MIAMI – Many wearing bright green shirts, dozens of residents of cities in southwest Broward ventured south of the county line Tuesday to give Miami-Dade County commissioners a piece of their minds regarding a plan to build a new waste-to-energy plant at the site of a decommissioned airport.
The Opa-locka West Airport site is — controversially — a stone’s throw south of the Broward County line, located near Okeechobee Road and Krome Avenue. It is among four options Miami-Dade’s mayor and commission considered to replace the previous Doral facility, which burned down in early 2023.
That has residents and officials in Broward cities like Miramar, Southwest Ranches and Pembroke Pines angry, threatening litigation and showing up to Miami-Dade meetings like Tuesday’s commission meeting, where officials are expected to vote on the plan.
“It’s a shock to learn that Miami-Dade County is prepared to impose in Broward County what you no longer want in your county,” one south Broward resident said. “It strikes me as taxation without representation regarding our environment and lives.”
Tuesday’s meeting came one day after Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava held a Doral town hall on the incinerator proposal.
Her counterpart in Miramar, Mayor Wayne Messam, has led the charge against the plan alongside environmental groups.
He was at Tuesday’s meeting and spoke to Local 10 News.
“We don’t want it to be built and then Miramar is forced to say, ‘We told you,’” Messam said. “So why place this incinerator right on top of all of South Florida’s drinking water supply?”
He added, “You’re basically going to put an ash landfill right against the pristine water that we all need. How does that make sense? It is flawed. It is wrong, and it is immoral to place this incinerator at Airport West.”
An official from Doral, however, praised the Airport West site, exhorting commissioners to “remember” who their constituents are, alluding to the fact that they serve Miami-Dade residents, rather than Broward.
Additionally, in a memo, Levine Cava has called the site one that provides the “best possible balance between multiple factors including cost, project timelines, and impact to residents and natural resources” and promised measures to protect the environment.
Commissioners eventually voted to defer the project until the Nov. 6 commission meeting.
They’ve asked county staff to complete a report on the cost of a recent Medley land swap offer, whether Doral is willing to reimburse the county for the “enormous cost of relocating” the incinerator elsewhere and exploring the environmental impact of the development.
They also discussed the damning, damaging legacy of “Old Smokey” in Miami’s West Grove neighborhood.
Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, the former mayor of Doral, dissented on the vote to defer, saying he was “extremely disappointed.”
“We just kicked the can down the road,” he said. “I think a lot of politics was involved.”
He added, “I don’t think this county should hold the residents of Doral hostage.”