Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/147897
Sarasota News Leader August 2, 2013 Page 29 ids are deposited: "We don't want it to reach the groundwater, so what we require is they measure it up front." Department staff then inspects those logs to make sure companies are complying. But that permit is a moot point. Appalachian abruptly announced it was abandoning its MJ Ranch site in June. According to a letter the company sent to the Department of Environmental Protection, the last load of sludge was "received" June 5, and the site will be fully dismantled by the end of August. "We were totally in compliance," an Appalachian representative tells the News Leader. She declined to give her name. "We've been on that ranch for a long time, and we've never had any problems," the employee adds, but the property owners' "phones were blowing meet. "The state-of-the-art with biosolids is to up" with complaints, and the company deciddry it and create a product that can become ed to stop the dumping. fertilizer," says Browning. That's what ManaThat's not what the landowners say, though. tee County does, using landfill gases to fire the Terry Schrader, whose family has owned the kiln that dries the sludge. That's an "expenranch since 1978, says complaints have been sive process," Browning acknowledges, but minimal: "We had one lady who called because biosolids can also be safely deposited in lined she was concerned, but I have not fielded any landfills. telephone or any kind of written complaints Appalachian may have ceased its Myakka from anyone out there." City operation, but Bowen still wants to know Schrader, who runs a real estate company in what's sitting on her father's property. He's 79 San Antonio, FL, says it was Appalachian's years old and has planned to leave the propdecision to stop the project. "We've had a erty to Bowen and her sons. However, with great relationship with them over the course conditions as they are today, she won't let her of time," he notes. His family's property now kids or grandkids near it. covers 3,300 acres. "It's nasty," she says. "It's not right. It gives you Browning says the Appalachian permit was a headache, an instant headache. You feel like the last of its kind in Manatee County. New you've got to have a mask on." Gibbs points state rules approved in 2010 created "slightly out there are no reasons to be worried about more strict" setback requirements that some human health near the river, but Bowen's not companies have decided they don't want to convinced: "It stinks to me." %