Sewage Dumping In Hendry Cow Pasture

LABELLE, FLORIDA -- An Indiana based company has been dumping sewage
on a Hendry county pasture for months under a contract with the Lee
county government. According to a story in the Ft. Myers News-Press,
Karle Enviro-Organic Recycling of Ft. Myers has been paid $4 million
to remove 15 million gallons of sewage from 11 Lee county treatment
plants. The company's liquid sewage tanker trucks can be seen daily
trudging east along State Road 80 in Hendry county to a private dirt
road at Goodno and then heading south about a mile where the smelly
stuff is dumped in the fields.

Landowner, and multi-millionaire Dwayne House owns the property, and
the old Goodno store, and its adjoining lands just south of the
Ortona locks in mid-Hendry county. House has a record of just doing
what he wants with his extensive land holdings. In past years, the
county wanted to put a hiking and bicycling trail down the old
railway bed that extends from the Caloosahatchee river diagonally
southwestward down the entire county, and adjacent to where the
sewage is being dumped, but was thwarted by House and adjacent
landowners who didn't want anyone using the county owned land that
might keep them from intruding next to their property. The
landowners claimed that if the county went ahead with a hiking trail
they would install a tall barrier fence along the trail to keep any
scenic views from travelers.

Just west of the dump site and on the other side of the county's
proposed rail trail, is a large parcel used as a private hunting
preserve, allegedly housing herds of exotic game. On weekends, amazed
observers on the rail trail can see a large howitzer cannon firing
rounds into a pasture. Blocking the county's rail trail is an
assembly of old wooden cattle pens and gates blocking he right of
way. (Photo above.) The county ordered the landowners to remove them from the county
land years ago, but the landowners ignored the order.

According to environmental laws, and to protect the consumer and the
public, sewage cannot be dumped where livestock is grazing nor within
200 feet of any body of water. The News-Press claims the dumping was
going on as about 50 cattle grazed nearby and said a stream was
nearby. Penalty fines can reach up to $10,000 a day for violators. A
Florida EPA manager said the company paid $1000 in April to settle a
complaint citing the discharging of waste close to water and
cattle. The EPA said the company sends 22 trucks a day to the site,
each with 6,000 gallons of sewage.

The Sunday Morning News has flown observation aircraft over the dump
site repeatedly and noted tanker trucks at the site almost
continually, but did not see any dumping going on near cattle or
water. Hendry county residents have also reported dumping allegedly
going on the north end of the Banyan subdivision of Port LaBelle and
a few miles west of Goodno and just south of State Road 80, but the
Sunday Morning News has not been able to verify that site. Emails to
the Florida EPA to inquire about Hendry sewage dump sites were unanswered.