ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – An unpleasant odor in parts of St. Augustine is gaining national attention.
That odor was recently the subject of an article written by Erin Brockovich, a well-known environmental activist, and Suzanne Boothby posted on the Brockovich Report.
The smell is believed to be coming from the Indianhead Biomass Services, located off County Road 214, south of Holmes Boulevard.
Some of the neighborhoods affected by the smell include Morgans Cove, Carter Road and St. Augustine Lakes.
News4JAX spoke with Kurt and Elieen Reyburn, who live in Morgans Cove subdivision. They said they bought their home six months ago.
The home is located in St. Augustine, but falls outside of city limits.
“We moved down here thinking this would be the last place we moved to,” Kurt said.
However, there’s one problem with their new home.
“Smells like human poop,” Eileen Reyburn said.
“Smells like some kind of waste material and it’s more prevalent when you get a south easterly breeze,” Kurt Reyburn said.
The Reyburns said they didn’t know the odor existed until after they bought their home — had they known, they wouldn’t have bought it.
In addition to the smell being the topic of a post on the Brockovich Report, it’s also the topic of the Facebook group Stop the Stink - Indianhead Biomass.
Indianhead Biomass Services, a business that accepts yard debris and makes compost, has been in St. Augustine for over a decade. And many subdivisions are not far from it.
The compost is made from Biosolids, which are organic matter recycled from sewage, and part of trees.
According to a log from the Florida Department of Environmental Protections, from January 2023 to February of this year, the company received hundreds of complaints for odor.
Also on the FDEP site is a record that shows the company had a Consent Order, where they had to pay $7,000. One of the reasons included things like storing biosolids outside of permitted areas.
News4JAX spoke with Heather Lane Neville, who works in planning and policy for the company.
She said Indianhead doesn’t have human feces on their property, and they are working on the smell.
“So we’re looking at replanting trees, which are a great way to manage any kind of movement of air across anything,” Lane Neville said. “You see them on interstates, to manage noise, dust, anything like that. And those we’re looking at, those are all called attenuation projects.”
She added that they are exploring ways that they can move their material around in such a way that they can lower their pile heights. That will let them put more wood chips and bio filters to cover it completely.
And the Reyburns said they hope something gets solved soon, because they’re worried about what the plant and its smell could be doing to their health.
“Breathing is difficult when it’s blowing,” Eileen said.
So they said they stay inside most of the time.
News4JAX reached out to St. Johns County to ask what could be done about the smell. We are still waiting for a response.
We also reached out to City of St. Augustine officials, who told us that since this is outside of city limits, people who are affected by the smell should not make complaints to them.
Indianhead said people can always contact them if they have an issue with the odor, so they can work to solve the problem.
