By Taylor Boyd
Although the town has not received formal notice, Faith Mulch owner Michael Kingsley said he plans to close the company’s Stuart plant following a series of issues at the facility.
In a text message to Stuart Town Manager Bryce Simmons and Patrick County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director and Stuart Town Council member Rebecca Adcock, Kingsley said, “unfortunately due to the plant issues since my takeover on July 24, 2026, I’ve decided to shut down the 120 Commerce Street plant.”
Simmons said he has not received anything formal from Kingsley regarding the closure.
Adcock said Faith Mulch has been in business for roughly three years and currently has approximately 15 employees.
Simmons said the company also owes money to the town.
“We have sent them notices to shut their water off,” Simmons said.
The potential closure follows multiple complaints to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regarding colored dye entering nearby waterways, two fires at the facility and the building being red-tagged by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Patrick County Emergency Services Coordinator Scottie Cassell said a red tag means the business is not currently operating because of safety concerns.
Cassell said the first fire occurred Sept. 4 at about 6 p.m.
“A conveyor belt set some sawdust on fire on top of the roof over their packing machine, the belt started slipping and set some sawdust on fire on top of the building. It was quickly extinguished, and there was no spread of fire at that time. We did have a partial roof collapse over where the fire was,” he said.
The fire rekindled the following day, Sept. 5, Cassell said.
“Sawdust had rekindled on the roof along with a packing machine inside the building where some sawdust had fallen down inside of it, and smoldered and actually ignited,” he said.
Cassell said the building was red-tagged following the first fire.
“They are working with the State Fire Marshal’s Office now, DEQ, and our local building officials to see what needs to be, or even if the building is repairable. I’m not an engineer by any means, they need an engineer for that, but I know they were told they had to contact several engineering companies to see if the building can even be fixed at this point,” Cassell said.
While Faith Mulch is not currently producing products, employees remain at the facility to clean up, Cassell said.
“They are not making product right now and they are not allowed to run any equipment. All they can do right now is clean the building and remove the damaged part of the building so the engineers can get in to see what needs to be done and if the building can even be fixed,” he said.
Stuart, Patrick Springs, Moorefield Store and CCDF volunteer fire departments responded to the fires. Stuart Community Hospital provided medical support for the calls. No firefighters were injured.
That same weekend, more blue-green dye was observed in Campbell Creek and the Mayo River.
“When we left Saturday evening, I personally checked the river and the river had a haze on it, but it was not green. It had just a little bit blue in it, but it was already clearing up when I left Saturday night,” Cassell said.
Faith Mulch was issued a corrective action request by DEQ in July following a previous dye spill.
While extinguishing the fires, Cassell said, fire departments used water that could have contributed to some of the dye entering the creek.
“Very little was leaked by the fire department. We are looking into making sure where the rest of the dye came from. We haven’t concluded that investigation yet, but it is under investigation to make sure there wasn’t another accidental release at the facility,” he said.
While firefighters were on the scene, Campbell Creek was checked for dye.
“There was a little dye in the river in the creek, but that was Saturday evening, but it was very minimal at that point, and we had stopped the flow of water. We never went into the dye room with the water, never got back into the dye room, so we’re not sure how the dye got into the water,” he said.
Cassell said DEQ was notified and arrived at the facility Sept. 6.
“I was here at 12:30 p.m. for a report of dye in the river, and DEQ was here at 1:30 p.m. I had a second report of the river being green at 7:30 p.m. that afternoon, and I came back up here to check it. By the time I got here, I didn’t find any dye in the river other than what’s already in the river,” he said.
Cassell said a layer of blue-green dyed sawdust settled on the bottom of the river.
“From the walking trail itself, if you look over into the river it is green. But it is a coat of green on the bottom of the river. The water’s actually clear, but it looks green because the bottom’s green,” he said.
After discussions with DEQ and biologists, Cassell said officials determined that attempting to remove the material from the creek at this time could cause additional damage.
“We’re hoping that a storm will flush it and disperse it out, but if it doesn’t flush it out soon we’ll have to make a decision on what we’re going to do about it,” he said.
Cassell said two investigations into the dye releases are ongoing — one by DEQ and another by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
“Both of those are current, ongoing investigations, so there’s not really much I can say about that at this time,” he said.
