What's Going on in Sumter?

What a week it has been. I think many are still recovering from the surprise press conference with CFO Blaise Ingoglia on Tuesday. It is not too often when someone from Tallahassee comes to town... and even rarer when they tell you the county has overspent $39 million dollars.

Bad week to be a commissioner or county administrator.

Speaking of this... I spoke with Ingoglia briefly yesterday and he walked me through all this a bit more. I will be writing about the numbers and what they mean early next week. I have a bit more research to do and all of that, but I think it will help bring some clarity...

Today, we are going to chat about something I came across on Tuesday when the agenda posted, but between the county FAFO presentation and the fair (kids are showing their 4h animals), I have not had a chance to get into it.

Commissioner Kinnard is bringing an interesting item to the board on Tuesday.

At first glance, I was like "What the heck is all this" and ignored it for the Citrus County Sheriff's Office pay study. I came back later that evening to read the presentation that was included with it.

Basically, what this is about is the Heart of Florida Landfill in Sumter County has a permit to drill a 3,000ft exploratory well. What are they exploring? The possibility to apply for a Class I Injection well for leachate disposal?

What is leachate?

When it rains at a landfill, the water seeps through the landfill waste in the containment pits. At the bottom of the pit, it accumulates. That water has to be removed somehow. At Heart of Florida, they use a pump system to pump the water out and into large holding tanks. Those tanks are then taken to a wastewater treatment plant to be disposed of.

In 2023, Heart of Florida had 12 million gallons of leachate, equivalent to about 23 gallons per minute.

The idea here, instead of collecting it in tanks to take to wastewater treatment plants, they will pump it out of a deep injection well. This well will be over 3,000 feet deep. According to the documents, the bottom of the Florida Aquifer sits around 2,000 feet. This proposes to go well below the aquifer primary confining zone into what is called the Lower Cedar Keys Permeable Zone and Upper Cretaceous Permeable Zone 1.

This map shows the drinking water levels. This proposes to be well below those layers.

In an effort to reduce leachate hauling costs, the Heart of Florida used what is called a leachate evaporator. Basically these systems evaporate the leachate through heat. They started using this system in February 2025. Local residents began to complain to FDEP that summer and the system was decommissioned in July 2025. They surrendered the permit in September 2025.

Now they are exploring this deep injection well, where they will pump out the leachate into the ground, 3000 feet below their site. This is similar to what is in place in Marion County and Pasco County.

So why are we worried about that here?

Well the diagram shows that the water flow in the aquifer is Northwest from the site. That means all of this leachate will be headed towards Citrus County.

Currently, the well is around 1400 feet deep after 13 weeks of drilling. Not quite halfway there. Once they hit the target depth, they will need to do some testing and then apply for the Class I permit if the tests are favorable.

We still have a bit to go in all this, but the concern for Citrus is the potential effects on the drinking water here. Yes, this is approximately 1000 feet below the bottom of the aquifer. In theory, the drinking water should be fine. But in theory, oil wells in the gulf are generally fine until they aren't (Deepwater Horizon) and we saw what happened with that. One mistake... one accident... and what then? The presentation states that leachate is not classified as a hazardous material despite the presence of heavy metals.

Kinnard is asking the board to write a formal letter opposing this well site. I do not see a reason why anyone would oppose that.

Why should the public take on a potential risk so that a private corporation can reduce the costs (increase profit) of removing leachate? Even if it reduces landfill costs for citizens of Sumter, not sure why citizens of Citrus should be ok with that risk.