The Village of Indiantown will soon be home to a highly advanced facility uniquely engineered to address one of humanity’s most pervasive and confounding challenges.
With a 5-0 vote, village council members approved a lease agreement with Sedron Technologies. The Washington-based company will construct a high-tech biosolids processing plant—only the second of its kind in the world—on a nearly 7-acre parcel leased from the village. The plant will be equipped with technologies that transform treated waste into environmentally friendly fertilizer, irrigation-quality water and materials vital to manufacturing cement.
“Indiantown is excited about this new partnership and welcomes the opportunity to showcase this technology, which will resolve an issue facing all waste processing facilities in Florida,” says Taryn Kryzda, village manager.
It’s difficult to overstate the environmental benefits: The new plant could process hundreds of thousands of tons of varying class levels of biosolids—which are currently burned, unloaded in landfills, or used in various farming operations. Considering that nitrogen fertilizers rely heavily on fossil fuels for production, displacing those with this renewal energy could notably reduce greenhouse cases worldwide once broadly adopted.
Bringing revenue and jobs to Indiantown
Funded entirely with private dollars, the facility is poised to provide a vital revenue stream to Indiantown—Florida’s newest municipality incorporated in 2017. The rural village of about 6,500—which is finally realizing long-deferred dreams for growth with the incoming 2,500-unit Terra Lago community—expects the facility to create anywhere from 18 to 30 local jobs.
“We prefer to hire local—that means as many people from the Village of Indiantown as possible,” says Tim Evenson, vice president of sales at Sedron Technologies.
Currently in the permitting phase, Evenson anticipates breaking ground on the facility sometime in early 2025.
Indiantown—which pursued and earned key state and federal designations such as the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI), U.S. Foreign Trade Zone, U.S. Opportunity Zone and more to attract investment—welcomes the revenue the new facility will provide.
To ensure both the quality of its water supply and ability to guide future development, the village purchased for $8.5 million a wastewater and potable water facilities plant in 2020. Using a blend of temporary revenue bonds and grants, the village plans future investments in needed upgrades.
The lease agreement with Sedron—a little more than $19,000 per month for 20 years—will offset the village’s costs of debt service on the water utility purchase. Excess funds will support infrastructure enhancements and extensions. Further, Sedron will process the village’s biosolids for no cost.
Global, regional, local benefits
Sedron Technologies is an offshoot of its parent company, which innovated aerospace composites for NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Its pioneered solution to biosolids disposal enables countless benefits in overall sustainability, atmospheric carbon reduction and diminished levels of nitrogen and phosphorus.
Current methods of disposal
The issue of biosolids disposal often overloads local and regional wastewater plants. Long-established methods of elimination include incineration, landfill dumping and land application.
Unfortunately, incineration—a cumbersome and expensive process involving multiple transports—releases heavy metals into the atmosphere. With landfill dumping, sludge, over time, breaks down the structural integrity of landfills. Finally, as scientists become more aware of high concentrations of pharmaceuticals and “forever” chemicals such as PFAS in the water supply, landfill applications present concerning hazards to human health.
That’s where Sedron Technologies and its landmark innovation come in.
Aerospace innovators tackle environmental issues
Sedron Technologies is owned and operated by Peter Janicki, also CEO and founder of Janicki Industries, which creates complex tooling and advanced composites for the aerospace industry. Founded in 1993, Janicki Industries’ projects include the Orion Crew Module, Joint Strike Fighter and numerous classified technologies.
Founded in 2014, Sedron Technologies creates water and sanitation solutions using a mechanized vapor recompression/distillation process. Put simply, Varcor, its liquid waste handling system, dewaters and dries waste from various wastewater sources. During the process any recovered Class AA biosolids—free of pathogens—result in high-nitrogen fertilizer product and cement fuel.
Being a good neighbor
A team of nearly 100 engineers worked over seven years to develop the technologies that produce clear, clean water from biosolids and septage. It does so without menacing anyone nearby.
The processing plant produces minimal smell or noise. It’s outfitted with e-nose technology to measure the odor around the edge of the property and address it immediately thanks to staff onsite 24/7. The mechanisms in the facility must comply with noise levels no higher than 60 decibels. Sedron enforces a strict “three strikes and you’re out” policy to any haulers that violate noise protocols.
A solution to reduce harmful nutrients in Lake O?
Funded entirely by private capital, the facility can also help reduce levels of nutrient pollution running into local waterways—a benefit not lost on members of the local community.
As observed even recently, blue-green algae blooms increase along Lake Okeechobee during summertime. During heavy rainy seasons water managers historically release Lake O discharges into southern canals that—depending on the amount of water—have wreaked environmental havoc on the St. Lucie and St. Johns rivers and the Indian River Lagoon.
Village of Indiantown ‘strategically positioned’
Sedron Technologies selected the Village of Indiantown because the broader southeast and southwest Florida region encompasses a high population center (more than nine million people) as well as the dwindling number of viable disposal options for septage haulers.
Community support
Joshua Kellam, president of The Garcia Companies, which is creating Terra Lago, shared his support for the facility.
“We are in total support of the addition of the Sedron Technologies biosolids facility,” says Kellam. “This high-level operation will not only contribute to the innovative infrastructure of the Village but will offer exceptional opportunities for multiple economic activities, including local high paying jobs. This investment, coupled with the visionary guidance of the village leaders, will continue to place this community in a league of its own.”
