Stand with Sonya: Fight Against Indianhead Biomass

Due to the ongoing situation regarding Indianhead Biomass' biosolids operations causing the odor of human feces to impact the nearby resident's lives, welfare, and unreasonably interfere with the comfortable use and enjoyment of their lives and property, Sonya Fry has retained a lawyer, Mr. Ralph DeMeo with Guilday Law, to fight against this injustice. This is not a “If we get the funds, we will get a lawyer” situation - Sonya has already retained Mr. DeMeo and moving forward with giving us the only chance we have to fight against our situation through an Administrative Hearing.

This should never have been a burden placed on any individual since it’s the facility who is at fault, but here we are, and we are requesting the community help in this fight for all of our lives, wellbeings, and property values by donating to this GoFundMe. Any donations to help alleviate the burden of the legal and other fees associated with this endeavor from being solely upon Sonya is appreciated beyond belief. The cost of this endeavor is three years of her salary as a paraprofessional at a St. Johns County Elementary School, and she is taking the money out of her retirement funds to fight this.

How did we come to this conclusion and what else have we tried first?

We looked into the option of hiring a lawyer on a contingency (only gets paid if they win); however, since this is an Administrative Hearing, a contingency does not apply. Contingencies only apply when seeking monetary damages or personal injury. While people are free to pursue this route, it would result in paying the affected party, but not in the biosolid operations being stopped. We want this stopped for everyone. A class action lawsuit is also not an option for the same reason: it would go after damages or personal injury and would not result in fighting the permit’s approval. The Administrative Hearing is where we have to fight the approval.

In January 2025, we reached out for help from the St. John’s County Commissioners, Senator Leek, Representative Sapp, Representative Kim Kendall, Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder, FDEP Attorney General, EPA Headquarters, EPA Region 4, and Governor Ron DeSantis. We either heard nothing back from them or were told to handle the situation with the BOCC and the FDEP.

On Jan. 21, 2025, our letter regarding our predicament was presented at the BOCC meeting in order to plead for aid from the county. After we met with various county officials March 13, 2025, we were informed that in 2023, there was a change in what the county could enforce of the Special Use Permit. Anything that had to do with biosolid operations became fully in the FDEP’s jurisdiction. Since odor is a byproduct of the biosolid processing, it therefore means the FDEP is the only entity who is allowed to monitor it or take action regarding it.

The FDEP has told those of us pursuing this matter many things. Some examples are: “We don’t monitor odors”, “Odor is subjective”, “Well, it’s normal for a facility like this to have some odor,” etc. Indianhead’s permit from the FDEP states that no odor may affect the nearby communities. Odor is defined in Section 62 regarding biosolids as not being allowed to be objectionable. A three mile radius around a facility is not just ‘some’ odor.

In March 2023, the FDEP and Indianhead came together to create an Odor Management Plan where Indianhead vowed to find a resolution if the odor was affecting the nearby communities. However, from March 2023 to Oct 2024, the FDEP has noted that no actions have been taken to address the odor problem. From Oct 2024 - March 2025, there have been no updates regarding any odor solutions.

In fact, the FDEP just released the following as part of Indianhead’s permit renewal process: “Based upon the application and supplemental information, the Department has determined that the Applicant [Indianhead] has provided reasonable assurance that the above described wastewater project complies with the applicable provisions of Chapter 403, F.S., and Title 62 of the F.A.C.” (See the website for more details on Title 62 and its many clauses about odor violations.) And in the new permit, they state that Indianhead shall “continue to follow” the Odor Management Plan. This is after having documented that Indianhead has never followed the Odor Management Plan.

With the FDEP seemingly content to allow Indianhead to continue as they are and believing that the odor isn’t enough of a problem to even enforce their own rules or the plans they’ve made, the county having their hands tied, and our voices being drowned out: we have come to the conclusion that hiring a lawyer is the only chance we have.

Mr. DeMeo has an extensive background in Environmental Law, Government Enforcement and Investigations, and various other areas of practice. He was a former Chair and Executive Council Member for The Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law Section (ELULS), listed in Best Lawyers in America® in Environmental Law (2006 – 2022), listed in Who’s Who in Florida Environmental Law (2010 – 2022) and National Leader – Florida Environment (2020), and he has recently been selected to Lexology Index: Environment & Climate Change 2025 which is an in-depth guide into the leading environmental lawyers around the world. He also represented a similar case in Putnam County regarding a wastewater facility and was able to have the permit blocked.

We believe that Mr. DeMeo, and his expertise, is our only fighting chance to have our situation taken seriously and our only fighting chance in preventing Indianhead from continuing to impact our lives negatively until we either move out or resign ourselves to our fecal-mattered fate.

Sonya has taken on the heavy financial burden of the legal fees in order for us all to find justice and be able to enjoy our lives and our homes like we should be able to, as well as to protect our property values. It’s a burden that no individual should have had to take on and we are asking for the community’s help to alleviate this burden so that we all can breathe fresh air once more.

If you would like to know more details about the situation, please visit www.StopTheStinkStAugustine.com