BOCC Letter
On January 21, 2025, a group of us presented at the Board of County Commissioners Meeting regarding the ongoing situation with Indianhead Biomass. Below is the letter as it was presented. It details a majority, but not all, of the violations Indianhead had and details the impact the residents are experiencing. This is a good summary of the situation. Please note, that while a majority of the violations have been brought into compliance, Indianhead is still not fully compliant with their permits and the nearby residents are still experiencing the odor. The FDEP has documented the odor is still affecting the nearby neighborhoods.
“What’s that smell?” For years, our community has been plagued by the foul odor of human feces wafting through our neighborhoods. We have filed complaint after complaint in hopes that we can breathe fresh air in our own backyards or out on walks, but alas the stench prevails. Indianhead Biomass is the source and they have continuously ignored, dismissed, and dodged accountability regarding the odor even after the FDEP confirmed them to be the cause. Their long history of violations and noncompliance does not give us faith that this issue will be remedied, and we are incredibly concerned since it is our health, wellbeing, and properties at risk due to Indianhead Biomass’ failures as a biosolids facility.
In the correspondence letter from Indianhead on December 18, 2023, Indianhead states that “Morgan’s Cove is the primary source of the odor complaints beginning in February. To our knowledge, the developer, contractors, and earlier completed residents, have never made a complaint.” When the residents of Morgan’s Cove were visiting the plots in 2022, a majority of us asked our realtors and the developers “What’s that smell?” and we were lied to. We were told that it was just the smell from the new development landscaping and that it would go away once development was finished. We waited patiently, the smell coming and going, until the development was predominantly finished. When the smell didn’t go away is when the community started to look for the true source and became aware of the biosolid operations at Indianhead.
We began submitting reports to the FDEP as soon as we learned where to submit our complaints and requested help for our situation. While Indianhead may have been processing biosolids since 2018, it is important to remember that the very first Morgan’s Cove resident moved in during June of 2022, and due to what we were told by the builders, developers, and realtors, we held off on submitting complaints initially. While Indianhead would like to cite that “The odor complaints began shortly after the public notice and subsequent defeat of the redevelopment project” regarding a publicly debated third-party company whose redevelopment was ultimately defeated, we in Morgan’s Cove have no association with that situation. Correlation of the timeframe does not mean causation nor does the lack of official complaints prior to the FDEP’s documentation of them mean that the odors were not present. As stated, we smelled the foul odors and questioned them, but assumed we were being told the truth when the developers, builders, and realtors lied to us.
Indianhead claims in their correspondence that “It should also be noted, existing residents from the early 90’s have also lived on this same road and we have not received notice of complaints.” While we cannot account for whether Indianhead was properly informed of the complaints, it is untrue to state that complaints were not made by the residents who have been here prior to Indianhead’s biomass operations. Many of the neighbors we have spoken to who have lived here for longer have expressed smelling the odor now while they didn’t years ago, but they were unaware of the source initially. This includes Prairie Lakes, Entrada, Deerwood Acres, Adam’s Acres, and those off Carter Road to name a few. In fact, the first media coverage regarding the odors from Indianhead is an interview done in June 2023, with Joanne McClellan, a resident on Carter Road, who stated she and other neighbors have filed complaints with the state.
In Indianhead’s Progressive Odor Management Plan, March 2023, Indianhead vowed: “If odors create a problem for you or your neighbors from Indianhead Biomass, we commit to you to resolve the odor problem quickly and effectively [...] We do not want to cause odor problems for you or any of our neighbors and commit to you to stay a good neighbor.” In this plan, they state that if they receive an odor complaint, they will contact the Florida Department of Health to work with them on taking corrective actions. The Department of Health has not received a single odor complaint submission from Indianhead as of Jan 17, 2025. Rather than address our concerns and the problem, Indianhead has attempted to dodge accountability by pointing the finger elsewhere. They attempted to blame the third-party redevelopment being denied as to why they were getting complaints, they attempted to cite Rayonier who’d recently begun harvesting their trees as for a reason for the odor, and in their December 2023 correspondence letter, they attempted to blame the wastewater facilities that provide them with the biosolids stating “At this time, Indianhead does not have control over the quality and odor of the biosolids received from these facilities”.
Additionally, around August 2023, Heather Lane Neville, the spokesperson for Indianhead, went to the LGI Home office to provide a pamphlet about what Indianhead does and told the representative that the smell wasn’t coming from Indianhead and how it had to be from some landfill or wastewater management facility off of 16. That conversation was two months after the FDEP confirmed the odors in Morgan’s Cove to be the same odors from Indianhead and had two meetings with Indianhead regarding the odor complaints. And again, in February of 2024, a year after the confirmation that the odor was coming from Indianhead, Heather states to First Coast News “I don’t think these people aren’t smelling something. I just don’t think it’s Indianhead.” Despite their pledge to the nearby communities to be a “good neighbor”, the FDEP has noted in various inspections that Indianhead has not taken any notable corrective actions to solve the odor problem.
