Waste Connections looking for new facility to treat leachate from coal ash landfill

ST. CLOUD, Fla. — State and Osceola County leaders have no idea where liquid waste is going after it seeps through a coal-ash dump near Holopaw.

The last tank full of leachate rolled into St. Cloud’s wastewater plant at 5 p.m. Monday.

In April, Osceola County commissioners voted to allow Waste Connections to dump coal ash from Puerto Rico at the company’s landfill, a decision that has drawn protests.

Last week, city leaders voted to stop accepting the leachate at the St. Cloud wastewater facility.

Waste Connections said Friday the company has other private contracts with wastewater facilities, though it would not say where.

An official with a wastewater facility in Okeechobee County said someone representing the landfill came to him last week wanting to know if the landfill could take the leachate.

"There are things that we would have to go through and analyze and look at long before we entered into any kind of formal arrangement with the landfill in taking their leachate,” said John Hayford, Okeechobee Utility Authority executive director.

Hayford said he wants to know how much leachate is coming and how dirty it is. He said a small plant such as his can only handle so much, and he can’t have toxic metals tainting the water and biosolids he passes on to local farmers.

"There's not much to say since we haven't had any of those formal discussions with them,” he said.

With St. Cloud now out of the cleaning business, Osceola County’s embattled leaders caught another earful at a meeting Monday.

“We need to act on this now. St. Cloud took the first step last week. Now, I’m asking the county to follow suit,” said Mikala Wells, an Osceola County resident.

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