To keep a new Miami-Dade garbage incinerator away, get ready to pay

Miami-Dade defers relocation vote til after election

The Miami-Dade Commission on last week deferred until November a decision on where to build a new waste-to-energy garbage incinerator after the old one in Doral burned up in flames 18 months ago.

Is it just a coincidence that the decision has been delayed until after the elections? Maybe not.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who is in a tight re-election runoff race against Cindy Lerner, has come out publicly against the incinerator at the Opa-Locka Airport West site, which is just over the Urban Development Boundary in the northwest corner of Miami-Dade near Miramar. She says the county should be held to the same high standard and criteria that any private developer would who wants to build across the UDB.

But commissioners made one thing very clear: If the cities of Doral or Miramar, one of the alternatives, don’t want it in their boundaries — and nobody wants it — they will have to make millions of dollars in payments to Miami-Dade.

Sounds like a shakedown. But some county electeds say it is not fair for residents of the Hammocks, Miami Lakes, Aventura, Florida City and beyond to pay additional garbage fees to cover the costs of moving the incinerator to a different location. Rebuilding in Doral is the easiest, fastest and cheapest choice. Three other possible locations were identified, but the decision seems to be between Doral and Airport West, a lot owned by Miami-Dade Aviation that is about half a mile from Miramar homes.

A fourth (or is it the fifth?) option came up at the last minute when Chairman Oliver Gilbertsaid he had reached out to a property owner in Medley who agreed to trade his land, which had previously been deemed too expensive, for the Airport West property — in order to perhaps develop a mining operation — or another county-owned parcel somewhere else. Lowell Dunn II, the developer, is open to options.

“It’s a simple tenth-grade real estate transaction,” he said. Dunn probably already has a list of publicly-owned properties he’d like to take over. It sounds like a bait and switch already. Just watch.

That’s one of the reasons why the commission decided to kick the garbage can down the road, so the administration could further study this Medley option. Several commissioners, principally Raquel Regalado and JC Bermudez (who is the former mayor of Doral), have repeatedly called for a special meeting just to discuss all solid waste options and operations. Not just the incinerator, but collection, transportation and recycling.

The November meeting will apparently be just about the incinerator, though it could easily turn into a larger discussion.

But Gilbert basically told Doral outright that the county would rebuild the incinerator in its current location if the city’s taxpayers didn’t come up with a decent sum to pay for the increased costs that come with moving it, estimated at $200 million in capital costs and $12 million a year for operation and maintenance. This includes a $50 million transfer station, where garbage is stored until it is taken to the incinerator in larger trucks, which could also be in Doral or in Medley.

Gilbert wasn’t alone. Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said “Doral has had more than a year to figure out what contribution” to make. And Commissioner Anthony Rodriguez said it would have to be a significant amount. “You need to put your skin in the game,” Rodriguez said.

Commissioner Eileen Higgins — who called the last minute option “rock throwing — even suggested a referendum in the city of Doral to show there was a commitment.

It wasn’t just Doral and Miramar residents and leaders who showed up in masse — Broward denizens were provided with green t-shirts that said no to an incinerator — to speak against the plan. Those included the mayors of both cities. Gilbert said 95 people signed up to provide public comments and gave everybody one minute. He had the mic turned off several times when people went over the time.

Environmentalists are also concerned with the focus on burning, rather than reducing, garbage and the Airport West option that is across the Urban Development Line on the edge of The Everglades. Members of the Sierra Club, Florida Rising and other leaders — including former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and former South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard — urged the commission to go a different way. They said composting and educating the public to reduce waste was the right thing to do.

“A true water warrior would not be building an incinerator anywhere,” Stoddard said, directing the comment to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who calls herself the water warrior and even wears a cape as a hero of environmental issues.

Ouch.

Levine Cava called herself a “fierce advocate” of the environment and pushed back against the attacks.

“I’ve dedicated my life and career to doing what is best for our people and for the planet,” Levine Cava said. “I take that responsibility extremely seriously. This proposal offers a solution that is safe for people and the environment or we would not be bringing it.”

La Alcaldesa said that the 40-year old facility that burned down in Doral was going to need replacement anyway and that her staff has spent “countless hours” researching and comparing options. “We just have no space for new landfills,” Levine Cava said, adding that shipping it to other landfills outside the county is too expensive. Miami-Dade produces almost twice as much garbage as the national average and some of that is because of the tourism industry, said Levine Cava, who visited a waste-to-energy plant with a heated pool in Japan and said the one in Copenhagen has a public ski slope.

It’s also not the 1980s anymore, she said.

“Waste-to-energy plants are tightly monitored by state and federal agencies and used all over,” Levine Cava said. “There are advanced pollution and odor controls that meet or exceed EPA standards.”

That may not be enough to sway people, who are also very concerned about their property values.

But they could be prohibited from speaking against the incinerator again. Gilbert, who is really nasty to many speakers, said at the meeting that the public comment for this subject was closed.

Yeah, but maybe only until the lawsuit.

To keep a new Miami-Dade garbage incinerator away, get ready to pay added by Ladra on September 24, 2024
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