So what happens at Indianhead? The basics.

Indianhead Exploration’s compost journey initially began as a way to support the surrounding community after Hurricane Matthew impacted the city. The availability and willingness to properly accept yard debris became a staple of the operation. The owner always envisioned using the land with businesses that would support area residents and their families with services and products, while preserving rural sentiment and open space.

With the recognition that biosolids from the city and county waste are an excellent way of providing moisture to yard debris and a nutrient source when combined, composting was born and with it a full-circle solution to “big waste”, or as we call it, excess materials issues. The facility as it sits now, has been owned since 2009 with compost production in its current form since 2018. As the county has continued to grow around the site, so has the volume of two byproducts of the growth, yard waste and treated biosolids.

Materials Accepted

At Indianhead, we are permitted to take biosolids and veg debris. There are a lot of names for each, here are some below:

Biosolid

• Sludge

• Cake

• Solids

Veg

• Yard Debris

• Chips

• Clippings

As a materials receiver, like the county "dump" (which is called a "dump" because we dump our unwanted or unneeded items on the ground and pile them), or like "waste" and water treatment facilities, we have to organize the materials in a way that meets both permitted requirements and good business practices, to keep things safe for our teams. When materials are received, there is an overall lack of understanding of the systems that provide us an organized society behind the scenes: the materials must be treated, sorted, separated, and transported. From personal wipes down the drain, to yard debris in plastic bags, day to day activities to organize materials within households and businesses are flushed or picked up at the curb and brought to facilities. Nationwide as an industry we are having a discussion about management of such things. Hopefully the journey is not far from original user/disposal to reduce both costs and additional impact to other systems to manage (think plumbing, roads, larger vehicles, larger facilities.) When there is not a solution locally, materials are shipped to various locations. However, as we saw with recycling to China, there was simply too much, and thus, locally we are contemplating solutions from recycle to solid waste.

Treatment by receivers

Biosolids are typically treated by government agencies at wastewater treatment facilities. In other parts of Florida, there are other arrangements, typically categorized either formally or informally as public private partnerships. Here in St. Johns County and Northeast Florida, agencies treat the raw sewage through various processes which address liquids, solids, waste materials in the sewage that doesn’t belong, and separated into water and sludge. Once both have been treated to the accepted testing levels (we will go deep into science on another post with our MIT grad scientist) the water is used back into the county system and the sludge is brought to Indianhead. We will go over the history of biosolids dating back to the Minoans and most recently to state legislation on another post and what St. Johns County and our other agencies were doing with it!

Yard debris is picked up from your home or business and brought directly to Indianhead. This includes:

• Bagged leaves and sticks (and other things just tossed in)

• Branches

• Tree trimmings and stumps

The materials are then tipped (because the contents of vehicles are tipped to the ground) and organized by readiness to mix with the biosolids. Per our permit, approved process, and pilot programs, only veg debris of a specific size can be used. In order to achieve this, yard debris must be removed from the plastics, other garbage that ends up in the yard debris must be removed, and it all is then processed into the appropriate size.

Indianhead process

When materials are brought to our site, all biosolids vehicles must cross the scale twice. Yard debris crosses once. All material is weighed and the volumes are reported to the various agencies each month. Biosolids are matched with the waste water management facility volumes by various agencies to track the “chain of custody”. After the trucks cross the scale, they are directed to the appropriate location based on material type.

Aerobic Burrito

Look for a future post with this guest host!

Biosolids are tipped into a bunker of prepared veg debris and mixed immediately within a certain area within Indianhead that is approved based on its various qualities to support biosolids composting. This mixture is then put into the composting process (which we will have in detail in another post, look for the Aerobic Burrito!)

Veg debris that needs to be processed is taken to a separate area and the sorting, separating, and chipping process begins!

Oversight

Indianhead is heavily monitored through reporting, monitoring, site visits, and chain of custody reports. Agencies including DEP, EPA, the State of Florida, and St. Johns County are reported to and visit the site. We retain as a requirement third party engineers for site inspections and documentation of those inspections. This information is readily available. Information recorded includes testing results, pile temperatures, infrastructure improvements, attenuation requirements, odor management, pilot programs, adjacent project activities and impacts, wetland and conservation area observation, fire safety, scale calibration, and other typical business functions.

Addressing social media comments and common questions at public meetings/interactions:

• We are open to the public for yard debris disposal (come to the scale/office first)

• We are open to the public to purchase compost (come to the office)

• We do not accept raw sewage

• We do not accept used/waste septic sand

• We do not have trucks coming and going with urine in them (we do water the roads for dust management, more to come in a future post)

• We do not spread raw sewage or biosolids onto the ground (more about our technical process on another post)

• We do not process chemicals or use chemicals

• We no longer provide the county with recycle transfer

We look forward to providing more information and education in the coming weeks! If you have questions or would like a member of the team to come meet with your community, class, or organization, please let us know!

We love chatting about all things compost, dirt, seed, and science!

Sincerely,

Heather Lane