009\u00a0Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey. However, the agency concluded that \u201cIt is not appropriate to speculate on the significance of the results until a proper evaluation has been completed and reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such risks include excessively high soil pH, nutrient leaching or runoff, and transfer of pathogens to farm animals or humans. Long-term risks are those that result from repeated biosolids applications over many years and are associated primarily with the buildup of trace elements in soils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland generates about 230 tons of biosolids a month, according to documents shared with Geosyntec. When the waste doesn’t meet Class AA standards, the city must pay $38.94 a ton to send it to the landfill. The documents say it costs Lakeland about $92 an hour, including labor and equipment costs, to haul biosolid waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz asked what if any, potential odors could be produced during the composting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We haven’t found the odors to be offensive,” Kniss said. “But what one person finds offensive, another person doesn’t find offensive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland residents residing outside city limits might be familiar with BS Farm & Ranch Inc., which accepted raw Biosolids as part of an organic waste recycling facility. Kniss said the city’s composting facility would differ from BS Farm & Ranch, as it would begin with a more highly treated product and wouldn’t accept raw sewage from septic tanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major complaint about BS Farm & Ranch Inc. is the odors and the runoff to Lake Handcock.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As the composting process would require mixing in yard waste and potential debris, city officials are considering a future site for the composting station next to its future solid waste transfer station to be constructed on Combee Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Is this an opportunity to make money, or are we just going to break even?” Kniss said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rough price of establishing a composting facility is about $60 million the city will seek out any federal or state funding opportunities that might be available. The city is also interested to see if other local municipalities are interested in a partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lakeland officials are wondering whether the city’s unwanted waste could lead to a new source of revenue. City commissioners voted unanimously on Monday to contract Tampa-based Geosyntec Consultants Inc. to run… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[8178],"class_list":["post-44238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-will-the-city-of-lakeland-get-into-composting-biosolids-human-waste-there-is-money-in-poop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}