Miami-Dade Solid Waste director resigns, warns county about possible trash troubles – NBC 6 South Florida

Miami-Dade’s Solid Waste director has resigned but not without issuing a warning about the future of waste disposal in the county.

Director Michael Fernandez resigned Monday in a lengthy letter to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in which he said the county may soon run out of space to properly dispose of trash.

Fernandez said February’s fire at the county’s Resources Recovery Facility in Doral forced Miami-Dade to rely more on landfills in and out of the county to dispose of trash.

Schools in Doral are set to resume normal operations as smoke from a fire that’s been burning at a Miami-Dade County waste-to-energy plant for more than a week was continuing to decrease. NBC 6’s Heather Walker reports

The facility, which burned large amounts of waste collected by the county, has been out of operation since the fire broke out.

Fernandez said the county needs to partially reopen the facility and explore landfill expansions, otherwise future construction projects could be impacted by a law that requires Miami-Dade to have five years of waste disposal capacity in order to approve future housing projects.

“At this point, the County will have to issue a moratorium to stop all development in Miami-Dade County or initiate the plans that were suggested in the past, that would increase disposal capacity, such as landfill expansions,” Fernandez wrote.

Fernandez also said a fee increase of $12.50 per household per month may be necessary to close a $40 million defecit in the Solid Waste collections fund and build a surplus for the department.