That Smell in Tangerine, Florida and Nearby Neighborhoods

 

  Once again, we had a Saturday night ruined by bad odors. I'd love to see Tangerine become a hub for commercials and short films again. In the past, we've had Tiger Woods, Cialis, Purina, and Labatt Blue Beer commercials shot here. I don't see how that can happen if the location managers and production companies won't shoot here due to the odor. 

On February 5, 2021, FDEP issued a Notice of Intent to Issue a wastewater permit authorizing Shelley’s to continue to operate their Biosolids Treatment Facility (BTF). The public and other stakeholders have the opportunity to provide input by petitioning FDEP for an administrative hearing within 14 days of the Notice. Rules for petitioning can be found online. A time extension to file a petition may also be requested. Either request should be made directly through the Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of General Counsel. The mailing address is 3900 Commonwealth Blvd., Mail Station 35, Tallahassee, FL 32399-3000, or via electronic correspondence at Agency_Clerk@dep.state.fl.us followed by a mailed copy of the petition.

More info on the City of Mt Dora Water Reclamation Plant upgrades at 441 and SR46, from Joe Grusauskas/ Utility & Plant Operations Director. “The project engineering task authorization will begin shortly. The new system will need to be permitted by the FDEP before it can be bid. The construction process will take a while. Staff will have a better startup schedule after the engineer submits a permit and has prepared a bid. In the meantime, the existing odor system is getting additional repairs which should help eliminate some of the airflow shortcutting. This should help knock down more odor in the interim. The new unit will be a state of art technology and sized for the buildout of the facility The upgrade was anticipated to happen with a larger plant expansion, but to be a good neighbor, Council concurred it would be best to accelerate. Thanks for taking the time to visit and learn about the facility. It takes Citizens like you to be involved to build a great utility. Joe” S...

  Nearly a year ago, the founders of "That Smell in Tangerine and Surrounding Communities" came to the conclusion that it was going to take a concerted effort to reduce the odor problems in our area.  We started out as Tangerine residents living primarily around Lake Ola and spread to Zellwood, Stoneybrook Hills, and as far North as Round Lake Road. The Tangerine Improvement Society had been encouraging members to call elected officials when there was an odor. We saw that it wasn't enough and nothing was happening to solve the problems.  It was time to step up the effort, so the Facebook page page was born on January 12, 2020. It gave residents a chance to share their experiences and to begin to reach the right people at the regulatory level. It wasn't all peaches and cream, though. At least one employee  of Shelley's Septic Tank and his/her friends were among the first members and they popped up and defended the sources of the smell, especially when it was relate...

  "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...

  I was keeping an eye out for my friend and neighbor to pick up some Christmas gifts I'd made, so when I saw a car similar to hers across the street I ran out there. Well, it wasn't my friend, it was Dr. Kane of the FDEP who was making his rounds. He was following up on some recent odor reports.  We discussed the recent odor reports I'd submitted. The wind had been coming in from the North during these occurrences so that ruled out Monterey Mushrooms, Shelley's Septic Tank, and Anuvia which isn't running anyway.  That left the landfill, the Mount Dora Wastewater Treatment plant, and, news to me, a private lift station in Stoneybrook Hills. We discussed the nature of the odor in the recent reports.  I told him about Hubbard's application to be annexed into Mount Dora and those various members of the Mount Dora City Council that had visited the Hubbard Landfill unannounced and found nothing significant. He asked if these recent odors smelled of sewage and I told ...

 

  Bless Crissy's heart, it's 6:13 am and she replies to my FB post in 3 minutes verifying that there is a known problem.  *In the wee hours of the morning when I typed this, I titled it "Northwest" which was incorrect. I fixed it when Tangerine's premier analytical mind pointed out to me what I'd done. Fixed.

  I attended the Mount Dora City Council meeting last night for the sole purpose of following up on the landfill and odor complaints we have when the wind is coming in from the North. One thing I noted right away is that simply bringing up the odor brought a lot of attention (in a good way) to allow the annexation of the landfill into Mount Dora. The landfill isn't the end-all, be-all cause of the odor problems at Sullivan Ranch It can reach a height of 205 feet and that would make it the highest elevation in the city when it reaches maximum capacity (it would be attractively landscaped and be tiered) A landscaping buffer is planned between the landfill and Sullivan Ranch within the next year or so (no definite dates) Several citizens and council members toured the landfill and only one noted an odor and that was in only one section Our questions brought out other issues such as planning and zoning concerns The facility would provide revenue to Mount Dora in the form of a portion o...

Via Maria Repass of Orange County's Environmental Protection Department Orange County Government is responding to complaints concerning objectionable odors in the Zellwood, Mt. Dora, and Tangerine areas and providing updates as new information becomes available. Working together on this complex issue, Orange County and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) are streamlining complaint processes, investigating odor concerns, providing compliance assistance to potential source facilities, and pursuing enforcement actions for violations of regulations and permit requirements. Latest actions and information • Residents continue to use Orange County’s online reporting form to submit odor complaints. Between August 24 and October 1, 2020, the County received 40 complaints concerning objectionable odors. Anuvia Florida LLC: Anuvia, FDEP, and the Orange County Environmental Protection Division (EPD) executed (signed) a Consent Order (CO) on July 21, 2020. The Order a...

There will be times that you'll need to know the wind direction. On some phones it's easy. If you're finding it confusing, check this out.   

  The post below is from  a comment on the Facebook group dedicated to the smell. -The 9/24/20 Mt. Dora City Council Meeting motion to annex the Hubbard Construction C&D (Construction & Demolition) Landfill was TABLED until October 20th, 2020 meeting. City council members intend to tour the landfill site prior to this date. The City initially noted with the annexation, they would not be responsible for jurisdiction, permitting, use, or monitoring of the landfill as they did not have the expertise or code enforcement ordinances to do so. This is a major i ssue as mitigation of smells/issues would fall solely to the Hubbard Construction and the state, FDEP. The state only inspects annually, unless called with complaints. Four different area residents spoke noting the C&D landfill, at times, creates significant smells/air quality issues and they were opposed to the annexation if the City refused to be involved with the mitigation of issues. Counsel member, C. Stiles n...

  Dear Mr. Sandersfeld, It is my understanding that Mid-Florida Materials (dump) has requested that the City of Mount Dora annex their property.  It is also my understanding that this issue is to be voted on at the city council meeting to be held on Thursday, September 24, 2020. I was wondering if you could advise me if the city will aggressively deal with the problem of the odors emanating from the dump as a condition of the annexation.   I live on Lake Ola Drive and we have had problems lately with odors from the dump.  We reported this to Lake County and when their person came out to investigate he basically said he did not believe us, that the odors could not travel this far and that he was not going to write a report.  This was told to my neighbor who had tree trimmers working at her house at the time who also verified that they could smell the objectionable odors. Our area has been vigorously fighting severe odor issues with Shelley's Septic and Anuvi...