That Smell in Tangerine, Florida and Nearby Neighborhoods

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...