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PGA Village Property Owners Association, Inc. <br />2140 NW Reserve Park Trace <br />Port St. Lucie, FL 34986 <br />February 18, 2019 <br />The Hon. Ron DeSantis <br />Executive Office of the Governor <br />400 So. Monroe Street <br />Tallahassee, FL 32399 <br />Re: Use and Application of Bio -solids in Florida <br />Dear Governor DeSantis: <br />I am writing to you on behalf of the PGA Village Property Owners Association, Inc., which <br />represents more than 5,000 residents in St. Lucie County, where a large out-of-state landowner is <br />attempting to construct a bio -solids composting facility to process human waste for application <br />on agricultural land within the St. Lucie County Watershed. <br />Our residents and members are appreciative of your remarkably successful efforts to improve the <br />governance of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) which is charged with <br />regulating and ensuring water quality for 8.1 million Floridians, including those who live in PGA <br />Village communities. We also are encouraged by your environmental policies and proposals that <br />recognize serious threats to our waterways. <br />It is our hope that your leadership will result in careful review and ecologically responsible action <br />on an application filed with the SFWMD by Sunbreak Farms, LLC to modify Environmental <br />Resource Permit No. 56-00111-S for a bio -solids composting facility on the applicant's St. Lucie <br />County property which extends into Indian River County as well. <br />Bio -solids composting and land application can produce significant adverse impacts to public <br />resources, residents, and businesses in the vicinity of facilities which process domestic <br />wastewater residuals, also known as "sewage sludge". Even after removal of deadly pathogens <br />and other disease -causing and pathogen -spreading organisms, bio -solids pose a risk to water <br />supplies, food crops, and residents. Nutrient pollution is a major threat to Florida's water quality <br />as it fuels toxic algae blooms and Red Tide,and bio -solids composting is known to add large <br />quantities of nutrients to surrounding waters and groundwater. These nutrients can pollute <br />aquifers and permanently damage precious water supplies. <br />The application submitted by Sunbreak Farms fatally fails to address these critical threats to the <br />environment and to public health and safety. <br />5 <br />