DORAL, Fla. – Doral leaders are pushing back on a plan to build a new waste-to-energy facility on the site of the one that burned down in February 2023.
Mayor Christi Fraga and County Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, the city’s founding mayor, are speaking out against Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s new incinerator site recommendation pivot from Airport West, a location near the Everglades and Miramar, to the original site in Doral.
Residents of the Broward city pushed back on the Airport West site.
“As recently as two months ago the Mayor recommended the Airport West site,” Bermudez said. “What has changed in two months? Let’s make the right decision; let’s do it correctly. I thought we were there.”
Levine Cava outlined the plan in a memorandum issued Friday. In a statement to Local 10 News, Levine Cava said:
“Our priority is to build a facility that is safe for people and the environment, can integrate seamlessly into the community and include our zero waste initiative, and does not create an undue burden for our rate payers. Following a final analysis of all available locations, the costs of relocating have proven to be extremely high, leading us to recommend the existing site in Doral as the location for a new Solid Waste Campus.
This has not been an easy decision and there is no perfect site for the Solid Waste Campus, but I am confident we are making the best decision we have at hand to protect our residents, our environment and our rate payers. Building a new Solid Waste Campus is a major step toward finding a sustainable long-term solution to our waste challenges while lowering emissions, reducing waste sent to landfills, and accelerating innovative zero waste technologies.”
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava
The mayor later told Local 10 News, “This has not been an easy decision and there is no perfect site.”
But Doral city leaders argue it should be rebuilt elsewhere.
“(Doral) is not the same community we were 50 years ago,” Fraga said.
Bermudez said that the existing site “will always be the cheapest because there was a facility there before, but the airport west site is also owned by the county.”
“That is really the big difference with the Doral site, technically, it is land that is there and has already been used, in part, for an older resource recovery facility,” he said.
But Bermudez argues the facility “should not be near any residents.”
Levine Cava met with representatives from more than a dozen environmental groups Monday afternoon. Many environmentalists had opposed the plan to locate the incinerator at Airport West, citing its proximity to the Everglades.
Calling it a “great meeting,” environmental lobbyist and former Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell said there’s still much to discuss.
“Some folks were happy that the decision moved away from the Everglades, but a lot of us were not satisfied yet, because they are still planning on building the country’s largest incinerator, burning gases, burning CO2, affecting climate change and these are still that things that need to still be addressed,” Russell said. “There are solutions, there are other counties who are getting this right and our ask today is will you work with those other counties to see if you can emulate their example.”
Russell hopes the county can move to a zero-waste strategy.
“If you get to 90% or higher of diverting your various organic things away from your landfills. What is left (is) smaller and cleaner and everything else burnt is diverted to composting, recycling and other methods,” he said. “They say their mind is made up, they are going to do waste-to-energy, they want to put it in Doral, but I did hear a light at the end of the tunnel, that they are open, if their numbers are wrong, if their data is wrong, if other cities have gotten it right and we can emulate that here, they are open-minded.”
Miami-Dade commissioners are set to discuss the issue again at their Dec. 3 meeting.
“You still have to have a vote and I am hoping my colleagues agree that the original recommendation of Airport West was probably a much better choice,” Bermudez said.
Despite her strong disapproval, Fraga said she plans to continue working with Levine Cava and the county.
But, she said all options are on the table.
“My position has never been to threaten the county, rather to be a partner to help find a solution, but yes, absolutely, we are ready to take legal action to protect our residents,” Fraga said.
Mike Ewall, executive director of the Energy Justice Network, said the new trash incinerator Miami-Dade’s Mayor has now recommended being built in Doral.
In her memo to county commissioners, Levine Cava stated that if approved, “the new mass burn plant will process 3,000 tons of waste daily and is projected to cost $1.5 billion.”
Doral is urging its residents to come to the meeting and plans to offer buses to residents to take them from the Doral Government Center to county hall in Miami so they can weigh in.
The city is asking residents to arrive by 6:30 a.m. for the 7 a.m. departures.