Miami-Dade mayor claps back at ex-trash chief over warning of impending garbage crisis

MIAMI – Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and county commissioners pushed back on the county’s now-former trash chief’s ominous warning of an impending landfill crisis on his way out.

Michael J. Fernandez, the former director of Miami-Dade County’s Department of Solid Waste Management, sent his resignation letter to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Monday.

In it, he warned that if landfill expansions are not considered the county could be in violation of a law that requires a capacity for five years of waste.

“At this point, the County will have to issue a moratorium to stop all development in Miami-Dade County as of next year or initiate plans suggested to increase disposal capacity” Fernandez wrote in his five-page letter.

The landfill expansions were necessary after a fire shut down the county’s Resources Recovery Facility waste-to-energy plant in February in Doral.

On Thursday, Levine Cava weighed in on Fernandez’s sudden resignation and the dire tone of his letter.

“Just to be clear, what was in his memo was really no surprise,” Levine Cava said. “We had put out that info previously in a number of ways to the commission and to the public and also that we are working on this issues. So I think that’s an alarmist letter.”

County commissioners struck a similar note, including the one who represents the district where the Covanta incinerator caught fire.

“There may be frustrations on his behalf we have, but I don’t think the delay is as great as inferred in the letter,” Commissioner JC Bermudez said.

Commission Vice Chairman Anthony Rodriguez concurred, saying he feels “confident people’s trash will always be picked up.”

In fact, commissioners do seem well aware of plans in the works.

So why did Fernandez quit? The answers aren’t clear.

He’s been involved in other activities though. He’s newly on the board of a waste-to-energy trade group that lobbies lawmakers and whose chair is a vice president at Covanta.

Commissioners will also be figuring out how to pay for the expansion and upgrades. A fee hike is under consideration, but not a given, commissioners say.

“We may not necessarily need to raise fees for solid waste on the residents of Miami-Dade County,” Rodriguez said. “We may be able to look at other options such as from general funds.”