{"id":49489,"date":"2024-09-07T00:19:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T04:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=49489"},"modified":"2024-09-07T00:19:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T04:19:43","slug":"lakeland-organic-soil-facility-shut-down-after-years-of-bad-smells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/09\/07\/lakeland-organic-soil-facility-shut-down-after-years-of-bad-smells\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland organic soil facility shut down after years of bad smells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lakeland residents said they\u2019ve had a smelly nightmare in their backyard, but the situation could be changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is ordering an organic site to be shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BS Ranch turns trash and human waste into soil. For years, it has been blamed for the stench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organic soil facility was told to cease operations after the DEP decided not to renew the company\u2019s permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still in a lawsuit with them to make sure they permanently go away,\u201d Polk County Commissioner Bill Braswell said. \u201cBS Ranch convinced us that they could take it and handle it in a way that wouldn\u2019t produce any odors, which was completely false, and we suffered for seven years since then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, septic waste removal companies in the area have been left in a bind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow we have to travel to Hillsborough or Orange County and the surrounding counties to dispose of the waste that\u2019s generated here,\u201d said Sonny Averett, owner of Averett Septic Tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Averett is worried about the expense of transporting the waste to other facilities and the impact that will have on his customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey charge more in the other counties, and we have to haul it further so we\u2019re getting less done every day,\u201d said Averett.  \u201cThe diesel it takes to travel that far will cause residents to pay more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been exposed to it for years,\u201d said Kirk Sullivan, a nearby business owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

County commissioners are looking in options for a temporary solution as plans to build a new treatment facility take shape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn odor is transportable,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cIt can blow in the wind, and it rains down on you.  All of our employees work outside, and it rains down on them on them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new site is expected to open by the end of next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lakeland residents said they\u2019ve had a smelly nightmare in their backyard, but the situation could be changing. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is ordering an organic site to be… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","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":[9657],"class_list":["post-49489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland-organic-soil-facility-shut-down-after-years-of-bad-smells"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49489","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=49489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49490,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49489\/revisions\/49490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}