Nearly a dozen Byrnes Mill residents, upset about the smell from a wastewater lagoon in the community, implored city officials to help fix the problem.
Ten residents of the Byrnes Mill Farms mobile home park and surrounding neighborhoods shared their concerns about the lagoon’s odor during the city’s Jan. 7 Board of Alderpersons meeting.
Residents said one of the lagoon’s aerators, which produces oxygen to reduce odor and pollution in wastewater, has not been working for months.
Don Moore, a Byrnes Mill resident and captain with the Pevely Police Department, told the board he is concerned about the physical effects of the smell.
“It was so severe on Christmas Eve with the dew point that came in.” he said. “When we went out for midnight Mass, it actually burned our eyes. I understand living next to an open septic pond you’re going to have inconveniences at times, but it’s continuous.”
Moore said Byrnes Mill Farms management is aware of the issue and told him it would cost $30,000 to fix the problem.
“They seemed very irritated about it,” he said. “They know what the problem is, they know what the fix needs to be, and it’s not being done.”
Byrnes Mill Farms resident Lindsey Hunt said she spoke with the daughter-in-law of one of the office managers and mentioned the smell to her.
“She told me the main office people have their hands tied; it’s their upper management that has told them they don’t see it as a priority to fix what’s broken,” Hunt said.
Bonita Johnson, a former property manager at Byrnes Mill Farms, told the board there are four aerators in the lagoon, and two of them were in use during her nine-year tenure.
“Back when we were only using two when I started, we were like 60 percent occupied,” she said. “When I left in 2021, we were 97 percent occupied. Do the math. You’re going to need another aerator.”
City officials said they have been in contact with the company.
City Administrator Melinda Benedict sent a citation letter Dec. 17 to Denver-based YES Byrnes Mill LLC, a subsidiary of YES Communities. In that letter, Benedict told company officials they were violating the city’s ordinance on nuisances affecting health. The letter stated YES Communities had until Jan. 2 to resolve the nuisance or it would be in violation of the ordinance.
In a Jan. 12 letter to the company, Benedict said all inspections and permits, including those for occupancy, would be suspended because the issue had not been resolved as of Jan. 2.
On Jan. 14, Benedict said the company confirmed the purchase of two new aerators for the lagoon on Dec. 26. She was told delivery of the parts could take four to six weeks from the purchase date.
Marleen Brooks, community manager of Byrnes Mill Farms, did not respond to the Leader’s request for comment.
Inspection
Joshua Willison, the water section manager for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, (DNR) said he was first made aware of the lagoon’s smell in an online form Byrnes Mill Mayor Rob Kiczenski submitted to DNR on Nov. 24.
Willison also said two more concerns were sent to DNR in early January and another was forwarded to the department from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Willison said an inspection was performed at the lagoon on Jan. 8, adding that water samples were collected from the lagoon’s outfall and sent to the department’s lab in Jefferson City. The results of those samples will be included in a report to be published between the end of the month and the first week of February.
He said the lagoon is privately owned and not connected to the ongoing Jefferson County Public Sewer District (JCPSD) Lower Big River Regionalization Project.
Kiczenski said he reached out to DNR because of feedback from residents. He also said he later drove by the lagoon to experience it for himself.
He said he asked the DNR to collect samples because of the lagoon’s proximity to the Big River and its tributaries.
“If the lagoon is smelling that bad, I’m not sure what’s going out into the river,” he said. “This creek where the outfall goes runs through the edge of the city park, and that connects right to the river.”
Kiczenski is also concerned about the smell interfering with prospective homebuyers.
“It’s a bad situation when it’s smelling so bad that if you were trying to sell a house in the area, you couldn’t have an open house, or that you could but it would be very concerning for anybody purchasing a property for it to smell that horrible,” he said.
History
This is not the first time the lagoon has resulted in in legal trouble for its owners.
In January 2020, Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper, a St. Louis nonprofit organization filed a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act against Mobile Home Park Investments Inc., the former owner of the 80-acre mobile home park.
The lawsuit alleged that between August 2015 and January 2020, excess amounts of pollutants, such as ammonia and E. coli bacteria, were discharged from the lagoon into the Big River and its tributaries.
The two parties reached a settlement agreement in March 2020, with the former owner donating $5,000 to the nonprofit Open Space Council of St. Louis organization and paying $4,474 in legal fees for Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper.
The lawsuit was then dismissed by the Eastern District Court of Missouri with prejudice in June of that year.
The JCPSD also entered into an agreement with Mobile Home Park Investments Inc. in January 2020. According to that agreement, Mobile Home Park Investments Inc. would connect the lagoon to JCPSD facilities and pay for wastewater treatment.
In October 2021, the JCPSD agreed to a similar arrangement with YES Communities. Then, in September 2022, the DNR issued Yes Byrnes Mill LLC an abatement order because of violations of the Missouri Clean Water Law.
According to that document, JCPSD informed DNR that once the connection was established, the district planned to use the lagoon as an excess flow basin.
Douglas Bjornstad, JCPSD manager and engineer, said the lagoon is a private onsite wastewater system owned and operated by the mobile home park and is not nor has ever been a part of public sewer collection or treatment infrastructure.
“JCPSD does not operate, maintain or have regulatory oversight over private lagoons or septic systems in the county; those fall under the purview of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and/or the Jefferson County Building Department for permitting, compliance, and any enforcement related to odors or environmental concerns,” he said.
Bjornstad said the JCPSD has been working with the mobile home park owners to facilitate a transition away from the private lagoon to the public sewer system. He said the current sewer extension project will establish the necessary public sewer main and interconnection point in the area.
“Upon completion of that public infrastructure, the mobile home park will be responsible for constructing its own facility to convey sewage from the property into the new public sewer main,” he said. “We remain committed to supporting this transition, as connecting to the public system will help address longstanding issues like odors by providing reliable, professionally managed wastewater treatment.”