That Smell in Tangerine, Florida and Nearby Neighborhoods

  "Report from my 12/17/20 tour of the Waste Water Plant" The Mt Dora Water Reclamation Facility on 441 and SR 46 has been in operation for approximately 12-15 years. Its’ primary function is to convert sewer wastewater into reclaimed water for irrigation purposes. The facility is operating at half its current capacity and is master-planned to be built to double its current size. Grease trap waste and septic tank waste are NOT accepted at the facility. Sludge (a compost material) extracted at the end of the reclaim process is hauled off by Shelly’s Septic for additional treatment and reuse as fertilizer. This sludge has no smell when it leaves the treatment plant site. After touring the facility, the only step that has odors is the "headworks" where the wastewater comes in and the "surge tank" where the wastewater is stored for processing. The current odor control system is carbon filtration. The carbon filters are changed out as needed. While carb...

I haven't written about the Mount Dora City Council meeting on December 15th yet for several reasons. You can listen to a recording of the meeting here.  Although I was there, I spent all of the meeting in the hallway as the room was too crowded during a pandemic, so I didn't hear much of what was going on.  Although fixing the smell is important to me, my health and my significant other's health is more important.  It was clear to me that there was no regard for Covid-19 when the decision was made to hold the meeting in the City Council Meeting Room instead of the much larger Community Room. I don't know the room measurements but I believe that it was unsafe to be in. (I have a contract tracing certificate from Johns Hopkins.) You can calculate the number of safe minutes using the square footage, ceiling height, and the number of people present here.   I don't know how big the room is but I assumed it was 1,000 square feet with 12-foot ceilings. I don't know ho...

This e-mail exchange was between a community member and someone from the FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) 12/14/2020 8:18 am On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 8:18 AM Boyles, Sean Sean.Boyles@floridadep.gov wrote: Good morning,   I received the odor complaint that you provided on December 11, 2020. I live in the area and make it a point to drive-by the WWTF in the mornings when I need to go into the office. On that morning I drove around the 4 borders of the WWTF around 6:00am in the morning. No odors from the WWTF plant were noted. I also drive down Pond Rd, which is just to the east of the plant, and observed a very light sulfur odor. And I drove to the entrance of the Stoneybrook development and no odors were observed. That afternoon I received two odor complaints. I drove back to the WWTF and noted no odors and then drove to the landfill and observed the odor from the morning.   Just to give you an update, the WWTF has been working with an engineer to resolve a...

The text of a recent e-mail chain to a Mount Dora city official regarding the odor and the response. Please note that many residents have complained and this is just information from one resident.  December 4, 2020 Dear Mr. Grusaukas, I had to go to CVS in Mount Dora last night at 10:00 p.m.  I was traveling north on 441 and when I got to Stoneybrook Parkway there was a horrible sewage smell, even with the car windows up.  When I got to the top of the hill to the water plant the smell was enough to make you gag!  I continued to smell it all the way to Renningers.   45 minutes later when I was returning home and traveling south on 441 the stench was still there.  I cannot believe the poor residents of Stoneybrook are subjected to this.  What is wrong with the water plant?  I travel to Leesburg all the time and go right past their water plant and it never smells.  Mount Dora’s water plant is also an eyesore!  It is covered in black mold an...

Odors noted in Stoneybrook and Sullivan Ranch. The is a public speaking portion of the Mount Dora City Council meetings. The Council was unaware of the odors at the October meeting as our complaints weren't getting to them. We plan to address the odors coming from the Mt. Dora Wastewater Treatment Plant on 441. I personally made a complaint in September and a city official came to my house but didn't write a report because he "didn't want it put out on the internet." We need to make our complaints heard.  

To: grusauskasj@cityofmountdora.com Letter 1 Dear Mr. Grusaukas,   I had to go to CVS in Mount Dora last night at 10:00 p.m.  I was traveling north on 441 and when I got to Stoneybrook Parkway there was a horrible sewage smell, even with the car windows up.  When I got to the top of the hill to the water plant the smell was enough to make you gag!  I continued to smell it all the way to Renningers.   45 minutes later when I was returning home and traveling south on 441 the stench was still there.  I cannot believe the poor residents of Stoneybrook are subjected to this.  What is wrong with the water plant?  I travel to Leesburg all the time and go right past their water plant and it never smells.  Mount Dora’s water plant is also an eyesore!  It is covered in black mold and looks disgusting!  Other towns have their water plants painted and they look neat and clean.   Mount Dora painted the stalls around the dumpsters in to...