Indianhead has consistently stated to the FDEP, media, the city, and us “We are in compliance”, despite beginning the biomass operations out of compliance, failing to maintain compliance throughout their five years, and they are continuing to operate on a permit that expired over a year ago. In the 2022 inspection, the FDEP noted that Indianhead failed to submit stormwater BMPP, their Florida Fertilizer license, and notification forms which were due prior to the compost operation start up. The FDEP reports in the same inspection that “No Class A license operator or Certified Compost Program Manager certified by the Solid Waste Association of North America was operating since the start-up of the facility in 2018.” Indianhead was not in compliance with conducting proper field tests which require the collection and analysis to be conducted within a 15-minute holding period. Instead, Indianhead was shipping all samples to an out-of-state laboratory, in which Indianhead was unable to provide any certifications regarding the lab, and failed to report that the pH results were analyzed outside the holding time window. While thermometers were found at the facility, Indianhead failed to provide any calibration records to ensure it was properly calibrated. Additionally, when the FDEP required Indianhead to submit where they got their biosolids from since it was missing from previous documentation, Indianhead reported to the FDEP that they source from three facilities: St. Johns County, Ft. Lauderdale, and Palm Coast. However, the FDEP notes upon a follow-up inspection one month later, that biosolids were also transported in from Orange County, Ormond Beach, and Daytona wastewater treatment facilities. Indianhead failed to submit those additional agreements. Indianhead’s operations are not in accordance with their permit, and their facility treatment/operations do not match the operation set up in the submitted O&M documents.
In October of 2023, the FDEP met with Indianhead to discuss the continued odor complaints as well as the outstanding noncompliances from the 2022 inspection. During that time, the FDEP found Indianhead was still not in compliance with the site layout as required by their permit, and the FDEP still had not received the thermometer calibration reports despite discussing them at three different meetings since the initial discovery in 2022. They also note that previously, in February 2023, the Department requested records including Chain of Custody documents, laboratory reports, hauling logs, annual metals monitoring report, and other missing lab reports. Some of the submitted lab data documentation did not match the submitted monthly discharge monitoring reports. The sampled date noted on the compost submitted lab reports did not correspond to the dates of the discharge monitoring reports. Also, Indianhead had not submitted their June-August reports. The FDEP notes during this time that there is no record of any changes to address the odor situation.
As documented from December of 2023 and confirmed in March of 2024, Indianhead failed to provide the required documentation including monthly DMRs, properly completed Quality Assurance documentation including the Chain of Custody forms and Pathogen Reduction/Vector Attraction Reduction confirmation documents, and properly annotated Biosolids labels. Additionally, in March of 2024, the FDEP inspection revealed that Indianhead failed to process biosolids using the approved Pathogen Reduction and Vector Attraction Reduction methods as required by their permit, and were operating, processing, and storing wastewater biosolids outside of the permit approved zones without authorization. Indianhead did not have effective and complete berms to contain stormwater onsite and potential areas of runoff were observed. The FDEP notes, again, that Indianhead Biomass had failed to take corrective actions regarding the odor complaints including processing of biosolids within the requirements of the permit. Indianhead also had two processing and storage areas that did not have accessible perimeter roads and one 300 foot long pile of vegetative debris had been on the site longer than 18 months.
Upon follow up inspections in April 2024, the FDEP discovered that the 21,000 cubic yards of vegetative debris from the facility’s permitted zone had been transported and placed without authorization beside a St. Johns River Water Management District borrow pond located outside of the permitted zone and on Hinman Property. The transferred material was located along the slope of the borrow pond with some vegetative debris in the water.
June 2024, a compliance evaluation inspection was conducted and the FDEP found that the facility had still not completed the Chain of Custody and Lab Report documents to meet the quality assurance requirements, nor provided product labels to show that the requirements of their permit condition was being met. The facility failed to follow the modified MSAP composting method as described in their permit. Indianhead was not documenting when the Processes to Further Reduce Pathogens was met, number of composting days, and dates of windrow pile turning from the start to the end of their composting process. They still had yet to complete the required perimeter berm as well as the required roads. The FDEP found that biosolids were being processed, screened, and stored outside of the permitted zone. Indianhead was not consistently meeting the 30-day testing prior to the distribution and marketing requirement. Some compost material was stored on the site for more than a year after testing. Unauthorized storage of processed vegetative debris was found within 50 feet of a body of water. And storage of processed vegetative debris exceeding 18 months was still present.
In October of 2024, Indianhead was officially sent the Consent Order for all of the violations they had failed to correct that primarily cited the discoveries from the March, April, and June inspections as well as the violations outstanding from previous inspections. It was noted in the Consent Order that Indianhead has been operating under a permit which expired over a year ago in August of 2023.
We bring up many, but not all, of the violations of noncompliance because we want you to understand that this isn’t a new situation and that Indianhead has been improperly operating their biosolids facility since their inception in 2018. We want to call attention to the lack of integrity behind what Indianhead has vowed, agreed to, and signed off on in comparison to what they have actually done.
