Southwest Broward cities urge Miami-Dade not to build trash incinerator near Miramar

As Miami-Dade County tries to figure out where a new trash incinerator should go, several cities in southwest Broward stood united against the new facility being built less than a mile from Broward’s boundary line.

“Don’t bring your trash to our backyard,” declared Miramar Wayne Messam on Tuesday before a crowd at City Hall. Some held signs that read, “Do the right thing! Choose the right site!”

Last year, Miami-Dade said one of the potential locations for a new incinerator could be at the site of a decommissioned airfield, near Krome Avenue and U.S. 27, less than a mile from Miramar. On Tuesday, the city of Miramar held a news conference — supported by the mayors of Pembroke Pines and Southwest Ranches — to plead with Broward residents to join their fight against the incinerator, and for Miami-Dade to pick an alternate location.

Months after Miami-Dade’s mayor publicly announced plans to push for a new incinerator to be built at the site of a defunct airport, Miramar said it was too close to its property line. In a statement, city officials said it would impact their health and “would also negatively impact the Everglades, its resources, and the many endangered species living there.”

Without much explanation from Miami-Dade about what was happening, Miramar officials said their frustration grew.

So in February, Miramar hired a Coral Gables-based environmental law firm to monitor local, state and potentially federal permits that Miami-Dade was pulling and “ensure our rights our protected and we are involved, informed and can be involved in that process should it be required,” Messam said.

The city wanted to ensure “our interests are protected,” Messam said.

Miramar “should be at the table with Miami-Dade County,” said Southwest Ranches Mayor Steve Breitkreuz. “This is at their doorstep.”

Last month, Miramar started an online petition to “help us STOP the incinerator.” A city spokeswoman said the petition, at miramarfl.gov/noburn, had grown to more than 3,000 names as of Tuesday afternoon.

How it started

Last year in Miami-Dade, a crushing fire at the incinerator plant in Doral shut it down for good. The smoke from the trash fire reached unhealthy levels, and forced people indoors and two nearby schools closed early.

An incinerator, also known as a boiler, burns trash.

To replace it, Miami-Dade’s mayor is pushing for a replacement at the decommissioned airfield. Opa-Locka West was built in 1962 to relieve congestion at Opa-Locka East Airport, then the busiest general aviation airport in the nation.

In a September memo from Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to county commissioners, she recommended the airport site over the other two possibilities. She said it was “the preferred location for the siting of a Sustainable Solid Waste Campus, to include as phase one a new mass burn Waste-to-Energy (WTE) facility with capacity to process 4,000 tons daily.”

She also recommended the county vet sites in Medley and Doral, and notes while Doral is likely the fastest and least expensive to build and operate, it’s smaller than the airport location and closest to residential areas.

But that location is less than a mile from Miramar homes, and close to the Everglades. Miramar worries it could have the potential for harmful health impacts. “If it wasn’t good for the residents of Doral, it wasn’t good for the residents of Miramar,” said Miramar Commissioner Yvette Colbourne. “Be a good neighbor.”

The South Florida Sun Sentinel couldn’t reach Levine Cava for comment Tuesday despite attempts by email and phone. Her staff did not respond to queries.

Messam argues that Miramar has been left out of the discussions or status of Miami-Dade’s plans: “We have no idea of the timeline. We are in the dark.”

A future Broward incinerator?

Miami-Dade isn’t alone with deciding how to get rid of its trash, and in Broward, it’s closer to home.

The Broward County Solid Waste Authority, formerly known as the Broward County Solid Waste and Recycling Working Group, is mulling the prospects of building some sort of facility on county-owned land off U.S. 27, near the cities of Pembroke Pines and Southwest Ranches.

County officials say while it’s possible a waste-to-energy incinerator plant could be built in the southern portion, there is no plan in the works now and officials said it would be a last resort, because of the expense, the environmental concerns and the public pushback.

Residents, however, said they are terrified of the potential for diminished air quality, noise, and property values.

Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr, who sits on the Broward County Solid Waste Authority, told the Sun Sentinel on Tuesday that a consultant who will create the master plan on how to deal with Broward’s trash issues could be hired as early as Friday.

“Everything’s on the table right now,” he said, including a new incinerator for Broward.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash