![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-61-1.png?resize=559%2C230&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBS Ranch & Farm Inc., the only facility in Polk County that disposes of human waste has shut down. Now haulers have nowhere nearby to get rid of septage. It\u2019s a problem haulers said they warned county leaders would happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, we were here a year ago. We said this day was going to come. Here it is,\u201d said Jeff Mann, owner of Mann Septic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, Mann and several other septage haulers demonstrated outside the County Administration Building and went before the Board of County Commissioners to voice their concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been dealing with it for over 15 years trying to get a permanent resolution to how we\u2019re going to dispose and treat our waste, once we pump it out,\u201d said Mann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mann said after haulers pump out a homeowner’s septic tank, they now have to travel to facilities in Tampa and Avon Park. The cost of fuel and paying drivers for time spent on the road, means homeowners will see prices go up. Instead of paying $350 it will now be $600 to have their septic tank pumped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMs. Ellie down the street cannot pay $600 to get her tank pumped. I had a lady scowler the other day, that she can\u2019t afford it. I said, ma\u2019am I surely understand,\u201d Mann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The travel distance also reduces the number of customers haulers can service each day. Many haulers and contractors fear they will go out of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not just impacting the homeowner that needs to pump out their tank. You’re impacting a family that could have children and bills, and you shut down their livelihood,\u201d Groover said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commissioners are planning to build a county-operated waste-processing facility where the haulers could bring their septage. It is not set to open until 2026. Haulers said county leaders need to create an emergency management plan in the interim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFind a workable solution that we can do, whether it be truck to truck transfers or the County helps haul some of this sludge out to other places,\u201d Mann said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Polk County is facing a septic waste crisis. About 300,000 homes and businesses use septic tanks. \u201cPolk County is growing astronomically so we need to be prepared as its citizens… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49370,"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":"14","_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":[14],"tags":[9631],"class_list":["post-49369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-polk-county-faces-septic-waste-crisis-as-processing-facility-shuts-down"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49369","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49371,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49369\/revisions\/49371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}