Strategy to manage vegetation fire changes to flooding with millions of gallons of water

PORT ST. LUCIE — The city’s utilities department is expected to deliver tens of millions of gallons of water to flood a massive vegetative debris fire that’s been burning since last month and emitting smoke detectable for miles, St. Lucie County Fire District officals said.

The 28-acre vegetative debris fire was started by lightning Aug. 25 on a much larger parcel of land owned by PSL Land Investments LLC, and managed by Kolter Group LLC in the area of Range Line and Glades Cut Off roads west of Interstate 95.

The piles of debris are up to 20 to 30 feet tall. Fire District and Florida Forest Service officials have said it would take an enormous amount of water to douse and that it would simply burn for weeks.

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A pulmonologist last week warned people to take caution, while a St. Lucie County schools official said schools in western portions of the county, such as Allapattah Flats K-8, Treasure Coast High School and Windmill Point Elementary School, are being impacted depending on the wind.

“In consultation with the Florida Forest Service, it was determined that the current mitigation efforts have not met expectations and a new strategy will be employed,” the Fire District stated late Monday afternoon. “A 36-inch reclaimed water line has been located 1 mile north of the burning area.”

The Fire District stated the land developer, identified by City of Port St. Lucie spokesperson Sarah Prohaska as the Kolter Group LLC, will construct an aqueduct system, build a dyke around the burning area, and flood the site.

“In total, it will take 48 to 72 hours for construction to be completed, at which time the city utilities department will be delivering in 5 and 6 million gallons of water to flood the affected area,” the Fire District said in a news release.

Fire Chief Nate Spera said Tuesday the levee around the fire would be about 10 feet high, and that the 5 to 6 million gallons of water was per day.

“The intent is to flood the entire thing," Spera said. “We're probably looking at about 10 to 12 days of flow."

Deputy Fire Chief Paul Langel said to put a foot of water on 28 acres would require about 9 million gallons.

“To flood that 28-acre site with 3 feet of water is about 27 million gallons of water,” Langel said.

Twenty seven million gallons is roughly equivalent to 40 Olympic-size swimming pools.

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Spera said the situation was re-evaluated after experiencing significant rainfall over the weekend.

“As the Division of Forestry predicted, if we put water on the top of this, it's going to get worse, not better, because what it does is it compresses it back down, generates more heat, more steam, and it just makes the whole situation worse,” Spera said.

Spera said costs for the endeavor must be borne by the property owner.

“At 5 or 6 million gallons a day, we're probably looking at about a week before they really have this operation completely up and running,” Spera said.

Topsoil business was using the land

Spera said the area was being managed by Mike’s Organic Topsoil, and Kolter took it back.

Court records show Verano Development LLC, listed as managed by the Kolter Group LLC, on June 1 filed to evict Michael Marburger, doing business as Mike’s Organic Topsoil and Irrigation by Michael Marburger Inc. from about 200 acres, which Marburger had possession of under an oral rental agreement.

Verano stated it wanted to use the land for mixed-use development.

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An April 22 letter from Devin Radkay, attorney for Verano Development LLC, to Marburger said to remove all equipment and “ensure that the premises are in the same condition you received them at lease inception.”

A phone message and email to Radkay were not returned.

In a 16-page June 15 legal response, an attorney representing Irrigation by Michael Marburger Inc. stated the business since about April 2010 leased property from Verano under an oral agreement.

“Verano always knew that as part of its business, Irrigation accepted yard waste on the leased property,” records show.

In April 2017, the lease expanded by 100 acres.

According to the legal response, in mid 2021 Verano told Irrigation by Michael Marburger Inc. of plans to develop the leased property and asked them to “begin the process of converting and eliminating the yard waste.”

The response stated Verano realized it would take time, and “represented that Irrigation had another three years to remove the yard waste.” Verano indicated if three years wasn’t enough, there could be a one year extension.

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Irrigation by Michael Marburger Inc. reported making it known it would need to buy more equipment to grind and remove the yard waste, and spent more than $1 million.

The legal response states Verano knew Irrigation by Michael Marburger Inc. was converting yard waste into soil and was buying some of it for its developments.

Christopher Whitelock and David Frank, who filed the eviction and are listed as counsel for Verano, did not return an email.

An attorney who represented Marburger, Louis Lozeau, Jr., did not respond to a phone message.

In a July 6 filing, the parties reported reaching a confidential settlement agreement.

A social media post on Aug. 26 — one day after the fire began — on Mike’s Organic Topsoil Facebook page states:

“We’ve been receiving calls, texts and messages expressing concerns over the fire at our old yard. We want to reiterate that we no longer occupy that property and have not for several weeks. We appreciate all of the well wishes we’ve received.”

‘One large compost heap’

Spera said the material is supposed to be no taller than a given height, perhaps 20 feet, and separated by enough room to drive a truck between the rows.

“That apparently was the way they started,” Spera said. “But then they started infilling between the rows making this one large compost heap.”

Spera said it is regulated and permitted by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“We finally got a hold of them yesterday (Monday) and they're working on a plan to evaluate what happened before and to ensure this doesn't happen again,” Spera said.

Repeated attempts by TCPalm beginning last week to get information about the matter from DEP were not successful.

Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on Twitter @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com

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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Millions of gallons of water will flood long burning PSL fire