leaders discuss while other city officials push back – NBC 6 South Florida

Miami-Dade leaders are examining three potential sites for the construction of a new waste-to-energy facility — Airport West, Medley and the Resource Recovery Facility site in Doral.

The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners directed the County Mayor or County Mayor’s designee to also bring back a report detailing the air quality modeling results and environmental impacts and mitigation identified by the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade County Commissioners are holding a meeting that will include a discussion of their incinerator plans. Other city leaders, including Mayor of Miramar Wayne Messam, are set to address the commission on this topic.

This comes just weeks after Messam was joined by city leaders in Miramar and other Broward cities to fight plans that could see a new Miami-Dade trash incinerator built less than a mile away.

Mayor Messam was joined by elected officials from Pembroke Pines, Southwest Ranches and Weston at a news conference in April to speak out against the proposal.

The site they’re concerned about is near the now-closed Opa-locka West Airport.

Environmentalists and neighbors showed up to the news conference wearing t-shirts and holding signs that said “Not in our backyard.” At the news conference, a map was displayed that showed the proposed site is about 1/8th of a mile from a housing development and just over a mile from an Everglades Conservation area.

The Broward leaders feel they’ve been left in the dark and without a seat at the table, given how close their communities are to the possible incinerator.

Messam urged Miami-Dade leaders including Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to listen to their concerns.

“The mayor’s doing a great job in leading Miami-Dade County but on this issue they have a decision to make, they have a charge to process refuse in their county but they can do that in a manner that does not impact their residents and our residents right here in Broward County,” Messam said. “They can do that in a way that’s sustainable, they can do that in a way that does not harm the environment.”

NBC6 then obtained a statement from Levine Cava.

Miami-Dade County has a unique opportunity to invest in and modernize our 40-year-old solid waste management system and turn it into a financially sustainable, environmentally responsible program that will grow with the needs of our community. We understand the concerns of all residents and that is why all three sites are being reviewed thoroughly to ensure we select the site with the least environmental and fiscal impacts, as well as to ensure the highest standards of air quality, human health and quality of life,” the statement read. “We expect to present the initial results to the County Commission and all community stakeholders later this year, and there will be ample opportunity to engage local governments and residents in this process. Our priority continues to be to minimize the impact of the facility’s operations to the community and the environment, as we prepare our community and our infrastructure for the future.”

“It affects our air quality, it affects our water, so that is our main concern,” Miramar Commissioner Yvette Colbourne said.

If approved by Miami-Dade commissioners, it would replace the county’s previous waste-to-energy plant in Doral, which went up in flames in February 2023 and burned for days.

For years, residents had complained about the odor from the site and after the fire, air quality and health concerns became a main topic of conversation.

The plant, operated by Covanta Energy and responsible for processing about 50% of the county’s trash, has been closed since.

The elected officials are asking residents to sign a petition at Miramarfl.gov/NOBURN