The hand-wringing process of replacing or rebuilding the Miami-Dade County garbage incinerator that burned down in Doral in February of last year has been long and messy.
It was supposed to be decided in September. Then they put it off until after the election. In November, they put it off to this Tuesday. But the mayor has already requested a 90-day deferral of the matter — after the future president weighed in. We haven’t seen her memo explaining her reasons yet.
Let’s review the events of the last few days.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, whose staff previously recommended, based on a paid study, unused county land across the Urban Development Boundary and close to the city of Miramar — which threatened to sue — seemed to have changed course last weekend and recommended the county rebuild the waste-to-energy plant right where it burned down. It’s the cheapest, fastest option.
Miramar celebrated. Doral booed.
Last week, president elect Donald Trump, who owns the Trump National Doral golf resort, one of the city’s biggest properties, apparently weighed in through his son, Eric Trump, who had lunch with Commissioner Juan Carlos “JC” Bermudez and the family’s local lobbyist, Felix Lasarte last week, according to the Miami Herald. Bermudez, the former Doral mayor, who has been leading the fight against the Doral location.
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Bermudez told Juan Camilo Gómez at Actualidad Radio Monday morning that he had also talked to developer Armando Codina, a habitual political campaign contributor who built Downtown Doral and was also concerned.
Doral’s current Mayor Christi Fraga is over the moon.
“This deferral for an additional 90 days is a clear testament to the power of our collective action,” she wrote in an email blast Sunday. “The united efforts of our community, including input from community leaders and organizations like Trump National Doral, have put significant pressure on the county mayor to reconsider her recommendation and proposal. This demonstrates our city’s strength and determination to protect the health, quality of life, and future of all who live, work, and enjoy Doral.”
The city had planned to bus residents to the commission meeting Tuesday to object to the $1.5 billion plant being rebuilt there.
County commissioners had previously asked both the cities of Doral and Miramar what is was worth to them to keep the incinerator away. They basically tried to create a bidding NIMBY war.
It’s weird to see the Trumps on the same side as people like former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, a onetime Democrat candidate for Congress who now advocates for the Sierra Club, and environmental activists that have asked the county to be more creative and think beyond burning garbage. Principally, they want Miami-Dade residents — who produce at least twice as much trash as anywhere in the country — to recycle more, reduce their waste and, get this, compost.
In November, Commissioner Eileen Higgins successfully passed a resolution to phase out the use of single-use plastics and styrofoam in all future county contracts and county-run concessions.
Higgins had an item about composting on Tuesday’s agenda, but it has been withdrawn. A report from the Department of Regulatory Resources (RER) and Solid Waste Management (DSWM) identified some immediate actions the county could take to advance and promote composting, but warned about possible contamination of the Biscayne Aquifier.
Still, there are things that can be addressed right away.
- A zoning code amendment to exempt commercial composting operations on farms from requiring public hearings, to streamline the approval process
- An Environmental Quality Control Board (EQCB) Class Variance Order to provide for administrative approvals for composting operations on properties without public water or sewer systems
- An evaluation of how composting projects would compete with existing solid waste management systems
Compete? Why is that an issue? Don’t we want something to beat all the existing solid waste management systems?
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The report recommends launching a pilot program to assess environmental impacts and gather data. Staff also proposes conducting market research and collaborating with potential vendors to develop a comprehensive plan.
But, again, this has been postponed. Who knows for how long?
Bermudez repeated on Monday that the conversation can’t start with location. “We are not talking about something very important which is what are we going to do with the garbage in the future,” he said, including landfills and the composting, which he said was going to be controversial because it also creates a foul odor, like the incinerator and landfills.
He told Lopez that the commission is not getting the information and answers they need to move forward and that the county needs to work with Broward County to come up with a more regional solution.
Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who has been banging the drum for a comprehensive waste management plan for years — actually since before the facility burned down — likes that idea. “If so many counties are looking for answers to their solid waste issues, why not go for a multi-county solution,” she asked Gómez on the radio show Monday after Bermudez was on.
She said the current plan is based on the priority being for an incinerator, without looking at other options with fair consideration. She reminded listeners that an incinerator is also a dump, by nature. Trash is dumped there and sits there before it is burned, and that the county will have to contract with someone to operate the facility.
And she said that the commission needs to look at funding options, like the TIF proposed for Doral to pay to move the incinerator.
Regalado has repeatedly called for a single-issue special commission meeting to address solid waste and recycling only. The new chairman, Anthony Rodriguez, apparently sent out a query to see what commissioners would be available, but given that December is a lame month for most electeds, Regalado has already requested the meeting happen in January.
But at this point, they’re going to need two meetings. At least.
Miami-Dade garbage incinerator talks look more like a stinky dumpster fire added by Ladra on
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