Another Heart of Florida lawsuit deserves attention
I obtained a 79-page court filing in CompostUSA of Sumter County, LLC v. A.C.M.S., Inc., the operator of the Heart of Florida Landfill.
This is much more than a disagreement over a lease.
In its September 1 amended complaint, CompostUSA accuses ACMS of public nuisance and private nuisance and asks a Sumter County Circuit Court judge for preliminary and permanent injunctions requiring ACMS to abate the nuisance allegedly caused by landfill operations. Those are allegations that have not yet been decided by the court.
CompostUSA v HOF.pdf
What makes the filing especially significant is the evidence attached to it.
The exhibits include Florida Department of Environmental Protection records documenting objectionable odors beyond the landfill property boundary and FDEP enforcement involving ACMS. The FDEP material also addresses the leachate evaporator, landfill slopes and evaluation of benzene exceedances in monitoring wells.
CompostUSA v HOF.pdf
The lawsuit also reveals a major dispute over who was causing the odors.
ACMS had accused CompostUSA of creating nuisance odors and used odor complaints as part of its effort to terminate CompostUSA’s lease. CompostUSA alleges the opposite: that ACMS was blaming CompostUSA for odors generated by the landfill and, in some instances, recording complaints that CompostUSA says its employees could not verify.
CompostUSA v HOF.pdf
CompostUSA attached its odor complaint log and FDEP inspection records to support its position. Again, these are competing claims that a court has not resolved.
Here’s why this matters now.
Villages-News reported Wednesday that Sumter County has filed its own complaint for injunctive relief against Heart of Florida.
That potentially means two separate parties are pursuing injunctive relief involving alleged nuisance conditions at Heart of Florida: CompostUSA and Sumter County.
There is one important question still unanswered.
I have been searching the Sumter County Clerk’s public court-record system for the county’s reported lawsuit. As of today, I have not been able to locate a new Circuit Civil case under Sumter County, ACMS or Heart of Florida corresponding to the reported county action.
That does not mean the county didn’t file it. There may be a processing or indexing delay or another explanation. But until we have the case number and complaint, I think the careful description is:
The county says the action was filed, and it has been reported as filed. We are still waiting to see the actual court filing.
Meanwhile, the CompostUSA case is real, filed and remarkably detailed.
I’m continuing to review all 79 pages, including the FDEP exhibits and odor records. There is much more here.
Update — October 29, 2026
Later reporting and court records confirmed Sumter County filed its own landfill nuisance and trespass action on September 22. Earlier uncertainty about locating that county filing should not be understood to mean the case was never filed. The separate CompostUSA litigation remains a distinct dispute; allegations are not judicial findings.
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