The surrounding neighborhoods are concerned for their health and well-being. Many of us have experienced and even gone to doctors with complaints of headaches, nausea, sinus issues, difficulty breathing, etc. since moving into this neighborhood with no prior similar issues, as well as an increased frequency of respiratory illnesses. For those who are not suffering physical symptoms related to illnesses, they are experiencing an impact to their wellbeing since they cannot freely walk their dogs, sit on their porches, go on a jog, or play with their children outside on the days in which the fecal odor is unbearable. Many residents feel trapped inside their homes and are only able to spend time outside depending on how severe the odor is that day. There is also the concern of property values considering our area is less desirable when it reeks of human feces. Others who have attempted to sell their homes have complained that potential buyers have cited the odor as the reason they won’t consider buying the home. We should not have to worry about our health, our wellbeing, and our homes being at risk due to a facility that consistently fails to operate within compliance, fails to take any notable corrective actions to fix the problem despite their vow to do so, and fails to take any accountability. Through their lack of corrective action like they vowed to do, their deceit to the FDEP, the city, and the public, and their failure to uphold the permit they agreed to abide by, they have shown they do not care about the complaints they are receiving, the community surrounding them, nor their pledge to be a “good neighbor”.
We, as a community, have no reason to believe that they will suddenly change and that is due to their actions speaking louder than their words. They were aware of the odor complaints in May of 2023 and took no notable action despite their pledge to do so. The violations in which a majority have been cited back in 2022 persisted and are cited again in the consent order in 2024. It wasn’t until the FDEP filed the official consent order with fines attached that Indianhead began to take proper corrective action. This has proven to us that they will only take action when it begins to affect them personally. They do not care for our health, our wellbeing, or being a “good neighbor” to us until it affects their pockets. And they continue to show us that to this day. On Dec 16, 2024, Joe Williams met with the media and failed to comment on anything regarding our concerns about our health and wellbeing due to the odor, instead he attempted to dismiss it all with side commentary about the groundwater despite that never being the primary concern we have expressed. He stated to the media that they were now fully in compliance; however, a quick call to the FDEP confirmed they were not. They still had outstanding violations which were not documented as completed. Even after these claims of being fully in compliance, we still smell the fecal odor coming from Indianhead in January of 2025. The core issue has gone unresolved. The only thing their actions have proven to the community is that Indianhead is committed to their lack of taking accountability and resolving this situation.
Due to their inability to operate a facility in compliance with the permit they agreed to abide by, their deceitful nature, their consistency of being noncompliant, their unwillingness to take corrective actions prior to incurring personal penalty, their choice to ignore the nearby residents despite their “good neighbor” pledge, and their failure to resolve the odor complaints they have been receiving for over two years now, we the neighbors of Indianhead, are requesting that Indianhead is forced to cease all their biomass and biosolid operations and go back to only processing yard waste. However, we would encourage you to look up the various violations and noncompliances they had when they were just a yard waste facility as well. Many of them are the same as the violations now. With their biosolid facility, they have failed to operate properly and in accordance with their vows and permits for five years. They were given incredible leniency by the FDEP, chance after chance for years, to change prior to now and they made the choice not to. We are requesting that Indianhead not be given the chance to continue to fail us, to deceive us, to cause harm to our health and wellbeing, or to put us at risk anymore. We want to be able to exist peacefully in our own backyards and breathe fresh air.
Referenced Documentation
• Re: Compliance Assistance Offer Indianhead Biomass BMF FLAB03976, December 7, 2022.
• Re: CAO Response Follow-up Indianhead Biomass BMF Facility ID No. FLAB03976, Feb 7, 2023.
• Progressive Odor Management Plan, Issue: March 20, 2023, Project #22-074 as found in: Re: Progressive Odor Management Plan File Number FLAB03976, March 28, 2024.
• Indianhead Biosolids LLC WL23-226 Attachment A Comment Response Odor Complaints, December 18, 2023, as found in the back of: Re: Progressive Odor Management Plan File Number FLAB03976, March 28, 2024.
• Re: Compliance Assistance Offer Indianhead Biomass BMF FLAB03976, October 26, 2023.
• Re: Warning Letter No. WL24-166 Indianhead Biomass Facility ID: FLAB03976, July 17, 2024.
• Subject: Department of Environmental Protection v. Indianhead Biomass, LLC, Indianhead Exploration, LLC, Quarter Cav, LLC, And Roy H. Hinman, II, OGC File No. 24-1614, Consent Order, October 18, 2024.
• 'I want the stench to stop:' Woman says an odor has invaded their part of St. Augustine, Jessica Clark, First Coast News, June 13, 2023. Link.
• What's that smell? | St. Johns County neighbors say odor 'smacks you in the face', Jessica Clark, First Coast News, Feb. 20, 2024. Link.
• ‘Stop the stink:’ St. Augustine neighbors target local business with petition after FDEP violations, Logan MacDonald, Action News Jax, Dec. 16, 2024. Link.