Miami-Dade County, Florida, officials once again delayed a decision on siting an incinerator in the county at a meeting last week. The decision came as county commissioners said they needed more time to assess their options.
The decision was pushed back until the board's Nov. 6 meeting, delaying the permitting process for what would be a facility with up to 4,000 tons per day of capacity.
Commissioner Keon Hardeman initially moved to defer the item from the county's agenda. He said the decision should not be taken lightly given the history of “Old Smokey,” an incinerator that polluted the neighborhood of West Coconut Grove for decades, or the former refuse-derived fuel facility in Doral, which was destroyed in a fire last year.
"This plant burned down. Maybe that was a good thing, maybe it wasn't. But whatever it is, I feel like we need to make the decision about it with all of the information and not feel rushed," Hardeman said.
The county is currently considering four sites: a portion at the dormant Opa-Locka West Airport; the site of the former WTE facility run by Covanta, now Reworld, in Doral; a filled quarry site in Medley; and a site in Okeechobee offered by a developer. In a memo sent to county officials on Sept. 13, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she supports the airport site, which her office said had the second-lowest total cost of development and second-quickest development time.
But the county has received two offers from developers interested in doing a land swap with the county, offering their own land in exchange for county-owned land estimated to be of roughly equal value.
The latest offer was circulated on Sept. 13, when Board of County Commissioners Chair Oliver Gilbert III forwarded an email from developer Lowell Dunn to officials. Dunn offered to provide land in Medley already being considered for the incinerator in exchange for a portion of the Opa-Locka West site, the county mayor's preferred site for the incinerator. A swap would save the county from having to pay for the land outright, reducing the capital cost associated with placing the facility in Medley, Gilbert said.
Another unsolicited offer from a developer would provide land in Okeechobee. An analysis by the mayor's office found the site offered to be too small for the county's vision of a multiuse solid waste campus, raising costs and lengthening development time. Gilbert also said the site, which is near Opa-Locka West, would face some of the same pollution concerns officials are already contending with at the airport site.
The airport site, located in a northern and relatively undeveloped portion of the county, has drawn strong criticism from neighboring officials in Broward County. Officials in Miramar, which is located roughly a mile from the site, have threatened to sue Miami-Dade County if it places the facility there. The town’s mayor said placing a facility at the Opa-Locka West site would create an undue pollution burden on his city's residents.
“This recommendation is simply flawed,” Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam said during the public comment period at last week’s meeting. He called the proposal “a 4,000 ton-per-day toxic operation nightmare that will pose a threat to our lives, all of south Florida's clean water supply and the Everglades.”
Other Florida officials have urged the county to consider its options carefully. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a Democrat, said in a statement she "stands firmly with Miramar's leaders" against both the Opa-Locka West site and Okeechobee site due to their proximity to Miramar. She also said the airport site would jeopardize wildlife restoration efforts in the Everglades, echoing concerns from local environmentalists opposed to a new WTE facility.
State Rep. Danny Perez, a Republican representing Miami who is also the incoming speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, said the county should build a new WTE facility in Doral at the site of the old refuse-derived fuel facility, The Floridian reported. State Rep. Robin Bartleman, a Democrat that represents portions of Broward County that neighbor Miami-Dade County, said at the meeting last week that the Opa-Locka West site falls within the footprint of a restoration project for Biscayne Bay and the southeastern Everglades.
“If you make this decision today, I will be taking this fight to Tallahassee and this will be stopped. You can't claim to care about the Everglades [and] make this decision,” Bartleman said. “I'm asking you to reevaluate the mayor's proposal and do the right thing.”
During the hearing, the mayor insisted her recommendation was not one she made lightly. She also proposed the county commit to a mitigation project in the Everglades to offset the impact from selecting the Opa-Locka West site.
Despite the controversy, the county has already taken steps to move forward with plans for a new waste-to-energy plant. In December, it announced it would award a $65 million contract to AtkinsRealis to bring the design for a WTE plant to 30% completion.
