By Lucas Daprile
February 8, 2017
TC Palm
The 317-acre farm was covered in a layer 2 feet deep with mountains piled 12 feet high and wet pools turning blue and green — but no commercial sod in sight.
Griffin liked the free “fertilizer” and Hollywood Public Utilities liked the cheaper, easier way of disposing of 10,665 tons of waste, but the smell prompted complaints.
“By the time you got to it, you had to drive off,” said Diane Lee Pendleton, a Palm Beach property appraiser agriculture manager who inspected the farm three times in 2014 and 2015. “You weren’t able to continue to stay there and smell it. You had to get away. It was that strong.”
Though the waste-dumping is legal by state standards, it took the county’s threat to revoke Griffin’s agricultural property tax exemption and an out-of-court settlement for him to agree to curb how much waste he spreads on his farm in the Everglades Agricultural Area, south of Lake Okeechobee.
Like nearly all farms in the muck-rich EAA, Griffin’s soil already had plenty of phosphorus, tests show. Even if his soil were depleted, the amount of waste he used in 2015 alone would have lasted him at least 20 years, according to TCPalm’s calculations based on the state’s recommended pounds of phosphorus per acre per year for sod.
During heavy rains, excess nutrients run into nearby watersheds, where they can feed potentially toxic algae blooms. The oxygen- and sunlight-choking pollution can kill fish, mussels and sea grass beds that are food for manatees and a safe haven for juvenile snook, bonefish, sea trout and other marine life.
To continue reading the complete investigation, please click on the link: http://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/investigations/2017/02/07/biosolids-pollute-florida-watersheds/97443714/