ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.—Heather Babcock, 32, has become adept at using her nose to determine whether she’ll be able to spend time outdoors.
Sometimes, her nose tingles. Other times, it drips. In both cases, it warns her of a specific odor — a smell so strong, it can prevent her from carrying out everyday tasks.
“I will schedule my life around it,” Babcock said. “If I need to mow the lawn, I will go out and see if it smells … if it does, I cannot mow the lawn that day.”
Since moving to Morgan’s Cove, a single-family home community in St. Augustine, Florida, in 2022, Babcock and dozens of other residents have been affected by an odor they’ve described as “putrid,” “unbearable,” and even an “assault on our senses.”
It’s not a hidden cow pasture, and it’s not dog poop. It’s the nearby processing of biosolids — defined by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as treated sewage sludge “intended to be applied to land as a soil conditioner or fertilizer.” Smells come from what’s inside the biosolids: compounds such as mercaptans and ammonia and elements like sulfur.
Indianhead Biomass, a composting and biosolids management facility, sits two miles away from Babcock’s front door. The facility receives biosolid materials from counties along Florida’s First Coast and Space Coast. The city of St. Augustine and the Jacksonville Electric Authority are two of Indianhead’s main suppliers, according to its operations and maintenance plan filed in March 2023.
“I actually cannot smell things very well, but I can smell this very particularly,” Babcock said. “It’s nasty.”
Some residents worry about the health impacts of nearby biosolids processing. Others worry about the long-term effects it may have on their overall quality of life. Some residents worry about a combination of the two and are questioning how nearby biosolids processing impacts their home values — and whether the impact will make it too challenging to sell their homes and move away from the problem altogether.
What are Biosolids?
Understanding biosolids starts with understanding sewage sludge.
The EPA defines sewage sludge as the “semi-solid, nutrient-rich” byproduct of wastewater treatment plants, where sewage is treated and separated into solids and liquids.
After meeting federal and state requirements for treatment, biosolids may be applied to areas like grasses or even residential areas. But, sourced from human waste, they can produce malodors when spread on a larger scale.
Indianhead Biomass has processed biosolids near the Morgan’s Cove neighborhood since obtaining a permit to do so from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) in 2018. The company has since become the target of a grassroots movement entitled “Stop the Stink, St. Augustine,” led by residents who say they’ve been negatively impacted by biosolids odor.
Indianhead Biomass did not respond to requests for comment. However, the company’s spokesperson, Heather Lane Neville, told the local St. Johns Citizen in May the facility’s work is “completely legal, and it provides a service to the community.”
“All of this waste has to go somewhere,” Neville said.
This aerial footage captures the distance between the Indianhead Biomass facility and Morgan’s Cove. (Courtesy of Heather Babcock)
“If I could afford to move, I would in a heartbeat.”
Homeowners like Jody Rainey and her husband Damian Rainey, both 57, have seen this issue grow firsthand since moving into Morgan’s Cove in August 2023.
Originally from West Palm Beach, the couple was thrilled to find Morgan’s Cove due to its location and aesthetics, they said.
“We always loved St. Augustine,” Jody said. “So, it was kind of exciting to find a beautiful house in a nice area, we thought.”
When they first noticed foul odors, the Raineys were told it was a temporary landscaping situation, they said.
“When we would come and look at our houses as they were being built, we would say ‘what is that smell,’” Jody said. “[The builders] said, ‘oh, this used to be a farm area…it’s the new sod coming in.’”
Builders from the two construction companies that worked on Morgan’s Cove, LGI Homes and D.R. Horton, “never disclosed” the presence of Indianhead Biomass to the Raineys, Jody said.
“So, we said to ourselves, ‘that’s a pretty good place to be,’” Damian said. “Little did we know that a private biomass [facility] was only two football fields away.”
Sometimes, the odor smells like “burned cabbage,” Jody said. On days like those, it’s hard to want to go outside or open a window, she said.
The potential health impacts have also become a point of concern for the Raineys, who cited worries about the respiratory effects of their proximity to the biosolids plant.
“When you go outside and your eyes burn, on a good day, your nose is running, you’re sneezing,” Jody said. “If you were to open the windows and allow yourself to smell it, all of that’s coming into your house, your sofas, your carpet — it’s bad news.”
Research has established a link between biosolids and per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), “widely used, long lasting chemicals,” known to break down especially slowly over time, according to the EPA. PFAS often adhere to biosolids due to their resistance to conventional wastewater treatment. Researchers say they can pose significant risks to living organisms, from endocrine disruption to reproductive defects.
