Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam says Miami-Dade's plan to build a new trash incinerator in the northwest part of the county near his Broward city raises serious economical and environmental concerns.
Speaking on WLRN’s South Florida Roundup on Friday, Messam says each of the four current options for a new trash incinerator — projected to the be the nation’s biggest — represents a “threat to anyone’s community.”
“Miami-Dade County owes it to its constituents and to its neighbors to thoroughly investigate all options,” he told WLRN South Florida Roundup host Tim Padgett. “We should not relent on just easy solutions that conveniently and politically allow lawmakers off the hook.”
The search for a new facility began after the previous incinerator in Doral burned down in February 2023. That incinerator handled half of the county’s trash. The new incinerator will cost an estimated $1.5 billion to build and is projected to process up to 4,000 tons of trash daily, making it the largest in the country.
Miami-Dade officials are weighing four options: the former Opa-locka Airport West site near the Broward County line and Miramar, an industrial area in Medley, the previous location in Doral and a tree farm owned by Miami-Dade developer David Martin.
Miami-Dade County commissioners, following a public hearing, have deferred a final vote until Nov. 6.
On the South Florida Roundup, Messam spoke about the widespread community opposition to the building of a new incinerator. Below are the highlights of their conversation.
READ MORE: Residents say ‘not in our backyard’ to Miami-Dade trash incinerator
On the latest episode of the South Florida Roundup, WLRN’s Tim Padgett spoke with Messam about why the project has faced so much resistance from Miami-Dade’s constituents and its neighbors.
Padgett: Mayor Messam, I want to first get your take on the incinerator site proposal you have strongly opposed – the almost 500-acre Airport West location up there in northwest Miami-Dade that you believe would adversely affect the quality of life in your city next door, Miramar, in Broward County. Do you believe that the Miami-Dade County Commission’s decision to delay its vote signifies that they’ve now decided against the county-owned Airport West parcel?
Messam: The City of Miramar feels that this is a threat to anyone's community. We don't want incineration in anyone's neighborhood and we also know the Airport West side is the most fragile and sensitive option that has been brought forward sitting right in our back door and we oppose it for many reasons. It’s fragile because it sits right on the lip of the Everglades, [which] starts off the shores of Lake Okeechobee down the Florida Bay. Also, airport West [is around] the C-9 impoundment area. It’s over a billion-dollar investment by the federal and state government to ensure that South Florida [has] a supply of clean water. Incinerators require a landfill so that would mean a perpetual management and storage of toxic ash that basically sits next to this clean pristine water. It’s like you're having cigar ash and you're pouring it into a clean glass of water.
Padgett: What was your reaction when the owner of the old quarry in Medley — a gentleman named Lowell Dunn — proposed to sell that land to the Commission? Does that appear to be a more palatable option for you and Miramar?
Messam: Well, it gives Miami-Dade County additional options to come up with a sustainable way of managing garbage and if sites are available this will make it more optimal for Miami-Dade to pick the best site to do that. But, we just know that Airport West is simply not a permittable site.
Padgett: So Mayor Messam, since Miramar is not the only municipality in that slice of South Florida that doesn’t want the incinerator in its backyard — and I’m of course also referring to Doral, which has decided it does not want an incinerator anymore — walk us through what you feel are the biggest negatives — be they environmental, economic, etc.
Messam: The fact of the matter is that incineration technology is not a safe technology. It has been dubbed as safe, but incineration technology doesn't completely destroy these forever chemicals which are toxic to us all. It threatens our human health and our water supply. That is why incineration should not be the first option.
Padgett: But since Miami-Dade County appears pretty determined to build a new incinerator, what in the end do you feel would be a good site for it? Short of pushing the development boundary with the Everglades back, what’s the solution here?
Messam: As it relates to the Airport West we know that is not the right side. It’s not Miramar’s job to solve this for Miami-Dade County, we have not explored that. We just know that Airport West [site] threatens our community, the Everglades, our natural resources. Miami-Dade County really needs to do its homework to make sure that it is managing solid waste in the best way that is environmentally sustainable and safe to human life.
Padgett: Do you agree at the same time, though, with the argument that not only Miami-Dade but even your county, Broward, hasn’t much choice but to pursue waste solutions like incinerators because, as I mentioned at the outset, we are running out of landfill space in South Florida, if we haven’t already. Since the fire destroyed the incinerator in Doral last year, Miami-Dade has had to ship garbage to landfills and other facilities up north – but that can’t go on indefinitely. So if not an incinerator, and if not in northwest Miami-Dade – then what, and where, Mayor?
Messam: This problem has been solved around the world and the United States as it relates to non-incineration strategies to manage garbage. Miami-Dade County based their recommendation of a master study that did not adequately look at Zero Waste [nor] at all forms of disposing trash. It just took the most convenient and expeditious route. For the future and sustainability for generations not yet born, at this nexus, Miami-Dade County owes it to its constituents and to its neighbors to thoroughly investigate all options. We know [it] has not done. We should not relent on just easy solutions that conveniently and politically allow lawmakers off the hook.
The transcription has been edited for brevity. You can listen to the full conversation above or wherever you get your podcasts by searching: The South Florida Roundup.
