Water-Related News

Composting company tries to reassure Haines City residents that plant will be fixed

HAINES CITY &ndsh; Dead animal carcasses, feces and the occasional profanity dominated the conversation during a workshop at the Haines City Public Library on Tuesday night.

The workshop was the first of three set up to create a dialogue between residents who have had complaints with a compost facility and the facility's upper management team at BCR Environmental.

The facility, which was built this summer, turns human waste into soil. Residents in the area have been complaining about a series of smells ranging from dead animals to ammonia.

"We're not the big bad wolf," said Joshua Scott, president and chief operations officer of BCR. "We hear you and we're responding."

Fred Mussari, the company's vice president of technology, said the smell was related to a less than thorough mixing of the biosolids. Mussari said Tuesday that the facility manager and two other employees had been let go.

Mussari said he was personally going to train the new and remaining staff members to do it correctly.