Landowners wanting to fertilize using treated and dried human waste also called sludge or “biosolids” can forget about that source for at least six months.
In an effort to protect the drinking water supply to the barrier island, county officials have halted the practice for six months. On Oct. 8 the Brevard County Commission by a 5-0 vote approved the moratorium on any new landowners seeking to apply biosolids.
Virginia Barker, head of the county’s Natural Resources Management Department, said the time should allow state and federal scientists to confirm whether biosolids in stormwater contributed in July to toxic blue-green algae in Lake Washington.
Melbourne Utilities draws drinking water from the lake and it serves about 170,000 people in Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Indialantic and Melbourne Beach on the county’s barrier island – as well as Melbourne, West Melbourne and Palm Shores on the mainland.
The toxic algae bloom in July required Melbourne Utilities to treat the water further to make it safe for human consumption. But those additional steps led some customers to complain of odor, clarity and foul taste.
Lake Washington also flows west into the headwaters of the St. Johns River. The moratorium ordinance says recent tests by the St. Johns River Water Management District showed a potential link, but not a conclusive one, between biosolids and an increase of phosphorous in the river’s Upper Basin.
Melbourne Beach resident Mike Holmes asked about the county’s plans for biosolids if tests confirm a link to toxic algae.
“How does the county process the sludge?” he asked. “What are your plans for the future?”
Barker said Brevard County’s own sludge is taken to the lined landfill at the Central Disposal Facility on Adamson Street in Cocoa.
The moratorium ordinance says various utilities in South Florida counties, however, have contracts with Brevard ranchers and other landowners to take their sludge as fertilizer at no cost. It says trucking it here is cheaper than paying the fees to dispose of it South Florida’s own landfills.
Such existing business, meanwhile, is to be grandfathered under the moratorium.