The potential presence of PFAS and other possible contaminants in biosolids was enough to convince some Morgan’s Cove residents to move out entirely, Babcock said.
Barring financial constraints, Babcock would’ve done the same, she said.
“If I could afford to move, I would in a heartbeat.”
No Easy Way Out
Two sentiments hold true for Morgan’s Cove residents interviewed: If they had been aware of the malodor and its source earlier in their housing search, they wouldn’t have moved in. And if they had unlimited resources, they would move out.
Some say the biosolids smell makes their homes hard to sell.
“No one will ever purchase this house for what we paid for because of what is across the street,” Damian said. “People are trapped.”
A check of Zillow home-value fluctuations in the Morgan Cove’s neighborhood since summer shows that they roughly track those seen in the greater St. Augustine area, where home values are down 3.8% over the past year.
Despite some Morgan’s Cove residents’ concerns over the marketability of their homes, homeowners like Andrea Lynn, 53, have managed to sell theirs.
Lynn listed her Morgan’s Cove home in the beginning of October, she said. Although her real estate agent “wasn’t super happy to take the house on” after discovering its proximity to Indianhead Biomass’ biosolids operations, the house sold in a couple months, she said.
“The only reason this sold is because I have a pool,” Lynn said.
Lynn described the nearby odor as “brutal” but inconsistent.
“Sometimes it’s two to three weeks before I smell it,” Lynn said. “Sometimes you get a waft of it every once in a while.”
Still, several Morgan’s Cove residents have been unsuccessful in their attempts to sell their homes.
“There’s easily, I’m gonna say 20 if not more, ‘for sale’ signs up in here,” Babcock said. “It’s definitely a worry in here that everything is going to drop.”
Some residents, unable to sell their homes, have turned to renting them out, Babcock added.
What’s a Home Worth?
Many external factors can impact a home listing and sale price. Professor Emre Tepe in the University of Florida’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning said it’s “hard to predict” exactly how Morgan’s Cove homes can expect to be valued in the future.
However, because homes are considered “fixed products,” which are meant to exist in one place for a long time, location informs their prices, Tepe said.
“Whatever that location’s… advantages and disadvantages, they’re generally factored in when they put a price on [the home],” he said.
External factors that impact residents’ quality of life can be responsible for decreased home values, Tepe explained. But due to the demand for homes in Florida outweighing the state’s home supply, any negative impacts on home value may not be seen immediately, he said.
Over 170,000 single-family homes were sold in Florida in 2024, data show. Just over 3,000 of these sales occurred in St. Johns County.
“Even though there are some negative externalities, you might see, still, prices are not going down,” Tepe said. “Not necessarily because people ignore this, but because they need a home to buy.”
St. Johns County is particularly attractive to prospective homeowners. In fact, the area has some of the “higher home values around the state,” said Anne Ray, interim director of UF’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.
“It's also been a magnet for population both from within the state of Florida and from outside the state,” Ray said.
Data show that St. Johns County is still a hotspot in the Florida housing market. The situation underscores the statewide challenge of how to deal with sewage generated by intense population growth. The more people move in, the fewer places are left to keep waste out of sight, mind and smell.
“I believe that the county needs to find somewhere else to send the biosolids,” Babcock said. “It shouldn't be anywhere in which the county is planning to put residential [homes].”
Looking Forward
Sonya Fry, 58, an active proponent of “Stop the Stink, St. Augustine” and mother to Babcock, has since created a GoFundMe to “fight against Indianhead Biomass.” It’s raised over $8,000 so far. Funds will be used to help pay the legal fees to “fight against our situation through an administrative hearing,” according to the fundraiser website.
“There's nothing that we, the little people, are going to be able to do if we don't get legal representation,” Fry said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection cited Indianhead Biomass for a series of violations in October 2024.
Among these violations was a “failure to take corrective actions including processing of biosolids,” after receiving complaints about malodors made by Morgan’s Cove residents and verified by FDEP.
Indianhead Biomass signed a legally binding agreement to fix the problems in December 2024.
While some neighbors wait on the day that promise comes true, others say the facility has proven it should not be permitted to process biosolids altogether.
“Because of things we know about how Indianhead operates, I do not believe that they should have a biosolids permit,” Babcock said. “One of the biggest mistakes that the county made was allowing Indianhead to process [biosolids] knowing that more and more neighborhoods were going to be so close.”