For all their talk about not wanting to “kick the can” down the road, Miami-Dade commissioners are really good at it. Last week, the commission once again postponed making a decision on the long-term solution to the county’s solid waste disposal needs — which became an urgent issue after the waste-to-energy facility in Doral burned down about two years ago.
And their lack of action has led state legislators to, once again, put their grubby little hands on our local issues with proposed laws that would create a buffer zone for any new solid waste facility — potentially limiting the county’s options.
State Sen. Bryan Avila this week introduced a bill that would prohibit local governments and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from issuing construction permits for new solid waste disposal or waste-to-energy facilities within a half mile of residential properties, commercial properties or schools.
So, basically, anywhere?
Read related: Miami-Dade garbage incinerator talks look more like a stinky dumpster fire
“After extensive input from my residents in NW Miami-Dade County, I am proud to have filed SB 1008 (Waste Incineration) this morning,” Avila posted on his social media Monday. “This bill will prohibit a local government from issuing a construction permit for a new solid waste disposal facility that uses an ash-producing incinerator or for a waste-to-energy facility if the proposed location of 
the facility is within a one-half mile radius of any residential property, commercial property, or school.”
Specifically, the bill adds new restrictions “that explicitly prevent the issuance of construction permits for ash-producing incinerator facilities or waste-to-energy facilities near populated or educational areas,” according to the Bill Tracker 50 website. The bill is set to take effect on July 1.
Well, what do you know? That’s when the commission will take it up again. They voted last week to direct Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to come back in 120 days with a report — or more like an analysis with side-by-side comparison — giving them some time to digest the options before meeting in July to make a decision.
Maybe. If they don’t play kick the can again. Which, Ladra would not bet against. No matter how many assurances we got from Chairman Anthony Rodriguez.
Several commissioners, notably Oliver Gilbert and Danielle Cohen Higgins, could not imagine what new information the administration might bring. Cohen Higgins suggested letting the private sector pick a site and make an unsolicited proposal. Gilbert kept pushing Doral and wondered what happened to the proposition that the city pay a special tax (read: extortion fee) so that the incinerator would not be rebuilt there.
Read related: To keep a new Miami-Dade garbage incinerator away, get ready to pay
Commissioner Raquel Regalado said that there had been several decisions made already, like transporting our trash on trains to central Florida landfills, which she said we got at a “locked in” price for the next 10 years.
Commissioner Eileen Higgins is “less hopeful we’ll get clear and incise information,” as she said at the meeting last week. 
“Every time they write a memo it contradicts the memo they wrote before.”
And the administration has gone around and around on this. First they like Doral for a location to rebuild, it’s the cheapest and fastest option. Then they pivoted to the western property near the Everglades and Miramar. Then they pivoted to landfills.
It’s no wonder state legislators want to take it out of the local yokels’ hands.
Wait, aren’t Rodriguez and Avila pals? A head’s up might have been nice.
Avila’s is not the only bill trying to take the decision out of the county commission’s hands. State Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez introduced a bill last week that would prohibit a local government entity from applying for or approving a permit for certain waste facilities — include “solid waste facilities, municipal solid waste-to-energy facilities, pyrolysis facilities, solid waste disposal facilities, and incinerators” — within two miles of the Everglades Protection Area, the Everglades Construction Project, or any water storage or conveyance structures” related to certain water management projects.
This bill, which preempts local regulations on this matter, giving the state exclusive authority to manage such permitting, would also take effect July 1.
Like Commissioner Marlien Bastien said at last week’s meeting: “This all sounds like deja vu again.”
As Miami-Dade stalls again on incinerator, state legislators take it on added by Ladra on
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”We are all going to pay dearly with inflated waste fees! Maybe the highest in the Florida! Add more to our rent!”
You know it and it is one screw up after another .
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”Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Collection Avg 6,700 daily ,from approximately 350,000 housing units .( The proposed incinerator plant can process up to 4,000 tons daily ) .”
Had no idea till now .
We’d like to coorrect a misnomer, 370,000 , is the number of households served by MMC Solid Waste, in the unincorporated area, and ten other municipalities. The number of households in our County, is 965,000 , the tonnage is a good figure. We were thinking how , not long ago, County Mayor Carlos Alvarez faced a recall effort, for what appeared a lack of critical thinking in the financial contracts the County entered to build Loan Depot Stadium. Mayor Giménez escaped the long picks and scythes , while frittering away the Penny Tax for Transit. It appears to us that the size of this neglect , about where to dispose of the garbage of 2.7 million souls in a County with a land area of 2,000 sq mi , merits , at least, the start of a discussion .All 965,000 households can’t be sleeping at the same time.
The former solid waste director, Mike Fernandez, called it in his resignation letter almost two years ago. Now, we understand why he left the County to become a Vice President at a major garbage company. What a joke this county mayor and administration is. Flip flop, can’t make a decision. We are all going to pay dearly with inflated waste fees! Maybe the highest in the Florida! Add more to our rent!
Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Collection Avg 6,700 daily ,from approximately 350,000 housing units .( The proposed incinerator plant can process up to 4,000 tons daily ) .
As everyone here knows Tokyo’s new , NOT the older types they are replacing is amazing .
See no reason why same can not be done in Doral .
Doral politicians simply want that huge area for developers , Cava is weak indecisive flip flopper and I think a lot of Doral residents in that immediate area rather not see the walls of buildings coming if no incinerator .
” Advanced Waste Disposal Technology Makes Tokyo the Cleanest City”
‘ Household waste generated by approximately 9 million people (roughly 8,000 tons per day) is put out for disposal, collected within a day, and transported to waste incineration plants. The garbage collection rate is 100 percent. At the plant, the garbage is first mixed with a large crane so that all the different kinds and sizes of items are uniformly distributed for easier burning. Next, the waste is incinerated at extremely high temperatures, over 800°C (1,472°F). This reduces not only the volume to 1/20 of what it was but also the amount of dioxin gases produced by incineration. Multiple provisions are made to prevent gases and harmful substances emitted during incineration, such as sulfur oxide and particulate matter, from being emitted outside the facilities. Chimneys of waste incineration plants emit vapor—not smoke—that does not contain harmful substances. Heat energy produced by the incinerator is used to supply the electricity needs of the entire facility, with any remainder being sold (earning approximately JPY 9.8 billion annually, or USD78.6 million, in income from electricity). High-temperature water is also supplied to neighborhood swimming pools and tropical plant greenhouses.’
https://www.japan.go.jp/tomodachi/2015/winter2015/advanced_waste_disposal_technology.html
It’s surreal hat Miami-Dade County, the seventh most populous county in the U. S. Fourteenth in GDP , with almost 2,000 sq mi land area, should put all of it’s garbage , compacted or not on railroad cars, to be shipped to dumpsters away from the county, and can’t come to a decision of where, and when it will start to build a replacement for the damaged incinerator . It may happen to it’s finances , the same as the Metro-rail extension ,delayed while it’s funds were diverted to other expenses.
Great post and I agree it was here in Doral and let’s keep it here .
This whole thing is ridiculous and unnecessary drama .
Better an incinerator surrounded by huge mounds /fields of grass then mountains of buildings with traffic , congestion , noise as that is the ONLY reason the Doral politicians who are owned by developers want it gone .
why is everyone afraid of the liarinchief?? it was in doral before doral existed, keep it there and buid a new one, those people chose to move there when it already existed, deal with it!
State Senator Bryan Avila (The Do Nothing Senator ) Want’s to Tie MDC Hands ? What Lobbyist is he Working For ? Let’s get It Done , Do it Where it Was The Dump and The Insinarator Was There Before !