MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 37-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday by Miami-Dade police after the department’s Agricultural Environmental Crimes Section and the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management conducted an investigation at her property in the Redlands.
According to her arrest report, a search warrant was signed by a judge on Aug. 13 for Ledys Garcia’s property in the 18500 block of Southwest 200th Street.
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“While executing the search warrant, multiple modular structures and recreational vehicles (RVs) were found to be occupied,” the report states. “Several RVs were observed with signs of above-ground sanitary plumbing on the left side, consistent with black water/septic discharge for RVs.”
Police said some of the RVs were also leaking discolored water through a plastic plumbing pipe leading into the ground.
Authorities said they took a sample from the RV closest to the well pump, which was about 4 feet away.
On Tuesday, lab results came back which revealed the presence of fecal matter, police said.
“The Redland is a historical agricultural community which is an important part of not only Miami-Dade County’s ecosystem, but a major agricultural center supplying food throughout the world,” the arrest report states. “The Redland being a rural area, relies almost entirely on ground water and well water not only for irrigation, but for human consumption as well.”
Police said Garcia’s property is surrounded by homes, crop fields and sub-tropical fruit groves – “all of which are reliant upon safe ground water.”
“Any contamination to the ground water or aquafer can have devastating impacts on health,” the arrest report states.
Garcia was arrested Wednesday on a charge of willful disregard for the environment.
As of Thursday afternoon, she was no longer appearing in the online jail database.