Miami-Dade commissioners met to discuss future of incinerator
By: Diana Bello Aristizábal
DORAL, FL – The future of the incinerator continues to be uncertain, but Miami-Dade County commissioners rekindled the conversation around the topic at the Committee of the Whole that took place on Jan. 28 at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center.
During the meeting, that was extended by more than three hours, commissioners not only discussed all the available options and its implications but also brought back all the issues related with waste that affect the county in its entirety.
“I convened today’s meeting so that this board could have a dedicated comprehensive discussion about the future operations of this county’s solid waste system. This includes the challenges associated with the development of a new waste-to-energy facility,” said Chairman Anthony Rodriguez.
The Committee of the Whole was one of the commitments made on the Dec. 3 Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners meeting in which the decision on the relocation of the waste-to-energy facility was deferred once again.
After today’s meeting, the item will be discussed on Feb. 4 Board of County Commissioners meeting and finally be subjected to a vote at the board’s second meeting scheduled for Feb. 19.
Highlights of the meeting
The conversation around the waste-to-energy facility of today had a precedent and is last weekend’s memo issued by Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, recommending to “continue long-hauling waste via truck and rail using our contracted capacity while exploring options to build a landfill outside of Miami-Dade County,” as it is read in the memo.
“I want to be clear that through all of this fact finding and due diligence, we feel extremely confident that a new waste energy facility built to meet rigorous modern standards would be safe for people and the planet. However, the costs of building and maintaining a new facility have proven to be extremely high,” said Levine Cava during the meeting.
She said continuing to landfill is a safe option as it is substantially regulated while pointing out other communities such as New York and California transport their waste to landfills in other states.
Following her remarks, a slide-presentation with the current state of the system, as well as its challenges and the three available options with capital costs and timeline to solve the issue were shown. These are: out-of-county landfill, continuing use of contracted capacity and to build a WTE Facility.
For the latter, now there are six potential sites on the table as per the presentation: Airport West, NW 58th Street, Eitlejorge, Medley, Okeechobee, and Doral’s Resources Recovery Facility (prior site).
But the presentation sparked more questions than answers among commissioners, some of them vital in the path of arriving to a final decision on an issue that has experienced a change of direction in numerous occasions.
For example, Commissioner Oliver G. Gilbert, III labeled as ‘almost malpractice’ the slide about the fees to maintain the system.
“I remember a conversation in a very difficult vote that we had where we made the very difficult decision that we would make sure the fees needed to maintain and run the system always tracked, and so we kind of built in the automatic increase…So, if we’re building in the automatic increase that it takes to run the system, how then are we projecting that the money isn’t there?”
“My expectation is that you all will give us a recommended rate that’s required to keep the system in financial good standing in perpetuity until this commission says something else. Don’t bring a recommendation that doesn’t pay for the system” Gilbert, III stated.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Regalado urged for a “dramatic” change of mindset as we address the umbrella of solid waste.
“I think the topics that we need to consider and the reason for this conversation is to change that mindset.” She said the modalities presented not necessarily have to compete with each other but rather provide Miami-Dade County with a portfolio of options that can be accessed depending on the financial situation at the moment.
She also said options like composting and a zero-waste strategy are limited by the current regulations in place.
Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, on the other hand, inquired about the three existing landfills (north, south and Medley); what would be sent to each and if all of those landfills are being used right now. The answer for the latter was affirmative.
Other questions made by Bermudez were related with the Okeechobee landfill as far as its lifespan and capacity. “I’m certainly interested into what the future plans are for that particular landfill. I think we’ve been sending stuff here for a while, even when we had the resource facility.”
He said a zero-waste approach would be “a wonderful solution” if it was indeed practical in the long term, something that those displaying the presentation said, “it’s an ongoing process”, because nobody can eliminate waste, and the county doesn’t yet have a target goal, although a consultancy firm could help them develop one.
Commissioner Higgins compared the over exhausted discussion on the waste-to-energy facility with the ’50 first dates’ movie. “You know, Drew Barrymore, she gets up every day, she has amnesia, she falls in love anew, but in the movie, she always falls in love with the same person. In the history of the solid waste recommendations we’ve been receiving, the administration does seem to have amnesia every time they write a memo, but in our case, we wake up dating a different person every day.”
“I think landfilling is a terrible idea and outrageously dangerous for our environment,” said Higgins, while adding landfills are an unsustainable and “imperfect solution” to manage waste.
“What I can tell you, Madam Mayor and colleagues, is I cannot support raising taxes on fees and fees on the hardworking families I represent when I know full well from what I’ve read in your own memos that there are alternatives that are better for the environment and better for the pocketbooks of the residents of Miami-Dade County.”
Commissioners René Garcia and Marleine Bastien also had a lot to say. “Why are we always changing directions? I’m not gonna approve anything that is not comprehensive.” said Garcia. “We just produce too much trash,” Bastien commented.
Sharing a similar sentiment to that of her colleagues, Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins asked if the most recent recommendation issued by Miami-Dade Mayor had to be accepted now in replacement of the former where she said landfilling was neither environmentally nor financially sustainable.
“We do believe that a waste-to-energy facility is not a health or environmental risk, but we also have said, on balance with financial considerations and the certainty of the contracts that we have in place for long hauling, that we are well positioned to continue with our current program, also exploring zero-waste strategies and other avenues,” the mayor responded.
Cohen Higgins replied to her that being asked two months later after the previous recommendation based on a very detailed memo to move in the direction of continuing doing the same equates to “no recommendation at all.”
Commissioner Gilbert bluntly said the new information presented to the board is not based on new facts, but rather in “opposition and politics.” “This is not a fact-driven conversation.”
“Ultimately, this is a financial recommendation,” Daniella Levine Cava cemented. Commissioners pointed out that the mayor’s memo was prompted by fear towards a few people who were against the previous recommendation and not by the need of doing what’s right for the environment and the residents.
At the end, the shared conclusion was that in order for things to swift in the right direction, the issue should be looked at from the root, starting by raising more environmentally aware children who know how to recycle and compose and looking to examples of other countries like Japan that approaches garbage and waste in a more comprehensive way tied to their culture.
Following the questions and comments session, commissioners discussed several resolutions one of them being related with assessing and evaluating the county’s landfill capacity, a subject that would be compiled in a memo in the following two weeks prior to the Feb. 19 meeting.
About the resolution authorizing and approving the site selection for a new waste to energy facility, Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, proponent of the resolution, said that even if it ends up being shot down, he expects the chosen site isn’t in either the City of Doral, town of Medley or NW 58 Street site.