Wastewater issues shut down plant
Before Anuvia Plant Nutrients sunk nearly $100 million into a new manufacturing plant in Zellwood, the fertilizer maker received assurances from Apopka leaders that the city’s aging wastewater facility could handle the company’s discharge.
But Apopka this month ordered Anuvia — which recycles waste from industrial food processors, Disney and other sources — to stop piping its wastewater to the city facility about 12 miles away.
The city forced the company to shut down just shy of its first anniversary.
“We were completely blindsided,” said Amy Yoder, CEO of Anuvia, which was forced to shut down its plant on Jones Avenue, a mile west of U.S. Highway 441.
The company’s products are used by farmers, at PGA golf courses and by groundskeepers
tending turf at the new Orlando City Stadium.
The city’s action, called “unavoidable” by spokesman Robert Sargent, is only the latest problem arising from Apopka’s wastewater plant, built in 1972 and in line for a $62 million makeover that forced the city to raise utility rates.
In late December, the state Department of Environmental Protection issued a warning letter to Apopka after an inspection of the facility found more than a dozen violations of agency rules meant to protect citizens and state waters.
Among the findings were allegations that plant operators failed to notify the agency of spills and allowed partially treated wastewater to bypass filters.
The inspection also revealed that millions of gallons of “substandard” water in a spray-field holding pond were diverted improperly to storage areas for reclaimed water, which Apopka residents use to irrigate flower beds and lawns.
DEP concluded the environmental harm was minor but unacceptable.
Then in January, Woodard & Curran, consultants hired by the city to study the failing plant, concluded its deficiencies had “root causes founded in operations, maintenance, management and administrative shortcomings.”
Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer said the city should have upgraded the plant a decade ago when legislators approved the 2004 Wekiva Parkway and Protection Act.
The law, which called for an elevated toll road through the fragile Wekiva River basin, also imposed more stringent rules for wastewater processors nearby.
Kilsheimer, elected mayor in 2014, traces the plant’s problems to “age of the system, wear and tear, environmental factors and, in some cases, general neglect over a period of years,” according to a fact sheet he drafted. The good news? “As part of the DEP’s review, we were assured no public health hazards existed within the system,” he said to concerned citizens at City Council meeting in February.
But in a March 6 letter directing Anuvia to stop piping its discharge to Apopka, city officials said the wastewater facility was “in jeopardy of major violations” of its state-issued operating permit.
The city concluded Anuvia’s processed wastewater included “excessively high amounts of organic material,” though the company’s discharge was under content limits set by the city when Anuvia started operating March 21, 2016.
Kilsheimer said the limits were not stringent enough.
Kevin Burgess, Apopka assistant public services director, recently told City Council members that buildup of sludge has the treatment plant in an “upset” state.
Explaining the decision to order Anuvia off-line, he described the condition of the city’s facility “as bad as I’ve ever seen it in my 21 years here.”
According to DEP documents, the city has fixed most of the issues identified by the state review, some of which were minor — like posting “Do Not Drink” warning signs at reclaimedwater ponds at the Zellwood State golf course and in Rock Springs Ridge.
But Kilsheimer said Apopka’s wastewater woes won’t be completely resolved until the city’s new treatment facility comes on line in fall 2018.
That’s not soon enough for Anuvia, which paid $1 million to the city before it discharged a drop of wastewater.
Its monthly utility bill from the city is about $9,000.
The company, which employs 45 people at the Zellwood plant, received state authorization last week to restart operations on a limited basis — without the use of Apopka’s treatment plant.
Anuvia built a spray field for its process water, enabling employees to return to work for the first time in 11 days.
That water must meet stricter state standards.
The company hopes to find a more permanent solution for its wastewater.
Company officials said they will continue to work with Apopka, but they no longer will consider the Zellwood site for possible expansion.
“We’ll work here,” Yoder said. “But we have other expansion opportunities, and we’ll just grow that way.”