By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A retired Bronson teacher could be one of the first victims of the Levy County Commission’s proposal to open the door to the dumping of horse manure from Marion County at Levy County composting facilities.
Jan Noble, who taught school at Bronson High School for 25 years, is dreading the day when large dump trucks begin unloading horse manure next door to her rural home just east of Williston.
An 80-acre parcel at the corner of County Road 316 and U.S. 27A has been purchased by Nature Coast Soils LLC., a firm owned by billionaire Reid Nagle and could be used as a manure composting facility.
The county commission has proposed legalizing the dumping of horse manure at composting sites in agriculture/rural residential areas of the county through a Land Development Code amendment.
Noble and her neighbors call the 80-acre site a future manure dump. They have started an online petition drive that collected 330 signatures by Friday afternoon asking for support in stopping the manure dump. The headline on the petition says, “Proposed Manure Dump Health Hazard for Williston School District.” To sign the online petition go to: https://www.change.org/p/manure-dump-health-hazard-for-williston-school-district
Nature Coast Soils LLC shares an Ocala address with All-In-Removal, a firm owned by Nagle that carries wood chips used for horse bedding to Marion County equestrian facilities and picks up and dumps the returning manure at sites outside Marion County.
The president of All-In-Removal, Michael Earnest, serves on the Levy County Planning Commission, an advisory board to the county commission that will eventually review the proposal allowing Marion County horse manure to be trucked to Levy County by Earnest’s firm for deposit on local fields.
Earnest was nominated in August of 2022 by County Commissioner Matt Brooks to serve on the Levy County Planning Commission. The full county commission gave Earnest the job a month later. The position wasn’t advertised by the county commission. Earnest said in his application he has been a friend of Brooks forever.
Brooks has agreed to do an interview with Spotlight regarding manure composting facilities in Levy County but he takes issue with the use of the word manure dumps.
“My offer still stands for an interview on composting. Maybe then we can better define what a “manure dump” is versus a “working composting facility” and maybe discuss how to control the issue through sound regulation to limit this in our county. I’m available and always stand ready to answer your questions,” Brooks wrote in a Thursday text. The interview hasn’t been set up.
The county commission has slated a public workshop for 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on May 9 to listen to citizen comments concerning its preliminary plan to allow horse manure dumping in areas zoned agriculture/rural residential. The workshop will take place at the Levy County Government Center on School Street behind the courthouse in Bronson.
Noble plans to attend the workshop along with her neighbors who feel betrayed and angry that the county commission would consider polluting the groundwater and the air in their clean, peaceful rural neighborhood by allowing the 80-acre parcel to be carpeted with a thick layer of horse manure without considering the impacts on their lives and the environment.
Noble and her husband raised two sons and both attended Williston schools. Both are career military men and are upset about the possibility that the 80-acre parcel could become a dump for Marion County horse manure.
“Both of our sons are extremely distraught about this. This is our home. This is our heritage. What’s going to happen? Just because you got a lot of money, you can do this to a county, to a country, it’s just not right. This is the way I feel – two guys have a hustle with this dude. That’s wrong,” Noble said. “Shame on our county for letting this happen, especially that Brooks dude. He grew up here. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about the county he lives in. What, just because it’s not on his road? But you got to look at the future. People are coming to Levy County to spend time fishing or whatever. Who’s going to spend time if this is what you’re welcomed with – manure dumps.”
Noble said she worked as a Spanish teacher at Bronson High School until she was in her early 70s. She decided to retire while she could still work on their small farm. She said her father, who was a career diplomat, served in Vietnam until it was no longer safe to be there in the 1970s. Her parents hunted for a long time for a place to retire in a quiet peaceful neighborhood. They found their slice of heaven near Williston. Noble said one of her sons owns property adjoining the future manure dump. She and her husband own the property bordering their son’s land.
The 80-acre parcel is about a mile-and-a-half from Williston High School and Williston Elementary School. As a retired public school teacher, Noble has concerns about the health and welfare of the Williston students posed by the manure dump. She said some of the students have respiratory problems. She said school buses are a regular sight at the intersection of CR 316 and U.S. 27A. She fears for the safety of students with heavy dump trucks coming in and out of the property as school buses pass by the property.
She also has concerns about the manure contaminating the drinking water at her farm and those of her neighbors. She said heavy rains will rinse contaminants into the aquifer. She enjoys watching wild turkey, deer, pileated woodpeckers, cranes, Ibis, and Bald Eagles on her property.
“Don’t we have a right to protest this manure dump in our neighborhood? Doesn’t the Environmental Protection Agency have anything to say about this or the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission? What about our water? That is a big concern. Is someone going to tell us our drinking water won’t be affected?” Noble said. “Where are we going to get our water when our wells are contaminated? That concerns me. The air contamination, the water contamination. What’s going to happen to the value of our property? Who is going to want to live next to a manure dump?”
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Photo by Terry Witt: The Levy County Zoning Atlas, or map, shows agriculture/rural residential areas in dark green. The county is considering a Land Development Code amendment that would allow manure composting facilities in those residential zones.
Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt April 14, 2023
Posted April14, 2023
