But the city seems to yield air pollution enforcement to Sarasota County.
By Noah Bookstein
Original Air Date: June 26, 2026
Host: A controversial concrete crushing plant in Sarasota continues to operate. Now, opponents have unearthed a decades-old ordinance they hope gives the city an enforcement tool and empower it to take action. Noah Bookstein reports.
Noah Bookstein: A towering pile of concrete debris now stands two stories high on the edge of Sarasota’s Rosemary District, near downtown.
Neighbors say the mound keeps growing, day after day, as surveillance footage shows trucks continuously rolling in and dumping more material.
Photo by Noah Bookstein
It’s the latest chapter in a years-long saga at the site of what was once US Recycling, a facility with a documented history of pollution. Residents hope an ordinance about pollution buried in the city code, if enforced, could help clean up the site.
The crushing plant was long operated by US Recycling under owner Christopher Williams. The entity was administratively dissolved earlier this year after Suncoast Waterkeeper documented severe water pollution from the site and filed a lawsuit alleging Clean Water Act violations.
The lawsuit has been in legal limbo as a new corporate entity, Central Sarasota Recycling, registered to Feliciano Morales, Celia Morales and Daniel Morales Reyes, took over operations.
The same names are connected to a Tampa-based construction firm with its own history of complaints and litigation as well as connections to controversial homebuilder DR Horton. Down the road from the site is another concrete facility, a mixing plant operated by multinational company Cemex.
Laurel Quarberg is president of the Central Cocoanut Neighborhood Association. She lives near the concrete crushing plant and heard from neighbors even closer to the facility who said their respiratory health is negatively impacted by the dust emitting from the nearby industrial site.
Laurel Quarberg: If you took some flour out of your cabinet and gently threw it up in the air and see how it falls on your desk, that’s about what the neighbors that are there close by—they can write their names on their windshields in the morning after this company is operating.
Photo by Noah Bookstein
NB: Silica dust is hazardous. The particles are small enough to lodge deep in the lungs, and repeated exposure has been linked to respiratory illness over time. The area also has one of the highest asthma rates in the state.
LQ: Silica, once you’ve breathed it in, doesn’t just go away. That’s the problem. I have heard from several different neighbors that, ye, indeed, the dust has affected their health. There’s a woman who has been around and involved in this neighborhood for ages. She currently is dealing with health issues in her lungs, and she’s convinced that that has been aggravated by this dust.
NB: Inspectors have repeatedly cited the facility for failing to take precautions to control runaway dust. Under US Recycling, the operator promised fixes, including a wheel-wash station to clean trucks before they leave the site, that were never actually installed.
Included in the Sarasota City codes is Chapter 27, an ordinance on pollution that has been in place for decades. Part of the ordinance says that anyone building, modifying, or replacing equipment that could cause air pollution or discharge contaminants into local water systems “shall first obtain authorization for such construction, installation or alteration from the administrator of building and zoning.”
Photo by Noah Bookstein
Operators at the site have not obtained such a permit from the city, and it is unclear whether or not the city will enforce its own laws.
The city told WSLR News it is pursuing code enforcement action and that the City Attorney’s investigation into potential legal action remains ongoing, though no further details were available. The City added that air pollution enforcement falls to Sarasota County, even though the city’s own code contains air pollution provisions.
City officials, including Development Services Director Lucia Panica, the City Attorney Joe Polzak and the new City Manager Karie Friling, held a meeting on Wednesday with concerned residents from the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations.
A participant in the meeting told WSLR News that the City Attorney seemed hesitant to enforce the ordinance, citing its age and the resources that enforcing it consistently would require.
For months, operations had gone on at the site without a valid permit. Now, the new operator received a permit from the state in early May, but it covers storage, not crushing. The crushing is handled by mobile equipment, brought in under a separate permit.
Map depicting the reach of dust emissions from the US Recycling plant. Courtesy CCNA
Confusion around what is allowed under the current permits has made it difficult for state and local regulators to act decisively even as complaints from neighbors continue to pile up alongside the concrete.
While the City Commission has directed the attorney to address this in the past, residents say they would like to see more enforcement of rules already on the books.
LQ: I’m not saying for one second that the city is not trying to do something. It’s not that people aren’t trying, but it’s an enigma. It seems like we get things going, and then it falls apart. For the life of me, I don’t understand why our city can’t enforce an ordinance that’s on the books.
NB: New City Manager Karie Friling was not available for comment to WSLR News, but participants at the meeting said they were impressed with her deep concern and interest in finding a faster path forward.
For now, the pile keeps growing, the trucks keep coming, and the neighborhood keeps waiting for action.
LQ: We are not going to go away until this thing is resolved. This company is making a profit on the backs of the health of all of us.
NB: Reporting for WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.
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